POLL: Masai Ujiri Approval Rating - Mid-Season Poll

[bballsparkin]

Hang on a second....this team as it is now...with a 21 year old starting center and a 22 year old starting shooting guard....is a .500 team.

THAT is mediocre.

Do you really think that the current level of performance is that plateau for this team?

Ya I think it is. Like Raps in 4 says it depends how said players pan out. I like both but have realistic expectations at the same time. I'd be happy if JV and Ross turn out to be solid but unspectacular starters.

Lowry is a free agent and I wonder how his body will hold up with time. Amir is great but ditto when it comes to health concerns. DD I'm not sure. I hate that iso ball.

Anyway I'm still neutral on the guy. He's made some nice moves. But I admittedly am doubting his approach. If not this year then when? Next year? Yeah fans will love that.

[Kreamy]

That its actually quite an accomplishment that we are a .500 team at this point in time.

Is it? You seem to me to believe as time goes by the record will keep going up. Maybe a bit but as is I think the team plateaus as pretty mediocre. I get the feeling MU is very confident in his abilities. That he can build it the Pacer's way. Thing is Indiana has to build that way due to financial concerns. They got lucky with PG too. Hey maybe Masai is that good. But I'll believe it when I see it. The Raptors are looking pretty middling to me. And Lowry is a huge question mark. BC saddled him in a difficult spot I understand. But I'm not so sure everything is ideal. I'm hoping he pulls off some magic at the deadline. Whether it's grabbing a disgruntled star or making a trade that takes the team some steps back in order to move forward.


Ps - Good job on keeping this thread going.

Hang on a second....this team as it is now...with a 21 year old starting center and a 22 year old starting shooting guard....is a .500 team.

THAT is mediocre.

Do you really think that the current level of performance is that plateau for this team?

You sure got over BC pretty quickly hank.

[hankscorpioLA]

Is it? You seem to me to believe as time goes by the record will keep going up. Maybe a bit but as is I think the team plateaus as pretty mediocre. I get the feeling MU is very confident in his abilities. That he can build it the Pacer's way. Thing is Indiana has to build that way due to financial concerns. They got lucky with PG too. Hey maybe Masai is that good. But I'll believe it when I see it. The Raptors are looking pretty middling to me. And Lowry is a huge question mark. BC saddled him in a difficult spot I understand. But I'm not so sure everything is ideal. I'm hoping he pulls off some magic at the deadline. Whether it's grabbing a disgruntled star or making a trade that takes the team some steps back in order to move forward.


Ps - Good job on keeping this thread going.

Hang on a second....this team as it is now...with a 21 year old starting center and a 22 year old starting shooting guard....is a .500 team.

THAT is mediocre.

Do you really think that the current level of performance is that plateau for this team?

You sure got over BC pretty quickly hank.

I was never a huge BC fan. I just didn't think he was the "epitome of all evil worst GM in history singlehandedly ruining sports in Toronto" guy that a lot of people felt he was.

[nanapapayaw]

he had the ideal starting situation for a gm and spent seven years and a ton of money in return for two first round exits

i'd say he at least singlehandedly ruined basketball in toronto (not that there was much to ruin)

[Waylon Mercy]

Strongly disapprove just because he should had planned better.

Many here never liked the ' wait and see approach' from the start and this is why.

When you get paid millions of $$, you shouldn't need all this time to 'evaluate' I mean, his job is to watch basketball on a nightly bases and should have had a pretty solid idea from the start that this roster wasn't very good.

The "wait and see approach" had us 6-12 and spiraling towards the bottom looking at a nice
lottery pick.

Doing something and making a trade made us better even what many thought was
a tank trade at the time and now we're in no mans land on a treadmill.

[colonel_von]

Sweet Gay trade Ujiri.... You've really shown that Toronto can be legitimate by trading away our best players on low value

[bballsparkin]

I was never a huge BC fan. I just didn't think he was the "epitome of all evil worst GM in history singlehandedly ruining sports in Toronto" guy that a lot of people felt he was.

