Masai Ujiri was looking out over the court prior to the Toronto Raptors’ final game of their confounding season on Sunday and hating it.
Not only because his team was down 3-0 to the Washington Wizards and very shortly about to go down 4-0, but also because he couldn’t do anything about it. There is no time when a basketball executive has less control over his team than during the playoffs. The dye is cast. There is no roster jiggling to be done. The Raptors president and general manager was no different than the thousands of fans jamming Jurassic Park outside the Air Canada Centre, getting their hearts broke via big screen.
All he could do was watch.
But now the season is over, and so is perhaps the longest honeymoon period a Toronto sports executive has ever been lucky enough to enjoy.
Now it’s time for Ujiri to act. For Raptors fans — even Raptors ownership — this is new territory.
Coming up on his second anniversary on the job, the former NBA Executive of the Year has made the most out of doing not much – which itself is a rare skill in a world where action is often confused with progress.
On Tuesday as he held his end-of-season news conference he summed up his philosophy in the first 30 seconds.
“You know me,” he said. “No knee-jerk reactions here.”
We know, we know. He inherited a coach and kept him. He inherited a starting lineup and kept it. He inherited some bad contracts and patiently let them expire. He wasn’t going to fire head coach Dwane Casey Tuesday, but he is studying where his coach fits in the bigger picture. He’s got a contract for next season and a team option for the year after, but there was no indication from Ujiri if Casey will see the end of his deal.
“Our struggles were not only in the playoffs,” said Ujiri.” [But] it’s not doomsday. There’s a lot of good things … Casey helped create a good culture; the base is very good and he is a big part of it.”
Ujiri’s signature moves have been achieved while working towards a goal he never reached. Trading Andrea Bargnani to the New York Knicks for bit parts and a first-round pick in the summer of 2013 was all about rebuilding. Trading Rudy Gay for a collection of secondary pieces was all about rebuilding. Trying to trade Kyle Lowry to the New York Knicks in December 2013 was about tanking with an eye toward having a chance to draft Andrew Wiggins first overall.
In that respect nearly everything Ujiri has tried to do since being recruited from the Denver Nuggets by Tim Leiweke to take over for Bryan Colangelo has very pleasantly blown up in his face.
Most importantly, the Raptors perception in the NBA shifted significantly. After five years out of the playoffs, swooping camera shots of the crowd in a frenzy outside the ACC during the post-season and a building absolutely popping with electricity on the inside has helped Toronto gain traction as something other than a basketball backwater. The stream of elite local talent filtering through the draft in recent years has helped, too. Combined, Toronto basketball is cool.
These are things Ujiri cares about, and he should. He spoke Tuesday about how important it was that Toronto be considered relevant in the NBA. Building a new practice facility, hosting the NBA All-Star Game next season and hoisting banners – even for winning the watered down Atlantic Division – are part of a long-term effort to make that happen. Attracting elite free agents is never easy. Attracting them to a team that is viewed as a train wreck is impossible. Ujiri’s announcement that the MLSE board had approved his plan to buy an NBA Development League team was another plank in that platform: creating a basketball lab to foster bundles of unproven potential like Bruno Caboclo is another way for the Raptors to break through.
This is all great, but as we have pointed out, Ujiri has got this far without actually having to make big decisions on core pieces or go out into the market to find players that can enhance the core that is here now. His spending spree last season was notable because signing Patrick Patterson, Grievis Vasquez and Kyle Lowry to short(ish) deals and reasonable prices helped keep the found momentum from last season going without tying his hands for the future.
But now Ujiri’s wallflower status is no more. After a season that was big-picture good even if it came with a bitter-pill ending, his chance to act has finally come.
Flowing from Casey’s fate will be decisions on free agents Amir Johnson and Lou Williams, primarily, and secondarily Tyler Hansbrough.
The minimum amount of salary cap space he’ll have to work with heading into the summer will be about $16 million. He could free up more, presumably.
The NBA marketplace has never been more fluid. The impending flood of TV money — nearly triple the $930 million annually the league has been scraping by on these days — that will be washing over the league beginning in the 2016-17 season will begin making itself felt as early as this summer. Some youngish free agents may opt for short-term deals in an effort to cash in two years from now. Some more veteran players might hold out for longer and richer deals than they might otherwise command figuring that what looks like a pricey deal now will be easy for teams to absorb when the cap rises.
If Ujiri is clever he should be able to exploit opportunities like that. While there is no shortage of anticipation for the summer of 2016 free agency class, headlined by Kevin Durant, the current crop is rich in the kind of lower-wattage talent that could round out the Raptors roster nicely.
Some veteran savvy, toughness and shooting at the four spot? Maybe take a run at Paul Millsap of the Atlanta Hawks. Heck, Paul Pierce could be a free agent. Some rim protection and overall defensive leadership to bolster Jonas Valanciunas? Maybe overpay for Tyson Chandler of the Dallas Mavericks, an old friend of Casey’s from their days in Dallas. Looking for some ball-hawking in the backcourt? Maybe Ujiri can concoct an offer sheet that will pry restricted free agent Patrick Beverly from the Houston Rockets.
These are just blue-sky ideas. It’s up to Ujiri to take action.
He’s got this year’s first-round pick and two in picks in 2016, one of which – the one he picked up from the Knicks in the Bargnani deal – could easily be in the lottery.
His salary cap situation is spotless. He’s got two all-stars in their prime and three first-round picks in the next two drafts.
Ujiri exercised patience in bringing the Raptors to this point. He let the game come to him.
For the most part he’s been watching. Now it’s time to make something happen.