Thoughts now on parting ways with Masai

[Pointgod]

He sold his soul to the Spurs. That's the only way I can explain the deafeningly abysmal Jakub and Thad trades. Those two trades set us back 5+ years.

Not to mention the mistreatment of Pascal and the inability to turn Fred into assets.

Honestly, those moves border on gross negligence.

Those two trades were the writing on the wall that he was cooked.

[CPT]

Was Bobby responsible for the Poeltl extension? If so, he should have been tossed out on his ass with Masai.

That trade is just the gift that keeps on giving.

By giving I mean setting the team back years at a time.

[Anticon]

Is it naive to say the Jays run offsets the Masai loss a bit? Masai hadn't been performing well, as the thread illustrates.

If Rogers can see the Jays as a model for roster and culture building, then we are in good shape. It took ten years, obviously and they had some luck, but the way that team came together is superior to what the Raptors have done post title.

[Wise80]

TBH, I feel that too many people are faulting him with things.

He's human, he wanted to give the FVV, OG, PS Core a run with Poetl (Traded happened too late). People got injured and we didn't make PO's....
It was loyalty to a core that took him to a championship, call it what you may.... Poor decisions, bad timing (which I do agree with), but it is the human aspect of bonds and loyalty to a team and its core.

Yes, that decision set us back a few years, but personally, I think he pivoted pretty well with our teams current core.
Only time will time after this season on his final transactions as team president.

I think my issue is they had no bench and really no way of procuring a bench without some just insane luck in the 2nd round and UDFA. They overindexed on our ability to do that and when that failed, they tried trades like the Thad one which, while I think the impact is exagerrated, wasn't a good trade.

if we had a competent bench, along with Poeltl, sure maybe that's a 50 win team and you can then make a push with a bigger name.

Instead, we were essentially 6 deep (Poeltl, Siakam, Barnes, Trent, FVV, OG) with no help behind there.

The trade for Poeltl was just ill timed. Value for Poeltl was relatively fair, but considering we could use a shot in the lottery along with the impact on our pick, it just wasn't the right move.

I would argue the other big mistake was misreading the state of the locker room. Fred walking clearly caught the FO off guard, but the way the team was playing, Masai having to call out the selfish play, and Fred's comment about Scottie in that final presser about how "you can't make anyone grow up" was evidence something was up, and likely had been for a while. Meanwhile, the fanbase had long since turned on Fred. Players feel that. Masai either miscalculated or turned a blind eye to what was staring him in the face that year.

Jak trade was like a couple with a strained relationship deciding to have a baby to fix the marriage. It worked for a very short while...sorta.

Wasn't it right after the jakob trade that Nurse announced that he didn't want to come back, right before the sixers game?

There were clear issues going on with that team. That's a great example haha.