He undervalued first picks and had a horrible penchant to overpay those not deserving. Plus that whole Bargnani thing.

[Scarface844]

Sweet Gay trade Ujiri.... You've really shown that Toronto can be legitimate by trading away our best players on low value

Stop being irrational. Rudy Gay was not going to play well in our system, neither was DJ. Rudy would of continued playing like he was because Casey is incompetent and Rudy is not fit to be a #1 option. With the Kings hes the #3 option which is why hes playing so well, and again this is just a hot streak. He will cool down, its called the law of averages. He will go back to about 45-46% which is good but not 52% like he is right now.

Masai got the best value for Rudy at the time the trade took place. The players we got back in the trade were also playing horribly for the Kings. The King fans wanted Salmons gone much like we wanted Rudy gone. Its about fitting in the right system. Thats what the NBA is all about. Paying Rudy 19 million next year was going to ruin any flexibility this team could have in the future.

[Rapsfan07]

Yep no stars.

10th on the MVP ladder, 1 near allstar, 5th ranked d in the league.

No stars

And you need stars to be more than a playoff fodder so all that other stuff is nice and maybe even commendable but he did everything else except what he was actually supposed to do.

[Rapsfan07]

I think we will found out the true Masai ratings once the trade deadline passes. If he doesn't make a move to make this team either better or get them on the stealth tank full force then the ratings are going to drop down big time.

He's in a difficult position.

Tanking is off the table at this point. It would be virtually impossible for us to lose enough games to get into the bottom five.

On the other hand, he also doesn't have much in the way of assets to make this team better right now via trades.

I would say that his only option is to start tearing down for the 2016 draft right now. Trade Lowry and Derozan while their values are at all time highs.

I would rather wait and see on what this team can do in the playoffs then blow it up during the summer and possibly use Lowry and Derozan to move up in the draft.

The only player you could potentially used to move up in the draft out of those two is DeRozan. Lowry is undoubtedly more valuable but he's a FA in the summer so he can not be traded past the deadline.

[Rapsfan07]

Sweet Gay trade Ujiri.... You've really shown that Toronto can be legitimate by trading away our best players on low value

Stop being irrational. Rudy Gay was not going to play well in our system, neither was DJ. Rudy would of continued playing like he was because Casey is incompetent and Rudy is not fit to be a #1 option. With the Kings hes the #3 option which is why hes playing so well, and again this is just a hot streak. He will cool down, its called the law of averages. He will go back to about 45-46% which is good but not 52% like he is right now.

Masai got the best value for Rudy at the time the trade took place. The players we got back in the trade were also playing horribly for the Kings. The King fans wanted Salmons gone much like we wanted Rudy gone. Its about fitting in the right system. Thats what the NBA is all about. Paying Rudy 19 million next year was going to ruin any flexibility this team could have in the future.

I agree.

Gay has been playing extremely well since the trade but I can't blame Masai for pulling the trigger on that at all. The fact that he could even move Gay and get back the pieces he did was pretty amazing. They just happened to work better in this system than they were over there and that is not Masai's fault at all.

My issue with Masai is took way too long to pull the trigger. As hectic as it sounds, I would have put a package of Gay and Lowry on the market and see what that nets me as soon as he got the job. It sounds irrational but Gay's value was higher before the season began than afterwards. There were teams in the market looking for a SF and Lowry is a productive player on a cheap contract. I was hoping that the day Charlotte signed Al Jefferson, he would have sent Gay and Lowry packing for the expiring contracts of Gordon and Sessions, MKG and the Detroit pick. Charlotte would be a very good team and yes we'd suck but we'd have enough ammo to do a good rebuild in a short amount of time.

Anyways, it's really his drag your feet approach that has turned this season into a waste. At best, this team is a second round sweep and at worst, we could miss the playoffs altogether - especially if BKN and NY start playing to their capabilities. We have no star and are left with a crappy draft pick because Ujiri did not want to commit to one side or the other. This team is now at a standstill and could be losing it's best player in the offseason. Dude hasn't even tried to negotiate an extension with Lowry either (well, to our knowledge anyways).

