My Review of FO moves - 20/20 Armchair GM Hindsight

[anotherhomer]

Update: So in hindsight, i think it's universally acknowledge the Poetlt trade at 2023 was a huge infection point. Yes, it was tough because Scottie Barnes didn't make the jump but at the same time, there was a coaching staff (Nurse) that was still loyal to the old guard (FVV, Pascal) blocking this move.

That said, i think if Raps FO can demonstrate they can have more hits than misses moving forward, it will help the team moving forward.


It's obvious a lot of Fans, even pro-Ujiri supporters myself included feel the FO could had done a better job over the years.
BUT I do feel encouraged that Ujiri does have the long-term future of the team in mind, and has the team heading in the right direction, while balancing business considerations.

With that said, let's look at some of his moved - agreed or disagree with FO moves

Firing Nurse, Hiring Darko - Agree

Let me first say - Nick Nurse is an excellent coach and done an amazing job with the Sixers. However I'm firmly in the boat that Nurse had to be let go. A great tactical coach but not a good development/culture coach. Furthermore, there's the obvious known issue where Nurse ride his guys heavy minutes which isn't sustainable long-term.

While Darko isn't the best tactical coach, i believe he's a good coach for development/culture. A notable example is Gradey Dick who i believe would had his confidence destroyed by a coach like Nurse.

No Centre - leading to Poetl trade - Disagree
The lack of center position was an issue for years.
There's also the Khem Birch and Aaron Bynes moves.
Missed opportunities such as not trading for Porzingis (in hindsight, giving up GTJ, Goran for Porzingis was the correct move), but trading for Thad, or lastly, either trade earlier for Poetl or not trade at all for him, leading to the worst move on Ujiri's tenure - potentially giving up a #7 pick when Raps need more talent.
This maybe Ujiri's biggest undoing

In Ujiri's defense, I can understand his rationale. He had his sights on Christian Koloko, had high hopes for him but that didn't worked out

Prioritizing 6"9 wing strategy over shooting and backup PG- Disagree
This philosophy didn't work out obviously two things came up here - first Raps should had prioritized shooting and health over MLE signing, i.e. Stanley Johnson, McDaniels, Otto Porter instead of guys like Malik Monk,

Scottie Barnes - obviously agree
Probably his one saving grace obviously

Not extending Pascal on 4 yrs, trading Pascal too late - Agree and Disagree
Not giving Pascal a 4 year max is something i agree with Ujiri.
However, if there was a decision to only offer a 3-yr max then Ujiri should had made a decision to trade Pascal at the 2023 deadline, which in hindsight is a big mistake. At least Ujiri bite the bullet, and finally accepted the best offer out there.

Not trading FVV - Disagree
While debatable to compete for play-in, I think FVV should had been traded for Grayson Allen and FRP.
This was a mistake

FVV - disagree
Should had traded Mr Bet on himself, as he got caught off-guard by the Udoka signing

OG trade - Agree
This was a good trade, as holding onto OG, allow them to get the players they need that can help with the rebuild.

Gradey - Agree
Can be arguable they could had picked someone else like keyonte George but i like the Gradey pick and think he will provide the gravitational off-ball shooting any team will need.

Summary
I think Ujiri made some mistakes, mainly how the center position was either not addressed, or finally addressed, along with shooting. Furthermore, this was compounded by the decision to keep FVV and Pascal at the 2023.
Essentially, choosing to retool/straddle fence instead of rebuild will hurt the Raps ability to rebuild in the short-term, for which Ujiri should be rightfully criticized.

However, on the flip-side, Ujiri has done a good job positioning the Raps for a rebuild in a short-amount of time. The OG trade, and Darko hiring, along with Gradey pick and relatively clean capspace means the team can turn this around quickly, provided Ujiri continues to execute the right moves.
So I hope Ujiri gets 3 years to turn this around.

[Tor_Raps]

Masai has made some horrible moves since 2020 but I am still confident in him righting the ship as long as he's got the correct vision. It is still TBD whether he's learned anything about roster construction since 2020.

Please lean on the success that made you who you are until the championship. I need the entertainment factor lol.

