National Post (National Edition)
Ujiri sees good things, but asks fans' patience
`GOING TO BE UP AND DOWN. THAT'S JUST HOW DEVELOPMENT WORKS'
Masai Ujiri knows what he wants. He also knows what
he has.
What he wants is another NBA championship. What he has is a team that is still building to that point.
So Tuesday's year-end state of the franchise address was a mix of declarations of win at all costs and admonitions that building a winner takes time and requires patience.
Ujiri talked about expecting to win every time his team takes the court but recognized the need to let the young roster develop and learn.
The two are not mutually exclusive events, but doing one while doing the other is difficult.
Suffice to say the Raptors' top executive sees a winner in these Raptors. He just doesn't see that happening right away.
“It's patience,” Ujiri explained. “When you have young players, I think we have to always be patient, we have to be, and it's not going to go good all the time.
“I sat here (at the beginning of the year) and told you it's not going to be pretty. It's going to be up and down. That's just how development works, how building works, but, the mindset has to be winning.
“However you look at it, last year, in the Tampa tank year, we won. You know why we won? Scottie Barnes. We won. Our whole mindset has to be winning, you have to think about it that way.”
So yes, winning has to be the goal all the time even if it's not necessarily the result you are chasing that night.
Ujiri, though, admitted he too had to be reminded now and again just how much patience is required to build that team that can compete for a title. He recalled head coach Nick Nurse having to remind him earlier this season the steps required before the unfinished product becomes finished.
“He explained it to me with Precious (Achiuwa),” Ujiri said. “I was like, `Why is he doing that? Why is he doing this?' And it's the patience of getting them to make mistakes sometimes and, yeah, sometimes we'll say, `How does it fit into what the timelines of Pascal (Siakam) or Fred (VanVleet) or OG (Anunoby) and these guys?'
“Those guys are young, too,” Ujiri said. “... I think we're the third or second-youngest team in the playoffs and (veteran) Thad Young messed it up for us, by the way,” he joked.
“We have to build, we have to grow, and I know that sometimes when you win the expectations start to become a little bit higher from fans, from media, from everybody, just sets a tone, but inside we have to see it, we have to have the vision of what we feel, what we project these guys are going to be.”
And that is why when Ujiri is asked where he sees the best avenue to growth this summer, his answer is “from within.”
That might not get the competitive juices for the fan base firing as they look ahead to free agency, but that is the plan.
“We are going to make little changes here and there, obviously we have the midlevel exception that we can use, and we'll try to find some flexibility, be it trades, or to add players if that comes about,” Ujiri said.
“The core is the core and barring injuries and things that you feel hinder your team along the way, we feel that there is going to be growth internally because Precious was not the same player he was in the beginning of the season, neither was Chris Boucher, neither was Malachi (Flynn).
“I think players like Dalano (Banton), Justin (Champagnie), those guys will make a jump, they'll get better,” Ujiri said. “They need to be given opportunity, too, because if we call our program a developmental program we have to give those guys opportunity, too.”
That last line sounds like a bit of a dig at Nurse, but Ujiri later defended Nurse's limited use of the end of his bench by saying the young starters' and front end of the bench need to be pushed — had to be served first.
“They needed it,” Ujiri said. “There's no question about it. We needed to see Pascal in these situations, we needed to see Fred in these situations, OG, Boucher, all those guys. You have to do it intensely, you have to do it to be intentional about these things and that was an understanding with all of us.”
Ujiri was giving every indication that to expect that this summer, would be premature.
THE SIAKAM GROWTH FACTOR
There had to have been a number of very hard conversations between Pascal Siakam and Masai Ujiri over the season and a half leading into the one just completed.
Siakam went from NBA all-star to a guy struggling to find his game again following the NBA shutdown.
Then after a rush off-season and a Raptors relocation, the struggle continued again in Tampa.
That season ended with a shoulder injury that required shoulder surgery and suddenly Siakam's name was mud.
His ascent from late firstround project to all-star was forgotten. Trade him for Ben Simmons. Trade him for anything. Just trade him.
So it wasn't all that surprising to hear Ujiri with a passionate and even emotional response to the question Tuesday about how much joy he took in Siakam's return to form in 2022.
“It's a touchy one, because of what that guy went through,” Ujiri said. “We all go through it, and it's not advertised. His is advertised, his is public, because he is a public figure.
“I'm so proud of him,” Ujiri said. “Watching his press conference the other day: yeah, I want that guy on my team. I want that kind of fighter on my team. If you can come back from that in life, you saw it: you saw what people called him, racist, all the things that were said about that guy because of basketball. Because of sports.
“Yeah, he gets paid, but he's also a human being, right? And he withstood it, when he was coming back, got hit again, got injured. Those things crack people, right? You grow out of it, and to see him on that stage, fight and fight, that's who we want to go to war with, to battle with. I'm proud of him. Incredibly proud of Pascal.”