Shams: Bobby Promoted to "Final Decision Maker of Basketball (still GM) " update pg. 27

[Mr Funk]

Rogers is trying to distance themselves as much as possible from Masai being fired for the obvious reason (think Trump's hate of Obama).

The fact that all of Masai's staff remain in place clearly shows this is not a performance issue. So get everybody to focus on the money issue only.

The obvious reason is so obvious.

[HiJiNX]

Rogers is trying to distance themselves as much as possible from Masai being fired for the obvious reason (think Trump's hate of Obama).

The fact that all of Masai's staff remain in place clearly shows this is not a performance issue. So get everybody to focus on the money issue only.

The obvious reason is so obvious.

But nobody wants to say it.

[slicedbread2]

Rogers is trying to distance themselves as much as possible from Masai being fired for the obvious reason (think Trump's hate of Obama).

The fact that all of Masai's staff remain in place clearly shows this is not a performance issue. So get everybody to focus on the money issue only.

The obvious reason is so obvious.

But nobody wants to say it.

Ed Robbers is the type of dude who's the ultimate penny pincher. I honestly am happy for Masai that he can take the year off and go enjoy the fruits of his labour. He deserved better than that moron. For some reason, Ed gives me Howard Schultz vibes when it comes to being a cheapskate towards employees.

Side note: I have a neighbour who got laid off when the dotcom bubble burst, but was able to land a job with the Seattle Supersonics in their tech department. When Berry Ackerley (former owner) ran the team, it was a great place to work at. As soon as Schultz and his ownership group of 57 people (including himself) took over, it went downhill. He worked there for 2 years and during a Christmas party, he got a Starbucks gift card as a bonus. He hated it because there's far better coffee joints in Seattle, but took it as he had no choice. He went to use it and figured it was a $100 gift card. The kicker: it turned out to only have $3.50 in it and he found out after ordering a 5 dollar coffee. He managed to bounce back and work for IBM after as he was fed up with Schultz. The one good thing was him seeing Gary Payton tear Schultz's ego a new one.

Sadly, Eddie boy owns everything in Toronto with regards to sport and media and has a major vice grip in everything else in Canada. Can only pray that he'll leave Bobby alone at this point. It's a pretty telling sign when Ed's Dad put a bunch of safeguards to try and stop his son from taking over the company. It failed as Ed used the art of the steal to manipulate the board into bringing him back into the fold.

[deeps6x]

OK Bobby, go get Devin Carter please.

[ItsDanger]

Masai's recent performance was mediocre and marred by questionable roster decisions while being overpaid especially with non-salary aspects. The current roster is overpaid and a poor fit. Rogers dumped him instead of committing to a new expensive contract extension.

Who knows how Bobby will do moving forward as we don't know how much was his input. Next few decisions will be telling. On Rogers front, people are emotional and lack any fundamental logic in their opinions. I'm neutral on their ownership style prospects so let's see. I think they stay mostly out of basketball operations. People come and go in business all the time. Masai had a good run, time to get over it.

[DreamTeam09]

Masai's recent performance was mediocre and marred by questionable roster decisions while being overpaid especially with non-salary aspects. The current roster is overpaid and a poor fit. Rogers dumped him instead of committing to a new expensive contract extension.

Who knows how Bobby will do moving forward as we don't know how much was his input. Next few decisions will be telling. On Rogers front, people are emotional and lack any fundamental logic in their opinions. I'm neutral on their ownership style prospects so let's see. I think they stay mostly out of basketball operations. People come and go in business all the time. Masai had a good run, time to get over it.

Bobby has been in charged since the Kawhi deal, if you don't like Masai for basketball reasons then you shouldn't like everyone left behind who got promoted & extensions. Rogers doesn't even believe that his basketball decisions were faulty because part of the reason Bobby got promoted is because "they like how everyone functioned together around him" and how "stable" & "stability" is within the organization. Clearly Masai was let go for some non basketball reasons

[bballsparkin]

Bobby has been in charged since the Kawhi deal, if you don't like Masai for basketball reasons then you shouldn't like everyone left behind who got promoted & extensions. Rogers doesn't even believe that his basketball decisions were faulty because part of the reason Bobby got promoted is because "they like how everyone functioned together around him" and how "stable" & "stability" is within the organization. Clearly Masai was let go for some non basketball reasons

Basket reasons is money when it all comes down to it. It's big business. Ed might be all these things people are saying but I think he smells green first. MU is the best executive the Raptors ever had. At the end he seemed like he was coasting on that. Perhaps even got a little soft. ;}

We shall see if Bobby and Co succeed. I believe they are already on payroll so ML$E has nothing to lose. I dislike Shatkins and as an outsider am luke warmer in the Leafs FO. That's my only concern. Waiting to hire someone to me is a plus.

