RAPTORS BOSS PLANNING ‘A CULTURE RESET HERE’
Ujiri says it’s too early for details, but team’s style ‘is something that we need to change’
Let us begin this assessment of Masai Ujiri’s season-ending news conference by saying right up front that everything was bull — uh, stuff.
The Toronto Raptors president told us this himself: “I feel like talking now is BS basically. It’s absolute BS why we need to do this today.”
So, there’s that. Ujiri’s point was that, 36 hours removed from the end of a four-game curbstomping at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, it is far too early for him to have reached any meaningful conclusions about the future of his team. If he made decisions now, they would be hasty and ill-informed.
All of which makes sense. But while Ujiri did not say anything specific about the many questions surrounding a basketball team that is stuck at the proverbial fork in the road, he did say a lot. He is not happy with the way the season ended. He does not take any solace in having won 50-plus games for the second straight year and only the second time ever. He plans to have serious changes made — and less scalpel, more chainsaw.
“We need — after that performance, we need a culture reset here,” he said. “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.”
There was also this, on the Raptors’ isolation-heavy style of play: “All I know is what we have been doing has not worked, and I have to look at that. We have to take a serious look at that, because we’ve tried it and tried it and tried it and tried it, and you know what? It hasn’t taken us to the highest level.”
At this point, one could be forgiven for thinking that head coach Dwane Casey should hold off on making any long-term lease agreements in the Toronto area. As Ujiri was talking in the Raptors’ shiny, new practice facility on Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition grounds, you half-wondered if he was going to come back the next day with a bunch of gasoline canisters and raze the thing to the ground.
This is not the way we are used to hearing Ujiri talk about his organization. Just 13 months ago, on the eve of what would end up a run to the Eastern Conference finals, the president had given a full-throated endorsement of Casey, and had brushed off the notion that another first-round exit would be grounds for an overhaul. Ujiri talked about big-picture gains and said there was major value in having turned Toronto into an NBA destination.
But on Tuesday, asked specifically if he would commit to Casey, who is under contract for two more seasons, Ujiri said: “I had a good meeting with Dwane this morning, and the style of play is something that we need to change, and I’ve made it clear. And coach has acknowledged it and he’s already thought about it.” He also said he told Casey “that it’s going to be difficult for me to keep changing players.”
That sounds a lot like Welcome to Dumpville. Population: You.
But while there was much talk in Ujiri’s 40-minute session about the need for change, and the fact that style of play — which means coaching — was a big part of that, there was also enough ambiguity to suggest the president was being truthful when he said he hasn’t made any key decisions. He repeatedly mentioned talking to Casey about doing things a different way, so it’s not like he’s already moved on. Casey, for what it’s worth, spoke differently about ball movement even as this playoff run veered off the road and into the ditch. After long defending his team’s oneon-one-driven offence as what the Raptors do best, Casey by the end of the Cleveland series was very high on passing and swinging the ball around to the open man. For a team that had the lowest assist rate in the NBA in the regular season, it was a rather late time to find religion.
The key take-away from Ujiri is that his front office will spend the next weeks trying to answer a broad question: Can an NBA team reinvent itself but keep most of the same people? Is a gentle rebuild possible?
Ujiri said enough to make one think that this would be his preference. He spoke about wanting to re-sign Kyle Lowry, he had optimism about DeMarre Carroll and Jonas Valanciunas — two starters who became bench players in the playoffs — and he said he hadn’t changed his thoughts on Serge Ibaka, despite a patchy playoff performance from the trade-deadline acquisition.
Ujiri was clear on one thing: “It’s on all of us,” he said of a season of failed expectations.
For all the talk of change, and the stark contrast to his mood at the end of last season, Ujiri might just have realized that after four playoff appearances in which the Raptors have a 17-24 record, now is not the right time for heywe’re-close chatter, even if that’s what he believes.
But if he is something close to satisfied, then his BS capabilities are better than his eye for talent. Masai Ujiri sounded right cantankerous, which should make all those who work for him nervous.
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.