UJIRI PAINED BUT OPTIMISTIC AFTER DEALING DEROZAN
It was an unusual thing to see Masai Ujiri unsettled.
The Toronto Raptors president has led a relatively charmed existence since returning to this city to helm its basketball franchise, save that time he hollered a cuss word at a New York borough. Or the time he walked on to the court to yell at officials in the last Cleveland series.
But other than the odd intemperate outburst, Ujiri has done his job methodically and with great success. He made the Raptors relevant and the worst that could be said about him before this week was he was perhaps a bit too cautious.
Two days after he turned that reputation on its ear with the biggest trade in franchise history, Ujiri began his explanation of what had happened with an apology and it didn’t get a whole lot more comfortable from there. There were many questions at the Scotiabank Arena press conference and Ujiri has not yet provided much in the way of answers. For a guy who always comes across as firmly in control of what he is doing, Ujiri sounded Friday like the leader of a team that has been unmoored and one that will require serious paddling to get back on a steady course.
First, the apology. Ujiri said he was sorry for the “gap of miscommunication” that had transpired with DeMar DeRozan, whose reaction to being shipped to San Antonio was to post on social media that he had been told such a thing would not happen.
Ujiri indicated that, in a conversation with DeRozan at NBA Summer League, he had discussed what the team expected of the player going forward. He also said at the time he didn’t expect the Raptors to have a serious shot at landing Kawhi Leonard. But he said he could have handled the conversation better and he apologized for that to the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, who Ujiri called the greatest player in Raptors history. Asked if there might one day be a statue of DeRozan outside the arena, Ujiri sounded like he was ready to get out there with the hammer and chisel himself.
DeRozan may yet tell a different story of what was said in Las Vegas — on Friday afternoon he provided the dreaded facepalm emoji on his Instagram account — but for now Ujiri has at least provided a version of events that does not include him lying to the face of a franchise icon and fan favourite.
Beyond what he might have said to DeRozan, the other major question for Ujiri was what Leonard has said to him. On that score, the news was not particularly reassuring. Ujiri said initial discussions with the infamously quiet Leonard have “gone well” and as to the reports the former Finals MVP has no interest in playing for Toronto, Ujiri said “he didn’t express a lack of interest in playing in Canada to me.” Leonard also hasn’t been cleared yet by Raptors medical staff, though Ujiri said he expects that to happen in the next few days.
What all of that means is the many uncertainties raised as soon as the shock of the trade was over are still very much uncertainties. Would Leonard consider signing a long-term deal to play here? Will he even show up for the last year of his contract? Is he fully healed from the leg injury that caused the rift with the Spurs? Do they expect him to be the same player he was two years ago? Maybe, probably, possibly and hopefully.
The Raptors have been around for 23 seasons and this is the first time they have been able to say they have an MVP candidate in his prime on their roster. It’s a sea-change kind of thing. And yet there was precious little celebrating going on in the room on Friday afternoon. There was Ujiri trying to patch the wounds he had opened with DeRozan and acknowledging the fan base might be aggrieved and admitting the human part of the job — firing beloved coaches and trading humble, hard-working stars — is the reason why one day he won’t be doing it any longer. The harsh business of trying to build a winner is not a lot of fun.
If Ujiri had a smiling Leonard in tow, that would have made things much easier. Sorry about DeRozan, but, look, here is Leonard! Show everyone your championship ring, Kawhi.
Sadly, the only evidence of Leonard on hand was the Raptors jersey with his name on it at the apparel store in the arena lobby. And Ujiri admitted the “challenge” of selling Leonard on Toronto was still ahead.
All that hangs in the balance is everything. If a healthy Leonard is part of Toronto’s future, Ujiri might have just constructed a legitimate contender. If not, he might have just turned a 59-win team into a rebuilding project.
It is enough to make even the most self-assured of executives a little anxious, really.