[ash_k]

The season cannot start soon enough. Masai had gotten too big for the role anyway and we knew he was gone as soon as MAGA-Ed took over.

It still baffles me how anyone can think the BI trade was bad one in any way shape or form.
BI is clearly Bobby's guy, I thought Masai had taken a step back on that trade versus the IQ&RJ trade..especially his emphasis on IQ&Scottie at the time.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.
While keeping in mind, NO did not want to take any major salary back with their gluts of small forwards&an "expensive" talent on the roster.

[Raps in 4]

The season cannot start soon enough. Masai had gotten too big for the role anyway and we knew he was gone as soon as MAGA-Ed took over.

It still baffles me how anyone can think the BI trade was bad one in any way shape or form.
BI is clearly Bobby's guy, I thought Masai had taken a step back on that trade versus the IQ&RJ trade..especially his emphasis on IQ&Scottie at the time.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.
While keeping in mind, NO did not want to take any major salary back with their gluts of small forwards&an "expensive" talent on the roster.

It's bad in the sense that it's a directionless move. It didn't cost us much (although that Indy pick will probably be in the lottery this year due to the Hali injury and losing Myles, but we couldn't have predicted that), but it's not a move that makes us a contender now or in the future. It's just a short-term stop-gap trade to make the team semi-competitive for a few years after spending two seasons tanking. Arguably, it just delays the inevitable rebuild, unless one of our young pieces takes an unexpected step towards superstardom.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.

A healthy BI is a top-30 player. Keep in mind he was also expiring when we traded for him. Getting a player like that for 1x FRP isn't some sort of historic steal, even if he can stay healthy. He's a high usage, no defence, iso scorer that give you 20-25 PPG on league average efficiency. That isn't a particularly valuable player. Siakam, who is a better and much healthier player (and was also expiring), netted 3x FRPs. A healthy, expiring BI might be worth 2x FRPs instead of 1x. There is a reason no teams wanted to trade for him. His play style doesn't fit on a roster that's trying to contend, and he's not good enough to be the focal point of an offense.

[Ackshun]

This was all just theatrics.

They didn’t want to pay Masai and figured they could just expand Bobby’s role.

Like come on..Dwane Casey as a leading candidate? Gtfo here.

[DreamTeam09]

The season cannot start soon enough. Masai had gotten too big for the role anyway and we knew he was gone as soon as MAGA-Ed took over.

It still baffles me how anyone can think the BI trade was bad one in any way shape or form.
BI is clearly Bobby's guy, I thought Masai had taken a step back on that trade versus the IQ&RJ trade..especially his emphasis on IQ&Scottie at the time.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.
While keeping in mind, NO did not want to take any major salary back with their gluts of small forwards&an "expensive" talent on the roster.

It's bad in the sense that it's a directionless move. It didn't cost us much (although that Indy pick will probably be in the lottery this year due to the Hali injury and losing Myles, but we couldn't have predicted that), but it's not a move that makes us a contender now or in the future. It's just a short-term stop-gap trade to make the team semi-competitive for a few years after spending two seasons tanking. Arguably, it just delays the inevitable rebuild, unless one of our young pieces takes an unexpected step towards superstardom.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.

A healthy BI is a top-30 player. Keep in mind he was also expiring when we traded for him. Getting a player like that for 1x FRP isn't some sort of historic steal, even if he can stay healthy. He's a high usage, no defence, iso scorer that give you 20-25 PPG on league average efficiency. That isn't a particularly valuable player. Siakam, who is a better and much healthier player (and was also expiring), netted 3x FRPs. A healthy, expiring BI might be worth 2x FRPs instead of 1x. There is a reason no teams wanted to trade for him. His play style doesn't fit on a roster that's trying to contend, and he's not good enough to be the focal point of an offense.

-It wasn't a directionless move, you yourself a few sentences later gave reason as to why they did it. They got a 20-25ppg player to go alone with their young core after tanking for a few yrs
-That line of thinking is just so weak, there's 29 other teams, the Raptors in their entire history has made only one trade that put us in contender status. The Kawhi deal .. If you're not advocating or okay with trades that push the margins forward, then you're just literally in the perpetual let's tank/rebuild forever camp
-This is just not true lol, several teams were trying to trade for BI, it came down to us and ATL, who were offering any 2 of Capella/Onyeka & Hunter/Bogdon + NO said they did offer him 3-40 earlier but BI wanted FA

[Raps in 4]

This was all just theatrics.