What a total waste of season.

[Scarface844]

Sweet Gay trade Ujiri.... You've really shown that Toronto can be legitimate by trading away our best players on low value

Stop being irrational. Rudy Gay was not going to play well in our system, neither was DJ. Rudy would of continued playing like he was because Casey is incompetent and Rudy is not fit to be a #1 option. With the Kings hes the #3 option which is why hes playing so well, and again this is just a hot streak. He will cool down, its called the law of averages. He will go back to about 45-46% which is good but not 52% like he is right now.

Masai got the best value for Rudy at the time the trade took place. The players we got back in the trade were also playing horribly for the Kings. The King fans wanted Salmons gone much like we wanted Rudy gone. Its about fitting in the right system. Thats what the NBA is all about. Paying Rudy 19 million next year was going to ruin any flexibility this team could have in the future.

I agree.

Gay has been playing extremely well since the trade but I can't blame Masai for pulling the trigger on that at all. The fact that he could even move Gay and get back the pieces he did was pretty amazing. They just happened to work better in this system than they were over there and that is not Masai's fault at all.

My issue with Masai is took way too long to pull the trigger. As hectic as it sounds, I would have put a package of Gay and Lowry on the market and see what that nets me as soon as he got the job. It sounds irrational but Gay's value was higher before the season began than afterwards. There were teams in the market looking for a SF and Lowry is a productive player on a cheap contract. I was hoping that the day Charlotte signed Al Jefferson, he would have sent Gay and Lowry packing for the expiring contracts of Gordon and Sessions, MKG and the Detroit pick. Charlotte would be a very good team and yes we'd suck but we'd have enough ammo to do a good rebuild in a short amount of time.

Anyways, it's really his drag your feet approach that has turned this season into a waste. At best, this team is a second round sweep and at worst, we could miss the playoffs altogether - especially if BKN and NY start playing to their capabilities. We have no star and are left with a crappy draft pick because Ujiri did not want to commit to one side or the other. This team is now at a standstill and could be losing it's best player in the offseason. Dude hasn't even tried to negotiate an extension with Lowry either (well, to our knowledge anyways).

What a total waste of season.

Na man your looking at it wrong. This is why I think were a lot like the Denver situation right now. When Masai became GM over there, Melo needed to be traded. Everyone including the fans wanted Melo gone asap so they could begin rebuilding. Masai looked around and didn't find any deal that interested him so he chose to wait, which went against popular opinion.

The trade deadline came and no one thought Masai could trade Melo because he was practically a rental, who had already said he was going to NY in the summer. Masai shocked the world and traded Melo and got back a great return for him. This sounds a lot like Masai coming to Toronto not trading Rudy Gay immediately but rather waiting it out for the right return. My point is this is what Masai does.

He knows what hes doing. If he hasn't pulled the trigger, its for good reason. I was over on the Bucks board and they have a thread over there about Toronto Vs Milwaukee asking which team is in better position. Several people responded by saying that Toronto is in good hands with Masai Ujiri.

Hes built a reputation for a good reason. Lowry and DeMar are about to make the all star game which will make there value skyrocket. Lowry is on the MVP rankings. All this is worth sacrificing a top pick because it can get us multiple assets which will include picks, be patient.

[Rapsfan07]

Stop being irrational. Rudy Gay was not going to play well in our system, neither was DJ. Rudy would of continued playing like he was because Casey is incompetent and Rudy is not fit to be a #1 option. With the Kings hes the #3 option which is why hes playing so well, and again this is just a hot streak. He will cool down, its called the law of averages. He will go back to about 45-46% which is good but not 52% like he is right now.

Masai got the best value for Rudy at the time the trade took place. The players we got back in the trade were also playing horribly for the Kings. The King fans wanted Salmons gone much like we wanted Rudy gone. Its about fitting in the right system. Thats what the NBA is all about. Paying Rudy 19 million next year was going to ruin any flexibility this team could have in the future.

I agree.