[DelAbbot]

You don't need hindsight to recognize those bad moves are bad the moment they happened.

Masai has fallen off that much

Masai has made some horrible moves since 2020 but I am still confident in him righting the ship as long as he's got the correct vision. It is still TBD whether he's learned anything about roster construction since 2020.

Please lean on the success that made you who you are until the championship. I need the entertainment factor lol.

How does one explain the mistakes over the past 24-36 months? I don't have much faith in him. Seems to me his approach / philosophy about rebuild is off. Never fully committed. He can't allow significant losing for more than 1 season.

Either he succeeds or fails over the next few years with this approach, it will be entertainment either way thanks to this board

[Dalek]

I agree with a lot of your thoughts on the past, but I think the review of Masai and Bobby's those past moves is just fun conjecture.

Where I think we are going and what needs to change:

Investing in Scottie Barnes
We are three years into this, and I don't have a true sense of what Scottie is. I think this team really needs to work with his trainer(s) and get him on the right path because he kind of stagnates after good starts, and with the changes his expectations have gone up. If we want him to be a Luka Doncic, get him some trainers to be a better handler and shooter. If we want him to be a DPOY type, he needs to have a system that helps him achieve that.

Drafting the best players
We have up to three picks and if our first doesn't convey this year, we could have zero picks next season. This year is critical to get the draft right. We don't need projects with this young team, we need a quality scoring wing, a back-up PG, and possibly a long-term C. The draft has loads of potential for high end role players, so they need to hit on it.

Secure a good coach
Darko has not proven anything other than increasing our ball movement and keeping us a top transition offense team. This team won a title built on defense, and drafted Scottie as a strong defensive wing, and brought guys over from the tough Knick's system. I say we pitch Coach Bud or look at the coaching market this season again. Let's not be afraid to pivot.

[RoteSchroder]

You can’t agree with holding onto OG for a great trade, but disagree with holding onto Siakam for a subpar trade, because the same strategy was used for both.

You either agree with that strategy or you don’t.

[OakleyDokely]

The two biggest things you can criticize them for is they should've transitioned to a rebuild sooner and they haven't done as well around the edges of the roster, finding those valuable depth guys.

For the most part, when it's come to the big moves, like the lottery picks (Barnes/Dick), the OG/Siakam combined return, they've done well. I'm still pretty confident regarding their ability to find talent, especially in the draft.

[Tor_Raps]

You don't need hindsight to recognize those bad moves are bad the moment they happened.

Masai has fallen off that much

Masai has made some horrible moves since 2020 but I am still confident in him righting the ship as long as he's got the correct vision. It is still TBD whether he's learned anything about roster construction since 2020.

Please lean on the success that made you who you are until the championship. I need the entertainment factor lol.

How does one explain the mistakes over the past 24-36 months? I don't have much faith in him. Seems to me his approach / philosophy about rebuild is off. Never fully committed. He can't allow significant losing for more than 1 season.

Either he succeeds or fails over the next few years with this approach, it will be entertainment either way

Ya I said it's TBD based on his new approach but I'm still hoping he gets it right. I'm a Raptor fan first and foremost so i don't really care who gets the job done just as long as it's done right lol. The days of blind loyalty has clearly ended.

[ciueli]

You can’t agree with holding onto OG for a great trade, but disagree with holding onto Siakam for a subpar trade, because the same strategy was used for both.

You either agree with that strategy or you don’t.

It made sense to hold on to OG because OG is younger and would have been very compatible with Scottie going forward if they decided to go that direction. After 2021-22 it made no sense to hold on to Pascal because he was very clearly going to conflict with Scottie, you can't start two poor 3 point shooting PFs on the same team and expect to be good.

Trading OG only made sense once the Knicks offered what they offered, even then there's still an argument we should have held on to him because it's going to be extremely difficult to replace him the league isn't filled with All-Team defence wings that shoot 40% from 3.

[C_Money]

Another thing I would add to the list. Doing the bare minimum every off-season and not fixing any of our weaknesses.

Windhorst made a point that we had the least amount of transactions in the league over I forget how many years.

[YogurtProducer]

I would love to find a thread from 2016. You would find all the same talking points.

