Change is gonna come
But questions when and how and with whom still remain
On the day of his season summation, and befitting his usual philosophy, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri left his options open. He insists he has the stomach for a rebuild, and that he has the ability to exceed the punitive luxury tax. Those are the endpoints of the range of possible options. He can do whatever he wants.
But the only real certainty he offered was this: This isn’t good enough. How the Raptors play, the life of isolation ball: dead. Free agency as the potential saviour: dead. Everything in this franchise must be re-evaluated. For all the success, what they have tried has failed, and something new is needed.
“We need a culture reset here,” said Ujiri, in response to a question about whether it was realistic to re-sign all his free agents.
“We need to figure it out. Yes, there’s been some success, but at the end of the day we are trying to win a championship here.
“To me, making the playoffs is nothing. That was back in the day. Now we have to figure out how we can win in the playoffs. That’s the goal.”
If that’s the goal, then the path should probably be simple. The only way to win titles is with truly elite players. Truly elite players are highly unlikely to move in free agency now, and only slightly more likely to move in trades. The draft route, rocky and dark and uncertain, is the path most likely to get you there, which is to say, not very likely at all.
“Big time,” said the Raptors president, when asked if he would be willing to take a step back to go forward. “To me, yeah, I love the records, I love . . . we have to find a way to motivate people, we have to find a way to motivate fans, we have to find a way to play hard on the court, and we have to find a way to find the right talent, to make sure that we’re creating a sense of hope in this organization.
“And no, we’re not afraid of that at all. Because it might be the right way to go, you never know . . . all I’m telling you guys now is with the new CBA, it’s not something that’s easy to just go find players here or trade for players there or sign players here. It’s not going to be that easy any more.
“Player development is going to be an emphasis and it’s going to be an emphasis with our team.”
This is correct. Drake can recruit all he wants, but the days of luring the league’s truly elite players in free agency is mostly over. Ujiri sounded, for a lot of the day, like someone trying to talk himself into the difficult path.
This is the NBA: It’s so hard to win titles. You have to get so lucky. LeBron James was born in Akron, Ohio. Golden State grabbed a onetime salary cap increase to add an MVP to a 73-win finalist. Ujiri talked about fighting, about trying to compete with the big boys.
But this is Lakers-Celtics, and it leaves very few cracks for everyone else. Minnesota has two No. 1 picks on the roster. They haven’t made the playoffs.
So there is a case for continuation, if only because the rebuild can be executed later, if you need to.
Ujiri has the organizational security; his job isn’t riding on it. He could re-sign Kyle Lowry, re-sign Serge Ibaka, keep DeMar DeRozan, resign P.J. Tucker, and implement all the stuff that coach Dwane Casey tried to get going in the playoffs, at the end of four years of failing to do things the other way: three-pointers, passing, pace. It worked against Milwaukee. You can hope you can swing a trade for another secondlevel star, a Paul George, a Jimmy Butler, whatever. It might happen with Casey, it might happen with someone else.
“The way we were playing, it worked,” said former Raptor Luis Scola, who would make a fine assistant coach one day, if he wanted to. “But if you study really well and prepare really well, it could become a little predictable. And I think that is one way that the Raptors game translates a little worse through the playoffs. It works a little better in the regular season.”
So, how much does Ujiri value the Milwaukee series, and how much does he weight the lack of big-boy competitiveness against Cleveland? On Tuesday, it sounded like the latter.
Now, Lowry could make the decision. The mercurial all-star point guard has been said to be privately grousing about all kinds of things for some time. The Raptors are unlikely to offer him five years. Lowry leaves, and Masai pretty much has to start planning for life after LeBron James right now.
But the point is, he may not have to. Maybe Lowry walks, and maybe Ujiri simply decides the sweet doomed melancholy of being pretty good isn’t good enough.
But the real question is whether Ujiri starts the real championshipchasing rebuild now, or he starts it down the road. It would be easy to say we are about to find out much more about Masai Ujiri, because this is the summer where he either changes everything, or doesn’t. But his options are always open. Everything can change later, too.
“Making the playoffs is nothing . . . we have to figure out how we can win in the playoffs.” MASAI UJIRI RAPTORS PRESIDENT