Gay has been playing extremely well since the trade but I can't blame Masai for pulling the trigger on that at all. The fact that he could even move Gay and get back the pieces he did was pretty amazing. They just happened to work better in this system than they were over there and that is not Masai's fault at all.

My issue with Masai is took way too long to pull the trigger. As hectic as it sounds, I would have put a package of Gay and Lowry on the market and see what that nets me as soon as he got the job. It sounds irrational but Gay's value was higher before the season began than afterwards. There were teams in the market looking for a SF and Lowry is a productive player on a cheap contract. I was hoping that the day Charlotte signed Al Jefferson, he would have sent Gay and Lowry packing for the expiring contracts of Gordon and Sessions, MKG and the Detroit pick. Charlotte would be a very good team and yes we'd suck but we'd have enough ammo to do a good rebuild in a short amount of time.

Anyways, it's really his drag your feet approach that has turned this season into a waste. At best, this team is a second round sweep and at worst, we could miss the playoffs altogether - especially if BKN and NY start playing to their capabilities. We have no star and are left with a crappy draft pick because Ujiri did not want to commit to one side or the other. This team is now at a standstill and could be losing it's best player in the offseason. Dude hasn't even tried to negotiate an extension with Lowry either (well, to our knowledge anyways).

What a total waste of season.

Na man your looking at it wrong. This is why I think were a lot like the Denver situation right now. When Masai became GM over there, Melo needed to be traded. Everyone including the fans wanted Melo gone asap so they could begin rebuilding. Masai looked around and didn't find any deal that interested him so he chose to wait, which went against popular opinion.

The trade deadline came and no one thought Masai could trade Melo because he was practically a rental, who had already said he was going to NY in the summer. Masai shocked the world and traded Melo and got back a great return for him. This sounds a lot like Masai coming to Toronto not trading Rudy Gay immediately but rather waiting it out for the right return. My point is this is what Masai does.

He knows what hes doing. If he hasn't pulled the trigger, its for good reason. I was over on the Bucks board and they have a thread over there about Toronto Vs Milwaukee asking which team is in better position. Several people responded by saying that Toronto is in good hands with Masai Ujiri.

Hes built a reputation for a good reason. Lowry and DeMar are about to make the all star game which will make there value skyrocket. Lowry is on the MVP rankings. All this is worth sacrificing a top pick because it can get us multiple assets which will include picks, be patient.

I understand but this is Carmelo Anthony we're talking about here. He's a bonafide star. Gay and Melo aren't even really in the same conversation. Teams don't usually take the risk on players on expiring contracts but in that particular situation a) Masai was trading a star that was going to leave anyways b) he traded him to the team he was going to go to anyways. Call me an unbeliever if you'd like but I think the haul Masai got for Melo was much more a product of the Knicks stupidity than it was Masai's ability to haggle. Remember that at that time, he had more than convinced the league that the Nets were the highest bidder and the closest to landing Melo and then out of nowhere the Knicks pony up and Masai pulls the trigger. Obviously Masai is smart and got what he wanted but at the same time, the Knicks could have simply waited for the offseason and signed him outright. Then what would Denver be right now?

Denver got a king's ransom for Melo. Now over here in Raptorland, he was trading what was widely viewed as two terrible contracts. So right then and there you know the returns will be different. With NY, he's dealing from a point of strength, here its from a point of weakness.

You are right about one thing though - DeRozan or Lowry look poised to be an all-star this year and either would be great. However, Lowry is a free agent that is not a star and plays a saturated position. Can Masai still get a haul for him? it's plausible I guess, but is it likely? No, its not.

So I'll have to disagree. I like that Lowry and DeRozan have a shot at the all star game but not at the expense of a potential star (our draft pick).

[BackseatBoss]

We're right where we wanted to be, no mans land!

[hankscorpioLA]

Disapproving votes have gone from 14% to 38% in three weeks.

That's an increase of 270%.

During those three weeks, the Raptors went 5-5.

The best explanation I can provide is this:

After the Gay trade, all the pro-tankers jumped on the Masai bandwagon. When the team played well after the trade, the pro-tankers jumped off, but the majority of fans saw the developments as positive. The team was playing great ball - and winning "the right way" - with defense, ball movement, and hard work.

