Raptors need ‘reset’ after sweep

TORONTO — A 51-win season and a second-round appearance in the post-season wasn’t good enough for Masai Ujiri.

The Toronto Raptors need a “culture reset,” the team president said after a post-season that ended in a second-round sweep and saw them looking a “little wideeyed” against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ujiri will spend the coming weeks evaluating all facets of the franchise, but what he knows right now is that the Raptors’ style of play, which got them to the playoffs in four consecutive seasons, isn’t working anymore and needs to change. And he hopes that change comes with Kyle Lowry on board.

“It’s our job to try and get Kyle to come back and do it the best way that we possibly can,” Ujiri said. “We want him back — he has been a huge part of the success here.”

The three-time all-star point guard will opt out of the final season of his contract and become a free agent on July 1, and gave no hints Tuesday as to his plans. Speaking to reporters a day after the Raptors cleaned out their lockers, Ujiri called the Cleveland series disappointing, saying “I sometimes feel like that wasn’t our team that we saw out there.”

“We are going to hold everybody accountable because we need to. We need to figure it out.”

The Raptors have four free agents in Lowry, Serge Ibaka, P.J. Tucker and Patrick Patterson, and — like a domino effect — many of the big decisions in the next few weeks depends on who stays and who goes.

Ujiri, who’d just met with coach Dwane Casey, pinpointed the team’s one-on-one playing style.

“Because we’ve done what we’ve done so many times and it hasn’t worked,” Ujiri said. “It’s easy to defend in my opinion when you play one-on-one. It’s predictable, we feel we have to go in another direction. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it will be the new thing in the league that wins.

“We’re trying to be progressive thinkers, and not just continue to pound, pound, pound on something that hasn’t worked.”