Masai Ujiri's future with the Raptors might end soon

[PushDaRock]

The biggest question mark IMO is the handling of the Scottie Barnes' contract.

The contract's impact stands to cause one of the highest differentials when comparing the #1 highest contract and the 2nd highest. Higher differential than even the Knicks.

The fact that Massai couldn't get Scottie to buy into the Team's future is what's causing the rumblings and as.the.main dude, he doesn't impact like Ant-man (talent comparison), then it was lack of foresight.

What does this even mean?

Cade, Franz and Mobley all got the max. Why would Barnes take less money than them?

[Bankai]

New majority owner doesent like Masai. They have had disagreements in the past. Now he has the power to get rid of Masai.
Ed Rogers being the owner of all major Toronto sports is disgusting, this guy meddling and penny pinching wont build winners.

[One_and_Done]

The biggest question mark IMO is the handling of the Scottie Barnes' contract.

The contract's impact stands to cause one of the highest differentials when comparing the #1 highest contract and the 2nd highest. Higher differential than even the Knicks.

The fact that Massai couldn't get Scottie to buy into the Team's future is what's causing the rumblings and as.the.main dude, he doesn't impact like Ant-man (talent comparison), then it was lack of foresight.

What does this even mean?

Cade, Franz and Mobley all got the max. Why would Barnes take less money than them?

Other teams signed bad contracts, so now I have to as well, is not how I expect a smart GM to behave.

[Duffman100]

lol yup. A smart GM doesn't give a 22 year old
Who averaged 20, 8 and 6, 1.3 and 1.5 a max deal.

Instead nickel and dime them and cause a conflict with your young star player.

But no, you aren't just regularly trolling every topic right?

[PushDaRock]

The biggest question mark IMO is the handling of the Scottie Barnes' contract.

The contract's impact stands to cause one of the highest differentials when comparing the #1 highest contract and the 2nd highest. Higher differential than even the Knicks.

The fact that Massai couldn't get Scottie to buy into the Team's future is what's causing the rumblings and as.the.main dude, he doesn't impact like Ant-man (talent comparison), then it was lack of foresight.

What does this even mean?

Cade, Franz and Mobley all got the max. Why would Barnes take less money than them?

Other teams signed bad contracts, so now I have to as well, is not how I expect a smart GM to behave.

You're right, it seems like a good idea to cheap out and piss off your best player.

[C3H6N6O6]

This guy should send 10% of the money he makes to the Spurs for not trading Kawhi to the Lakers just for spite.

[One_and_Done]

What does this even mean?

Cade, Franz and Mobley all got the max. Why would Barnes take less money than them?

Other teams signed bad contracts, so now I have to as well, is not how I expect a smart GM to behave.

You're right, it seems like a good idea to cheap out and piss off your best player.

Just because a guy is your best player, it doesn't necessarily mean you should give them the Max. Should the Nets or Wizards give their best player the max?

[JRoy]

The long bois era is going to kick him any time now.

[PushDaRock]

Other teams signed bad contracts, so now I have to as well, is not how I expect a smart GM to behave.

You're right, it seems like a good idea to cheap out and piss off your best player.

Just because a guy is your best player, it doesn't necessarily mean you should give them the Max. Should the Nets or Wizards give their best player the max?

Where did I say that every team should have a max player?

[Chandan]

Masai had good luck before. Now he has bad luck. End of story.
(most of his pivotal success came from luck, not planning. The greatest raptor of all time Lowry, was once traded away by Masai only to be vetoed by the other team, lets not forget)


Raptors had 2 bad GMs before now (some) raptors fans thinks masai is the gods gift and only option.

[SelfishPlayer]

This guy should send 10% of the money he makes to the Spurs for not trading Kawhi to the Lakers just for spite.

Pop is a POS for that.

[adubmac]

I appreciate Masai and all that he has done for the Raptors but he let feelings get in the way, and instead of acknowledging that the team needed a reset, he doubled down by trading for Jak. Not only did that impact the Raptors '23 pick, it cost them their '24 selection. The rebuild is now two years behind where it should be and Toronto is in purgatory for the next few seasons.

[Slade3]

Masai made many good moves early on, many of which you just named. That’s true of a number of GMs though. There was a time a reporter was able to ask Bryan Colangelo with a straight face “when you touch gold, does it turn into super gold?” That’s how well his tenure seemed to start. Dumars also had an incredible start to his GM career, where it seemed he could do no wrong. The thing about that kind of lightning in a bottle start, is that is wears off quick. Kind of like how a batter in baseball with a hole in his game will get exposed after he starts hot, unless he can adjust. Those who don’t adjust end up out of the league quick. Dumars was one such.

Masai of course is better than Dumars, he has a more prolonged period of success than him, across 2 franchises. However, in recent years he been a poor GM. There’s really no getting around that. It’s not so much the individual bad moves that kill him (e.g. the Thaddeus trade, the Poeltl trade, etc). It’s the lack of strategic vision that has been fatal. He has made bad moves and then doubled down on them. He assembled a badly constructed team, then blamed his top tier coach and fired him. That would never happen at truly elite front offices. Can you see Spo or Pop or Kerr getting let go because of a disappointing season that wasn’t the coaches fault? He couldn’t accurately guage the strength of his teams, and this led to all sorts of failures; in particular, hanging on to guys too long and losing them for either nothing (e.g. FVV) or for less than he could have gotten (e.g. Siakam, OG). You look at how OG, Siakam, FVV, etc, are playing elsewhere, and you have to ask why exactly Masai couldn’t build a playoff team around these guys. The answer appears to be the need to double down on his earlier decision that Barnes is a superstar, something I think there’s little evidence for.

