Breaking: Rogers Aquires Bell Stake In MLSE

[DelAbbot]

Masai has entered zero seasons intending to tank, missed the playoffs 3 out of the last 4 seasons, and will likely miss the playoffs both of the next two seasons. No comparison between what he’s done recently and teams that are built to fail from the first game of the season like OKC was, like the Spurs have been recently too. Even now he’s still hedging his bets by keeping veterans and the recent trades that brought in more veterans.

Why does Masai always start a season looking to win even with a roster as bad as this? Is there moral / karma points to be scored?

Trade Poeltl and let the chips fall where they may, like he did with Aron Baynes

[Johnny Bball]

Rogers is going to destroy this franchise.

Tanenbaum just got screwed by Bell.

This is how great Rogers is managed.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RCI-B.TO/

In a country where the highest cell and cable rates in the world are just handed to them, they still can't find a way to be successful.

[Reeko]

Rogers is going to destroy this franchise.

Tanenbaum just got screwed by Bell.

Tanenbaum's likely getting bought out in '26 either way.

[Raps in 4]

I don't follow other sports enough to have a strong opinion on Rogers acquiring Bell's stake in MLSE. I mean, I obviously didn't like that Ed Rogers supposedly didn't want to give Ujiri a new contract after he'd steer us to a championship at the time. But Ujiri has steered us into about the worst place a team could be since then.. so WTF do I know? Neither bad enough to realistically go after top pick nor good enough to go after a playoff spot. We are outside looking in both directions and are in serious need of a shakeup. If this ownership change is what brings it about sooner, then so be it.

Make no mistake, Ed didn't want Masai gone because he somehow predicted that the team would be bad in five years. He wanted him gone because he doesn't like confident, capable executives working under him. And, given Ed's close ties with Trump, I wouldn't be surprised if Masai being Black played a part in his decision as well.

[Johnny Bball]

Rogers is going to destroy this franchise.

Tanenbaum just got screwed by Bell.

Tanenbaum's likely getting bought out in '26 either way.

And now he only has one potential buyer instead of two fighting for his shares and control.

[Randle McMurphy]

Blame Trudeau

Sometimes they say the quiet part out loud

Quiet? There was nothing quiet about a ridiculous ban on the Blue Jays playing baseball in Canada for the first half of the 2021 season and losing their home advantage in a season where they missed the playoffs by a game. It was based on no science whatsoever at the time, was done purely for optics and it gets even more ludicrous in retrospect. I had no problem saying any of this “out loud” here as it was going on.

If Montoyo gets partial blame for a great Jays team missing the playoffs by the narrowest of margins (and he does in my mind), then certainly the government that kept them out of the country and playing in Florida/Buffalo for no good reason gets a share too.

[Randle McMurphy]

Fantastic news for the Raptors who have been in a mediocre cycle for almost a half decade now.

Ed has put a ton of money into the Blue Jays in recent years which helped them make the playoffs in 3 of the last 5 years (and would have been 5 out of 5 with a better manager/FO).

There’s also no way he will continue paying Masai Ujiri that much to make mistake after mistake in basketball operations given their history. We may finally get some real much needed change in the front office again.

This cannot NOT be sarcasm.

No, just someone who isn’t willing to give Masai a free pass of terrible management for life because he traded for 1 year of Kawhi Leonard. Having an owner who is not going to just hand him blank cheque after blank cheque for his mistakes is massive for this franchise.

[Raps in 4]

Fantastic news for the Raptors who have been in a mediocre cycle for almost a half decade now.

Ed has put a ton of money into the Blue Jays in recent years which helped them make the playoffs in 3 of the last 5 years (and would have been 5 out of 5 with a better manager/FO).

There’s also no way he will continue paying Masai Ujiri that much to make mistake after mistake in basketball operations given their history. We may finally get some real much needed change in the front office again.

This cannot NOT be sarcasm.

No, just someone who isn’t willing to give Masai a free pass of terrible management for life because he traded for 1 year of Kawhi Leonard. Having an owner who is not going to just hand him blank cheque after blank cheque for his mistakes is massive for this franchise.

Masai managed treadmill teams in both Denver and Toronto for many years before that title. If you're going to praise Shapiro and Atkins for building a treadmill team that lasted a whopping two seasons (and missing the playoffs the one year they actually had a contending roster), sandwiched between five years of awful baseball, I don't see why you don't do the same for Masai.

