Written by Bruce Arthur at TheStar.com
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.
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