The Raptors have been in limbo lately, and if Masai tries to chase the play-in again this year they’re likely to stay there. They need to embrace the rebuild they triggered by moving their vets. I don’t see the pathway for this team to become a contender, or even a 50 win team, without a major talent infusion. That kind of infusion is frankly hard to come by without top lotto picks. In this respect, Masai particularly reminds me of Dumars. Both were lucky enough to build a contender without bottoming out, due to freak circumstances that are not repeatable. They came away from this thinking they didn’t need to tank to rebuild, and that has left Toronto in such a weird place.

If I was a Toronto fan, I would have wanted the team to keep Nurse, be better constructed around existing guys, and just kept trying to win 50 games a year. With better moves on the fringes, that goal was entirely within their reach. Instead they’ve blown up the roster, but are stuck in mediocrity anyway, with seemingly no plan to get out of it. Just terrible.

You're not a Toronto fan or you wouldn't have wanted them to keep Nurse.

I think anyone who blames Nurse is offbase. Nurse will go on to have a long and prestigious coaching career. I'm not sure Masai's GM career will go as well for him moving forward.

Masai isn't the GM of the Raptors, hasn't been one for a few years now. Bobby Webster is the GM, Masai is the President of basketball operations.

[One_and_Done]

This guy should send 10% of the money he makes to the Spurs for not trading Kawhi to the Lakers just for spite.

Pop is a POS for that.

That's not what happened, but this isn't the thread to litigate it.

[djsunyc]

masai still a top exec in the league. won a title in a foreign country and in a market no US born player wants to play in. turned around the entire perception of a franchise and has increased it's evaluation exponentially.

i'm also guessing a ton of fans here, as well as all the "pundits", criticized him for drafting barnes over suggs too.

it's been a great decade. no exec is w/o mistakes. i'm sure folks rank presti way over him but he's not the one with a ring and 10 years of having the 2nd best record in the nba to gsw.

[mg]

I appreciate Masai and all that he has done for the Raptors but he let feelings get in the way, and instead of acknowledging that the team needed a reset, he doubled down by trading for Jak. Not only did that impact the Raptors '23 pick, it cost them their '24 selection. The rebuild is now two years behind where it should be and Toronto is in purgatory for the next few seasons.

Agreed there were missteps and also that the Poeltl mistake was the worst when that team was basically going nowhere.

The Barnes contract is the going rate but he should've gotten a lot more in return for Lowry, FVV, OG, and Siakam. He just waited too long to try and trade any of them. Another GM that wasn't so emotionally involved would've broken them up sooner for better assets in return. In theory considering the assets they had when Kawhi left, Toronto should be much further along in a rebuild.

If his time is up I'm sure most Raptor fans will remember him for the championship. That's not such a bad legacy especially in a market such as Toronto.

[links135]

It's probably time for him to go... Mans has been MID for a while now.

According to Basketball Ref he's a borderline top 10 executive of all time

https://www.basketball-reference.com/executives/NBA_stats.html

He's still super young (54)

I would say it would be hard to replace the guy.

I'm sure you can see how well Casey has done in Detroit. Sure you get rid of him and replace him with.... who? Chris Bosh?

[Zenzibar]

The biggest question mark IMO is the handling of the Scottie Barnes' contract.

The contract's impact stands to cause one of the highest differentials when comparing the #1 highest contract and the 2nd highest. Higher differential than even the Knicks.

The fact that Massai couldn't get Scottie to buy into the Team's future is what's causing the rumblings and as.the.main dude, he doesn't impact like Ant-man (talent comparison), then it was lack of foresight.

What does this even mean?

Cade, Franz and Mobley all got the max. Why would Barnes take less money than them?

Because they are due, doesn't mean that the team control option, should be to immediately give a max. Who of the Cade, Franz, Mobley and Barnes are worthy of the max?

As young players, I would argue that Antony Edwards is more worthy of $42m per, than Scottie Barnes. Barnes, will need to have a more impactful year, for me to be convinced that he's worthy of that contract.

[Zenzibar]

The biggest question mark IMO is the handling of the Scottie Barnes' contract.

The contract's impact stands to cause one of the highest differentials when comparing the #1 highest contract and the 2nd highest. Higher differential than even the Knicks.

The fact that Massai couldn't get Scottie to buy into the Team's future is what's causing the rumblings and as.the.main dude, he doesn't impact like Ant-man (talent comparison), then it was lack of foresight.

What does this even mean?

Cade, Franz and Mobley all got the max. Why would Barnes take less money than them?

Other teams signed bad contracts, so now I have to as well, is not how I expect a smart GM to behave.

Boom. Someone that understands.

[PushDaRock]

The biggest question mark IMO is the handling of the Scottie Barnes' contract.

The contract's impact stands to cause one of the highest differentials when comparing the #1 highest contract and the 2nd highest. Higher differential than even the Knicks.

The fact that Massai couldn't get Scottie to buy into the Team's future is what's causing the rumblings and as.the.main dude, he doesn't impact like Ant-man (talent comparison), then it was lack of foresight.

What does this even mean?

Cade, Franz and Mobley all got the max. Why would Barnes take less money than them?

Because they are due, doesn't mean that the team control option, should be to immediately give a max. Who of the Cade, Franz, Mobley and Barnes are worthy of the max?

As young players, I would argue that Antony Edwards is more worthy of $42m per, than Scottie Barnes. Barnes, will need to have a more impactful year, for me to be convinced that he's worthy of that contract.

lmao how do you think that convo goes?

Masai: "These other guys with worse numbers and not All-Stars are getting the max extension but we don't think you're worth it and you need to take less money"

That should go over well and be appreciated by the player right?