I get being critical of Masai (he's **** the bed since 2020), but claiming that Shapiro and Atkins somehow did better than him during their tenure in Toronto is comical. Shatkins **** the bed from 2017-2020, then **** the bed in 2021 despite actually building a strong team with a one year window due to Semien's contract situation, then treadmilled for two seasons, and have now gone back to **** the bed. This is the same Mark Shapiro who spent 15 years in the mediocre AL Central, accomplishing nothing with Cleveland (he made the playoffs just three times, once with an inherited team).

In 24 years as an MLB executive, Shapiro's teams made the playoffs 6 times, winning zero titles. I'm also being extremely generous counting 2020 as a "playoff" berth given it was 60 game season and the Jays got in with a negative run differential.

In 15 years as an NBA executive, Masai's teams made the playoffs 10 times, winning one title.

[basketballto]

Masai was always playing 3d chess. The reason for the pivot this year to 23 year old players instead of draft picks was because his contract will need to be renewed in 2 to 3 years when this team is fill with 26 years old players hitting their peak. If this years or next year's draft goes his way we will begin a playoff run and look promising. Just in time for a new contract.

[Randle McMurphy]

This cannot NOT be sarcasm.

No, just someone who isn’t willing to give Masai a free pass of terrible management for life because he traded for 1 year of Kawhi Leonard. Having an owner who is not going to just hand him blank cheque after blank cheque for his mistakes is massive for this franchise.

Masai managed treadmill teams in both Denver and Toronto for many years before that title. If you're going to praise Shapiro and Atkins for building a treadmill team that lasted a whopping two seasons (and missing the playoffs the one year they actually had a contending roster), sandwiched between five years of awful baseball, I don't see why you don't do the same for Masai.

I get being critical of Masai (he's **** the bed since 2020), but claiming that Shapiro and Atkins somehow did better than him during their tenure in Toronto is comical. Shatkins **** the bed from 2017-2020, then **** the bed in 2021 despite actually building a strong team with a one year window due to Semien's contract situation, then treadmilled for two seasons, and have now gone back to **** the bed. This is the same Mark Shapiro who spent 15 years in the mediocre AL Central, accomplishing nothing with Cleveland (he made the playoffs just three times, once with an inherited team).

Is this post a test on how many imaginary strawman arguments you could fit into a couple paragraphs?

I've wanted both Shapiro and Atkins gone for well over a year now. Every year the Jays delay now in changing their FO and engaging in a rebuild further sets them back and pushes them towards the place that the directionless/rudderless Raptors are now stuck in.

And I've never once said Shapiro/Atkins "did better" than Masai during their tenures. Yes, they built a top 5 team in baseball for 3 years (and no, that isn't "treadmilling", the Raptors/Masai actively trying to finish 8th-9th for 3 years in the East is "treadmilling"), but it goes without saying that Masai's overall tenure was more successful; one of his teams won a championship. But that was over 5 years ago and he's followed that success up with colossal mismanagement in all aspects of the job and no plan whatsoever on how to get the team back to contention. The guy has even admitted the numerous mistakes he's made on multiple occasions now. If he was anybody else, he would have been fired years ago. If he was anybody else, the fans would have been demanding for him to be gone long before now.

The fact that we have an owner who is actually going to be willing to start anew with somebody else who hasn't established themselves to be objectively terrible at this over the last 5 years is incredible for this franchise.

[Randle McMurphy]

Masai was always playing 3d chess. The reason for the pivot this year to 23 year old players instead of draft picks was because his contract will need to be renewed in 2 to 3 years when this team is fill with 26 years old players hitting their peak. If this years or next year's draft goes his way we will begin a playoff run and look promising. Just in time for a new contract.

Ed Rogers isn't giving Masai a new contract as one of the highest paid executives in sports in the next two years, nor are the Raptors turning into a contender in the next two years with this roster. The best chance they've got is to tank this upcoming year and they will probably be too average to even do that successfully too.

[Raps in 4]

No, just someone who isn’t willing to give Masai a free pass of terrible management for life because he traded for 1 year of Kawhi Leonard. Having an owner who is not going to just hand him blank cheque after blank cheque for his mistakes is massive for this franchise.

Masai managed treadmill teams in both Denver and Toronto for many years before that title. If you're going to praise Shapiro and Atkins for building a treadmill team that lasted a whopping two seasons (and missing the playoffs the one year they actually had a contending roster), sandwiched between five years of awful baseball, I don't see why you don't do the same for Masai.