Letting Lou Will walk for nothing was destroyed on this board. Masai ""doing the bare minimum" and evaluating was criticized endlessly. Not fixing glaring holes (the 3 spot for years pre-OG draft) was screamed all the time.

this board just cant handle losing at all in a rational manner

[Psubs]

Flynn over Bane. I wanted Bane but rumours said the FO liked Flynn. Both upperclassmen but Bane had positional flexibility to be a combo-guard. Carrington has good size.

[Kordic27]

The frustrating thing about Masai and co is that the clear misses (Poeltl trade, letting FVV walk for nothing, trading OG and Pascal a season late) seemed obvious at the moment by armchair GMs on this board. He gets credit for Barnes, but if Suggs keeps improving, even that might not be the better pick.
At the end of the day, you have to be a better GM than the nerds on this board, and in the last few seasons, I'm not sure he has been...

[Duffman100]

The frustrating thing about Masai and co is that the clear misses (Poeltl trade, letting FVV walk for nothing, trading OG and Pascal a season late) seemed obvious at the moment by armchair GMs on this board. He gets credit for Barnes, but if Suggs keeps improving, even that might not be the better pick.
At the end of the day, you have to be a better GM than the nerds on this board, and in the last few seasons, I'm not sure he has been...

The problem with "Armchair GMs from this board" is that they also wanted to blow up Lowry/Derozan team like 17 times in that cycle (probably myself included multiple times).

[Kordic27]

The frustrating thing about Masai and co is that the clear misses (Poeltl trade, letting FVV walk for nothing, trading OG and Pascal a season late) seemed obvious at the moment by armchair GMs on this board. He gets credit for Barnes, but if Suggs keeps improving, even that might not be the better pick.
At the end of the day, you have to be a better GM than the nerds on this board, and in the last few seasons, I'm not sure he has been...

The problem with "Armchair GMs from this board" is that they also wanted to blow up Lowry/Derozan team like 17 times in that cycle (probably myself included multiple times).

Very true. But also, blowing it up worked.

[WuTang_OG]

Said this before but that fools gold 21/22 really screwed them, especially after that covid season. Team building plans went in the wrong direction cuz of that season. That 6'9" vision stuff also didnt work

Just glad we are starting fresh and rebuilding. Decent young core with more talent to add. Masai can get it done in the draft

[Duffman100]

The frustrating thing about Masai and co is that the clear misses (Poeltl trade, letting FVV walk for nothing, trading OG and Pascal a season late) seemed obvious at the moment by armchair GMs on this board. He gets credit for Barnes, but if Suggs keeps improving, even that might not be the better pick.
At the end of the day, you have to be a better GM than the nerds on this board, and in the last few seasons, I'm not sure he has been...

The problem with "Armchair GMs from this board" is that they also wanted to blow up Lowry/Derozan team like 17 times in that cycle (probably myself included multiple times).

Very true. But also, blowing it up worked.

We didn't really 'blow it up' in the sense that's being referred to above. We made a trade to acquire a superstar.

[positivetension]

Flynn over Bane. I wanted Bane but rumours said the FO liked Flynn. Both upperclassmen but Bane had positional flexibility to be a combo-guard. Carrington has good size.

Only one of them has dropped 50.

[anotherhomer]

You can’t agree with holding onto OG for a great trade, but disagree with holding onto Siakam for a subpar trade, because the same strategy was used for both.

You either agree with that strategy or you don’t.

You can hold out for one player but let go for the other. For pascal it was obvious there was positional overlap with barnes so it made sense to trade one or the other

[MiamiSPX]

I don't want them fired, because I am a believer in continuity.....but I also wouldn't be upset if they both resigned tomorrow, if that makes any sense.

They can definitely draft, and that is what we need to hit on over the next 2 years.

[ciueli]

No one is resigning, Masai isn't giving up his $15M/year salary + incentives, if anything his plan to spend 3-6 years to rebuild the team looks like a sneaky pitch for a contract extension in two years.

At least he's finally admitting this is the direction the team needs to head in, though I am not convinced he has completely given up on making the playoffs in the next few seasons, I can definitely see him trading more draft picks away for short term gains if the right deal comes along.