TORONTO — Monday morning, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri said a word rarely heard in the realm of professional sports: Shame.
To hear Ujiri not only take some accountability for a disastrous 2023-24 season, but also express a level of embarrassment about it was refreshing. A lot of it was beyond his control: the injuries, the Jontay Porter controversy, the deaths of family members of players. Life happens.
Advertisement
The failing to see the oncoming train that was contracts ending for the team’s most important players — players who were producing .500 seasons as their minutes were pushed sky high, their production wrung out to the last drop? That falls under Ujiri’s purview. The team’s five-year player-development belly flop ultimately is on him, too. Over the past two years, Ujiri’s trademark patience turned into stubbornness. The Raptors will pay for that for a while.
The notion that this was the same organization that won a title in 2019 has been gone for a while, and Ujiri had been slow to admit it publicly — at least until Monday.
“The second day of the draft was the first time I’ve felt really good (during) the last year and a half, to be honest,” Ujiri said after a news conference reintroducing the re-signed Immanuel Quickley and the extended Scottie Barnes. “It’s been a tough year and a half, and maybe that’s partly my fault and partly (circumstances) coming at us in different ways. But it just wasn’t us. That’s not who we are. That’s not what I want to be.”
📍Toronto pic.twitter.com/jBw5tjK4bS
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) July 8, 2024
There was nothing special about the second day of the draft, except that fortune seemed to shine on the Raptors — some of it earned, some of it luck. They were the centre of attention for the first time in a long time, with the opening pick of the second round in the first year of the two-day draft. That brought some welcomed belle-of-the-ball vibes. There also was a trade that yielded them a potential backup point guard (Davion Mitchell), two second-round picks and Sasha Vezenkov, all for little-used wing Jalen McDaniels. Even Ujiri would likely admit that the deal had little to do with any brilliant maneuvering done and more to do with the financial dance the Sacramento Kings needed to complete to open the door for grander ambitions. Still, the Raptors were in a spot to make a positive step forward, however small.
Advertisement
What they really need, though, are big leaps forward, not a little shuffle. That is where Barnes and Quickley come in. For better or worse, Ujiri and his front office’s future are tied up with those two players, paid $400 million between them, a price based more on future projection than previous production.
That is fine. These are the bets teams have to make at this stage of development. Without actively trying for another 25-win (or worse!) season, playing in a conference where five teams seem to be doing just that, Ujiri is betting on either a) Barnes and Quickley outperforming those deals or b) a little lottery luck. Both would be preferable.
“It is going to take time,” Ujiri said. “But we feel this commitment is the foundation of having these guys really start to set that tone and feel that responsibility, too. There’s a sense of accountability here. They have to feel that. I think these two guys have that head on their shoulders that they’ll do this.”
For their part, Barnes and Quickley both said they want to get the Raptors back to winning as soon as next year — which fits in with Monday’s slogan: The future starts now.
It is tough to predict a huge leap from last year, given the Raptors might be relying on three or four first- or second-year players to provide rotation minutes, no incoming lottery picks and a one-time All-Star, Barnes, on the roster. That type of team doesn’t scream immediate improvement, hence Ujiri’s resilience to provide a timeline for contention. However, you want your foundational players to want to start winning ASAP, as well as having obvious room for growth: Barnes as a shooter and Quickley as a playmaker.
“(They) say we’re rebuilding, but I just want to win now,” Barnes said. “I feel like that’s my mindset each and every single day. I want to win basketball games and rebuild this thing back to where it was, try to get back to the top of the East.”
Advertisement
“When I’m done playing my career, I want to say that I tried to meet every challenge head on,” Quickley added. “I didn’t shy away from anything. You only get to play in the NBA one time in your career, so pressure is an opportunity for you to rise, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”
The two Raptors will go a long way to forming their NBA legacies during these contracts, with Quickley signed for five years and Barnes now under contract for six as his rookie deal expires after this year. As for Ujiri, his legacy is set: He’s the guy who brought a title to Toronto.
There is more to add, though. He can go down as an executive who won a title but could not find a way to sustain it, or he could rebuild the franchise, virtually from the ground up this time. The ownership structure of the Raptors likely will change in the next two years, with Bell and Rogers having the option to buy out Larry Tanenbaum’s remaining holdings in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, per Sportsnet. Ujiri and Tanenbaum are tight; it is possible these two contracts are the last big things Ujiri does in this position.
He is not saying any of that. Instead, he did what he always does: promised the Raptors would win again. He then noted how that has become a chorus of his, a bit of self-awareness. There is a point to all that bluster: He is trying to put the energy he wants his team to reflect out into the world. The last few years have chipped away at the front office’s lustre and, thus, the weight Ujiri’s words carry.
“That’s not what this team, these fans, this city deserve in any way,” Ujiri said of the team’s play last year. “We have to put a better product than that, and I think we did the last 10 years before that. No matter you win or you lose in this league, you have to show passion. You need to show energy.”
It is on Barnes and Quickley to provide that — and a lot more.
(Photo: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)