I get being critical of Masai (he's **** the bed since 2020), but claiming that Shapiro and Atkins somehow did better than him during their tenure in Toronto is comical. Shatkins **** the bed from 2017-2020, then **** the bed in 2021 despite actually building a strong team with a one year window due to Semien's contract situation, then treadmilled for two seasons, and have now gone back to **** the bed. This is the same Mark Shapiro who spent 15 years in the mediocre AL Central, accomplishing nothing with Cleveland (he made the playoffs just three times, once with an inherited team).

Is this post a test on how many imaginary strawman arguments you could fit into a couple paragraphs?

I've wanted both Shapiro and Atkins gone for well over a year now. Every year the Jays delay now in changing their FO and engaging in a rebuild further sets them back and pushes them towards the place that the directionless/rudderless Raptors are now stuck in.

And I've never once said Shapiro/Atkins "did better" than Masai during their tenures. Yes, they built a top 5 team in baseball for 3 years (and no, that isn't "treadmilling", the Raptors/Masai actively trying to finish 8th-9th for 3 years in the East is "treadmilling"), but it goes without saying that Masai's overall tenure was more successful; one of his teams won a championship. But that was over 5 years ago and he's followed that success up with colossal mismanagement in all aspects of the job and no plan whatsoever on how to get the team back to contention. The guy has even admitted the numerous mistakes he's made on multiple occasions now. If he was anybody else, he would have been fired years ago. If he was anybody else, the fans would have been demanding for him to be gone long before now.

The fact that we have an owner who is actually going to be willing to start anew with somebody else who hasn't established themselves to be objectively terrible at this over the last 5 years is incredible for this franchise.

The Jays were not a top-5 team for 3 years.

Their ranking each season according to pyth record:

2021: 5th
2022: 7th
2023: 13th

In 2021 they missed the playoffs. In 2022 and 2023 they got in as the WC and then got swept both years, the definition of a treadmill team.

The Jays are a poster child for how to mismanage a sports franchise for a decade.

There is literally no way to spin Rogers taking over the Raptors as a positive for the team.

[Randle McMurphy]

Masai managed treadmill teams in both Denver and Toronto for many years before that title. If you're going to praise Shapiro and Atkins for building a treadmill team that lasted a whopping two seasons (and missing the playoffs the one year they actually had a contending roster), sandwiched between five years of awful baseball, I don't see why you don't do the same for Masai.

I get being critical of Masai (he's **** the bed since 2020), but claiming that Shapiro and Atkins somehow did better than him during their tenure in Toronto is comical. Shatkins **** the bed from 2017-2020, then **** the bed in 2021 despite actually building a strong team with a one year window due to Semien's contract situation, then treadmilled for two seasons, and have now gone back to **** the bed. This is the same Mark Shapiro who spent 15 years in the mediocre AL Central, accomplishing nothing with Cleveland (he made the playoffs just three times, once with an inherited team).

Is this post a test on how many imaginary strawman arguments you could fit into a couple paragraphs?

I've wanted both Shapiro and Atkins gone for well over a year now. Every year the Jays delay now in changing their FO and engaging in a rebuild further sets them back and pushes them towards the place that the directionless/rudderless Raptors are now stuck in.

And I've never once said Shapiro/Atkins "did better" than Masai during their tenures. Yes, they built a top 5 team in baseball for 3 years (and no, that isn't "treadmilling", the Raptors/Masai actively trying to finish 8th-9th for 3 years in the East is "treadmilling"), but it goes without saying that Masai's overall tenure was more successful; one of his teams won a championship. But that was over 5 years ago and he's followed that success up with colossal mismanagement in all aspects of the job and no plan whatsoever on how to get the team back to contention. The guy has even admitted the numerous mistakes he's made on multiple occasions now. If he was anybody else, he would have been fired years ago. If he was anybody else, the fans would have been demanding for him to be gone long before now.

The fact that we have an owner who is actually going to be willing to start anew with somebody else who hasn't established themselves to be objectively terrible at this over the last 5 years is incredible for this franchise.

The Jays were not a top-5 team for 3 years.

Their ranking each season according to pyth record:

2021: 5th
2022: 7th
2023: 13th

In 2021 they missed the playoffs. In 2022 and 2023 they got in as the WC and then got swept both years, the definition of a treadmill team.

The Jays are a poster child in how to mismanage a sports franchise for a decade.

Accounting for the strength of their division and the unbalanced schedule, they were easily a top 5 team in 2021-2022. Less so in 2023 but they still made the playoffs out of the toughest division in baseball that season. Definitely top 10 that year.

And no, making the playoffs in MLB (a stage where any team can win/make a WS) is not the definition of a treadmill team. What the Raptors were for the last 3 seasons where they actively tried to be the 16th best team in the league certainly constitutes that.