They didn’t want to pay Masai and figured they could just expand Bobby’s role.

Like come on..Dwane Casey as a leading candidate? Gtfo here.

Casey is a great ass kisser. I'm sure Ed legitimately liked that about him. He could have been our Mark Shapiro.

[ConSarnit]

The season cannot start soon enough. Masai had gotten too big for the role anyway and we knew he was gone as soon as MAGA-Ed took over.

It still baffles me how anyone can think the BI trade was bad one in any way shape or form.
BI is clearly Bobby's guy, I thought Masai had taken a step back on that trade versus the IQ&RJ trade..especially his emphasis on IQ&Scottie at the time.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.
While keeping in mind, NO did not want to take any major salary back with their gluts of small forwards&an "expensive" talent on the roster.

It's bad in the sense that it's a directionless move. It didn't cost us much (although that Indy pick will probably be in the lottery this year due to the Hali injury and losing Myles, but we couldn't have predicted that), but it's not a move that makes us a contender now or in the future. It's just a short-term stop-gap trade to make the team semi-competitive for a few years after spending two seasons tanking. Arguably, it just delays the inevitable rebuild, unless one of our young pieces takes an unexpected step towards superstardom.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.

A healthy BI is a top-30 player. Keep in mind he was also expiring when we traded for him. Getting a player like that for 1x FRP isn't some sort of historic steal, even if he can stay healthy. He's a high usage, no defence, iso scorer that give you 20-25 PPG on league average efficiency. That isn't a particularly valuable player. Siakam, who is a better and much healthier player (and was also expiring), netted 3x FRPs. A healthy, expiring BI might be worth 2x FRPs instead of 1x. There is a reason no teams wanted to trade for him. His play style doesn't fit on a roster that's trying to contend, and he's not good enough to be the focal point of an offense.

-It wasn't a directionless move, you yourself a few sentences later gave reason as to why they did it. They got a 20-25ppg player to go alone with their young core after tanking for a few yrs
-That line of thinking is just so weak, there's 29 other teams, the Raptors in their entire history has made only one trade that put us in contender status. The Kawhi deal .. If you're not advocating or okay with trades that push the margins forward, then you're just literally in the perpetual let's tank/rebuild forever camp
-This is just not true lol, several teams were trying to trade for BI, it came down to us and ATL, who were offering any 2 of Capella/Onyeka & Hunter/Bogdon + NO said they did offer him 3-40 earlier but BI wanted FA

It bears repeating: if we were tanking we did the worst job anyone has ever done at it. Even if we ignore 2023 we tanked for 2 years and ended up with the 9th pick in ONE draft. We didn’t keep our own first in 2024. We were eventually forced into tanks the past 2 years due to our own ineptitude. That is not something that should inspire confidence. If your argument is that we are now coming out of our “tank” then you must also admit our tank was carried out terribly. Only 2 outcomes can be true: we sucked at tanking (an indictment of our FO) or we started the seasons trying to win and ended up having to tank because of health and talent issues (also an indictment of our FO). So which is it?

Also, I have seen zero reports that anyone outside of TOR and ATL were interested in Ingram. Even Rich Paul admitted the market for Ingram was not going there and they were lucky to get $40m. This highly implies we overpaid Ingram. Trading a projected late 1st for Ingram is not a bad flier but even his own agent is admitting we overpaid him.

We absolutely botched the last few years and there is no argument against that. Surely you can see why a lot of us have questions about a lot of our recent moves given the lack or results on the floor or on the draft board.

[JB7]

It's bad in the sense that it's a directionless move. It didn't cost us much (although that Indy pick will probably be in the lottery this year due to the Hali injury and losing Myles, but we couldn't have predicted that), but it's not a move that makes us a contender now or in the future. It's just a short-term stop-gap trade to make the team semi-competitive for a few years after spending two seasons tanking. Arguably, it just delays the inevitable rebuild, unless one of our young pieces takes an unexpected step towards superstardom.



A healthy BI is a top-30 player. Keep in mind he was also expiring when we traded for him. Getting a player like that for 1x FRP isn't some sort of historic steal, even if he can stay healthy. He's a high usage, no defence, iso scorer that give you 20-25 PPG on league average efficiency. That isn't a particularly valuable player. Siakam, who is a better and much healthier player (and was also expiring), netted 3x FRPs. A healthy, expiring BI might be worth 2x FRPs instead of 1x. There is a reason no teams wanted to trade for him. His play style doesn't fit on a roster that's trying to contend, and he's not good enough to be the focal point of an offense.