All that was expected.

What is unexpected is how easily some people have turned off Masai after one bad week...especially considering the largest drop is in "strongly approve".

I guess a lot of that approval wasn't as strong as they thought...

[nodeal]

masais wait and see worst case scenario is playing out. The worst case scenario also happened to be the most likely scenario.

We play decent basketball, so masai decides not to blow it up. As soon as its too late to blow it up the team struggles and we end up finishing 7th-10th, miss the playoffs or get destroyed in the playoffs. Leaving us with nothing but winning culture, the same winning culture milwaukee earned last yr.

[ReturnofMVP3]

I won't approve him because I thought it should have been tank or nothing but I won't disapprove because you guys have been playing decent ball, but this team won't win you a ring.

[shimmy]

(I haven't read the whole thread, maybe three pages.)

I'd love to hear what everyone EXPECTED Masai to do when he came to Toronto. People bitching about how we don't have a star, we don't have a top five draft pick, we're in no man's land, etc etc. There's no way we were going to be in the bottom five of the league this year. Some of the teams are just too bad. In what world do you trade away ALL of your players to tank? We'd have had to have dumped Demar, Amir, Gay, Bargnani AND Lowry to be that bad. For what? Who's giving up a "star" OR a top pick for these guys? Hell, Jonas might not even get you a top pick this year. And we don't have a star?? Masai is expected to swindle a team that badly, and it's not even the trade deadline yet?

Y'all expect waaaayyyy too much in such a short time, especially considering our situation. Masai already moved two of the most unmovable players/contracts for what everyone on this board and in the media considered very good returns at the time. To say he doesn't have a plan is just absurd. I have no idea what that plan is, to be fair. But to me, this looks a hell of a lot like what Morey did down in Houston.

[TheAlchemist]

(I haven't read the whole thread, maybe three pages.)

I'd love to hear what everyone EXPECTED Masai to do when he came to Toronto. People bitching about how we don't have a star, we don't have a top five draft pick, we're in no man's land, etc etc. There's no way we were going to be in the bottom five of the league this year. Some of the teams are just too bad. In what world do you trade away ALL of your players to tank? We'd have had to have dumped Demar, Amir, Gay, Bargnani AND Lowry to be that bad. For what? Who's giving up a "star" OR a top pick for these guys? Hell, Jonas might not even get you a top pick this year. And we don't have a star?? Masai is expected to swindle a team that badly, and it's not even the trade deadline yet?

Y'all expect waaaayyyy too much in such a short time, especially considering our situation. Masai already moved two of the most unmovable players/contracts for what everyone on this board and in the media considered very good returns at the time. To say he doesn't have a plan is just absurd. I have no idea what that plan is, to be fair. But to me, this looks a hell of a lot like what Morey did down in Houston.

What we all expected was that he'd clean house. Trading away Bargnani was a start but stalling to "see" and "build on the fly" was NEVER expected by anybody.

What a lot of people wanted was Gay, Lowry, and possibly one of Amir or Demar to be traded away. To try and build with the mediocre talent that has over achieved in this weak trash of a conference is absurd. Shows no sign of a plan.

What people thought, wanted, and waited for, was for Masai to clean house and rebuild properly. He just basically kept Casey, didn't address the elephant in the room with our coaching, and got persuaded by a strong run based off of chemistry.

Obviously this team and coach will try to over achieve as much as possible. The coach is in the final year of his contract and people are demanding the team to tank for a local prospective superstar. Players have ego's and understand the Toronto sports reality.

They understand the team has a non caring fan base (towards the current roster), and fans want a superstar. So obviously the players are peeved and tried to over achieve.

Regardless our talent level remains mediocre. We don't have a game changing superstar and Demar Derozan is not that guy. Kyle Lowry is a great point guard but we need a star or a couple of borderline stars to make this team good.

[andog_22]

hate to bump the thread, but wouldn't mind seeing the polls after trade deadline