Masai Ujiri goes out on a limb to give his Raptors core one more chance

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For the longest time in these parts, it has been: “In Masai we Trust.”

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Those words, however, weren’t getting quite the workout they usually do on Thursday.

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With the entire NBA seemingly knocking on his door trying to divest him of some of his underperforming talent, Ujiri basically said: ‘Not good enough’ and turned away all would-be suiters with the exception of the San Antonio Spurs.

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The Spurs came dangling the one thing Ujiri and his front office coveted — a reliable centre. And when the Spurs were agreeable to a first-round draft pick (top-six protected) in a weak 2024 draft, a couple of second-round picks and the remainder of Khem Birch’s contract in exchange for 7-foot-1 former Raptor Jakob Poeltl, Ujiri and his front office group said ‘yes’ for the one and only time this trade deadline.

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The sheer volume of rumours surrounding the team was enough to convince everyone in the public, and much of the media too, that Ujiri had to be in sell mode.

He does not hide his unhappiness with the current state of his team. But he’s also not going to make a deal until he either has to, or until the return is at least as good — and most times better —than what he is giving up. Those deals don’t tend to happen much around deadline time and that’s why Ujiri tends to shy away from being an active player at this time of year.

“The way I look at the deadline (is) it’s really not a great place to make long-term decisions,” Ujiri said. “That’s one of the ways we looked at it in terms of some of the things we were getting.”

Asked why he prefers to deal in the summer, Ujiri replied: “At the end of the day, in the summer there are 29 losers and one winner. There are 29 teams looking to do more.”

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So, common sense, right? With 29 potentially motivated buyers, your chances of a favourable return rise exponentially. Ujiri is just playing the numbers.

But if that was the case, why do anything at all, including bringing in an asset such as Poeltl now instead of just waiting for the off-season.

The answer to that one was both revealing and a little surprising.

Ujiri is a win-at-all-costs operator. He makes moves to improve his team with little consideration for anything but the improvement. It’s cold. Sometimes even seemingly heartless. Ask DeMar DeRozan about that. But that’s how it goes at this level of professional sports.

On Thursday, Ujiri made it sound as if the deal he did make was, at least in part, a concession to the core he had put together, the same group that has failed to coalesce into the winning unit he and, quite frankly, most of us thought it would.

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Ujiri clearly still believes this group is capable of being that winning unit and he’s given them a chance with Poeltl being that missing piece.

“To be fair (to) this team, I think I haven’t done my part for (them) … to maybe play a little bit better,” Ujiri said of the big Austrian, who played two seasons in Toronto after being the Raptors’ ninth overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, then was part of the Kawhi Leonard trade.

“I think we needed a big like Jak to protect the rim, who these guys have confidence in. A really good passer, a big body, one of our own, which I think really fits. I think I look at it like we needed to at least give them some chance with a big rim protector there and see what this team does.”
Ironically, it is that admission that has a segment of the fan base losing trust in Ujiri.

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Suddenly, he is being second-guessed more than ever before for refusing to blow it all up now and focus on the draft lottery where potential reigns supreme and the Raptors can hopefully unearth another gem as they did two years ago when they snagged Scottie Barnes.

Ujiri was ready to go that route in 2020 when the team strategically lost enough to earn that fourth overall pick and the shot at Barnes.

The circumstances though were different. COVID had already done half the job for them as all but a select few players took turns falling victim to the virus, missing extended time and forcing the team to field inexperienced lineups of players unfamiliar with one another. The losses started to pile up quickly.

That isn’t likely to recur. Even if you could create a plausible scenario where Barnes would be shut down for a few weeks, you would be taking the risk of stunting his growth by taking the game away from him.

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And try telling Pascal Siakam he needs to rest or take some games off when he’s in the midst of another potential all-NBA season.

Poeltl, Gary Trent Jr., and Fred VanVleet all become unrestricted free agents this summer. Can you see any of them agreeing to shut it down at the risk of limiting their next deal?

So, no, even if you wanted to tank, it wouldn’t be a seamless path.

Ujiri instead has opted to fortify this group for a shot at a play-in berth and give it potentially the piece that has been missing all along.

“All I know is there’s (been) times where we needed that type of player on this team,” Ujiri said. “We feel after our assessments that there would always be questions with this team: If we had a big, if we had a big, because we play all those 6-foot-9, 6-foot-10 guys.

“And (our guys) do a great job, I think. Chris Boucher is playing well, Precious (Achiuwa) is playing well. These guys are trying, but sometimes we need that lone rebound that a big could get us or the protection that they could get us. With Jak, even that passing that he can get us, I feel that this will be a good period to assess that, the fit.”

And that we can get behind.

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