-It wasn't a directionless move, you yourself a few sentences later gave reason as to why they did it. They got a 20-25ppg player to go alone with their young core after tanking for a few yrs
-That line of thinking is just so weak, there's 29 other teams, the Raptors in their entire history has made only one trade that put us in contender status. The Kawhi deal .. If you're not advocating or okay with trades that push the margins forward, then you're just literally in the perpetual let's tank/rebuild forever camp
-This is just not true lol, several teams were trying to trade for BI, it came down to us and ATL, who were offering any 2 of Capella/Onyeka & Hunter/Bogdon + NO said they did offer him 3-40 earlier but BI wanted FA

It bears repeating: if we were tanking we did the worst job anyone has ever done at it. Even if we ignore 2023 we tanked for 2 years and ended up with the 9th pick in ONE draft. We didn’t keep our own first in 2024. We were eventually forced into tanks the past 2 years due to our own ineptitude. That is not something that should inspire confidence. If your argument is that we are now coming out of our “tank” then you must also admit our tank was carried out terribly. Only 2 outcomes can be true: we sucked at tanking (an indictment of our FO) or we started the seasons trying to win and ended up having to tank because of health and talent issues (also an indictment of our FO). So which is it?

Also, I have seen zero reports that anyone outside of TOR and ATL were interested in Ingram. Even Rich Paul admitted the market for Ingram was not going there and they were lucky to get $40m. This highly implies we overpaid Ingram. Trading a projected late 1st for Ingram is not a bad flier but even his own agent is admitting we overpaid him.

We absolutely botched the last few years and there is no argument against that. Surely you can see why a lot of us have questions about a lot of our recent moves given the lack or results on the floor or on the draft board.

The first part of the 2023-24 season, they could not tank because they were trying to trade OG and Pascal. Tanking from the start of the season would have tanked OG and Pascal's value, as teams would have viewed those trades as the Raps just trying unload players to tank, and would have offered pennies on the dollar.

OG wanted out, and they didn't want to re-up Pascal, at 30, to a max deal. OG had to be traded first, because he had the most value.

Based on what Masai brought back for OG (RJ & IQ), he was never looking to strip the team completely down and target only ping pong balls, because they had Barnes. So he tried to re-tool around Barnes, with players closer in age to him. They ended up tanking at the end of the 2023-24 season because of the fluky injuries and RJ's loss.

For the 2024-25 season, they tried tanking right from the start because the draft was deep this past summer. Yak even admitted it during preseason, talking about it being a development year for young players. Injuries helped, but so did Darko's rotations, which purposely left young players in a critical moments of games to aid the tank.

The reason they did not end up higher than 9th, was lottery luck, as 3 teams behind them moved up. Also, since it was not a complete tear down, the team still hand good players, that made it difficult to tank beyond teams like the Wiz, Jazz, Nets, etc. But now they are better positioned to have a rebound year, which will not come for those teams in full tear down.

But now they have a lot of assets that could be moved to improve the team.

Let's see how this season goes...

[TheGeneral99]

The season cannot start soon enough. Masai had gotten too big for the role anyway and we knew he was gone as soon as MAGA-Ed took over.

It still baffles me how anyone can think the BI trade was bad one in any way shape or form.
BI is clearly Bobby's guy, I thought Masai had taken a step back on that trade versus the IQ&RJ trade..especially his emphasis on IQ&Scottie at the time.

If we can stay from BI's ankle or hamstring injuries, then this could be one of the biggest steal in NBA history.
While keeping in mind, NO did not want to take any major salary back with their gluts of small forwards&an "expensive" talent on the roster.

I mean as as you said if BI is healthy it's a good trade but if he's not healthy it's a bad trade.

The bad: He's never played more than 64 games in a season outside of his rookie campaign. He routinely misses 25-30 games a year.

The good: He just turned 28 years old and maybe he'll be able to solve his ankle issues like Curry did. We aren't getting a guy past his peak...he's a guy that should be entering his prime.

[TerryTate]

They should have tried to pull the trigger on KD when he wanted out of Brooklyn.
Push scotty and picks, but that's my opinion.

[djsunyc]

They should have tried to pull the trigger on KD when he wanted out of Brooklyn.
Push scotty and picks, but that's my opinion.

it wasnt just that. the problem was contracts. it had to be scottie and og/fred along with picks. we were already thin and that deal wouldve made us thinner.

[JB7]

They should have tried to pull the trigger on KD when he wanted out of Brooklyn.
Push scotty and picks, but that's my opinion.

Masai tried to offer Pascal, and the Nets wouldn't bite.