What any of this Shapiro/Atkins/Jays stuff has to do with Masai Ujiri completely failing at his job over the last five years, though, I’m not sure. It’s a nice diversion tactic by you, I suppose, but the sooner they get rid of him the better and all signs point to Ed Rogers as being the owner to do it.

[Morse Code]

Probably in the minority but change is welcomed from me. Even if it's Masai. I just really don't want Bobby running this team.

[DreamTeam09]

How do I block users, cuz that guy seems a little unhinged and irrational with his ramblings?

[Raps in 4]

Is this post a test on how many imaginary strawman arguments you could fit into a couple paragraphs?

I've wanted both Shapiro and Atkins gone for well over a year now. Every year the Jays delay now in changing their FO and engaging in a rebuild further sets them back and pushes them towards the place that the directionless/rudderless Raptors are now stuck in.

And I've never once said Shapiro/Atkins "did better" than Masai during their tenures. Yes, they built a top 5 team in baseball for 3 years (and no, that isn't "treadmilling", the Raptors/Masai actively trying to finish 8th-9th for 3 years in the East is "treadmilling"), but it goes without saying that Masai's overall tenure was more successful; one of his teams won a championship. But that was over 5 years ago and he's followed that success up with colossal mismanagement in all aspects of the job and no plan whatsoever on how to get the team back to contention. The guy has even admitted the numerous mistakes he's made on multiple occasions now. If he was anybody else, he would have been fired years ago. If he was anybody else, the fans would have been demanding for him to be gone long before now.

The fact that we have an owner who is actually going to be willing to start anew with somebody else who hasn't established themselves to be objectively terrible at this over the last 5 years is incredible for this franchise.

The Jays were not a top-5 team for 3 years.

Their ranking each season according to pyth record:

2021: 5th
2022: 7th
2023: 13th

In 2021 they missed the playoffs. In 2022 and 2023 they got in as the WC and then got swept both years, the definition of a treadmill team.

The Jays are a poster child in how to mismanage a sports franchise for a decade.

Accounting for the strength of their division and the unbalanced schedule, they were easily a top 5 team in 2021-2022. Less so in 2023 but they still made the playoffs out of the toughest division in baseball that season. Definitely top 10 that year.

And no, making the playoffs in MLB (a stage where any team can win/make a WS) is not the definition of a treadmill team. What the Raptors were for the last 3 seasons where they actively tried to be the 16th best team in the league certainly constitutes that.

What any of this Shapiro/Atkins/Jays stuff has to do with Masai Ujiri completely failing at his job over the last five years, though, I’m not sure. It’s a nice diversion tactic by you, I suppose, but the sooner they get rid of him the better and all signs point to Ed Rogers as being the owner to do it.

You said Rogers taking over the Raptors is a good thing.

I'm showing you why it isn't. Shapiro was Ed's pick to run the Blue Jays. The hire led to a decade of mediocrity.

I have no issues with Masai being replaced. I have every issue with Ed being the one selecting his replacement.

[OakleyDokely]

Fantastic news for the Raptors who have been in a mediocre cycle for almost a half decade now.

Ed has put a ton of money into the Blue Jays in recent years which helped them make the playoffs in 3 of the last 5 years (and would have been 5 out of 5 with a better manager/FO).

There’s also no way he will continue paying Masai Ujiri that much to make mistake after mistake in basketball operations given their history. We may finally get some real much needed change in the front office again.

This cannot NOT be sarcasm.

Imagine if the Raps went 8 straight seasons without a playoff win like the Jays have...

If the Raps last playoff win was in 2016, this board wouldn't be praising ownership and management.

[OakleyDokely]

Ed Rogers having full control over Toronto sports. What could go wrong.

I dunno. Maybe more Thad trade, Poeltl trade, players betting on themselves, assets expiring, getting crap back for your all nba player. Paying for Bruce Brown. Dragic doesn't want to play for us. Wasted half a year giving Nwora minutes instead the roster spot could be saved for Koloko. Signing Kelly to an above market value contract. Ochai not proving his worth... Etc.
What COULD go wrong?

Rogers wanted to keep the current GM who shares many of the same philosophies as the President who hired him.

Rogers didn't want to change the direction of the team, he was just being cheap.

[TGM]

People a bit quick jumping to conclusions. Agree that rogers is into long resume white corporate dudes. However, they were willing to chase for Otani. So at least it shows they are willing to spend. My guess is we may not see as many changes as people expect.

[ATLTimekeeper]

In this thread Rogers is already a cheapskate and a guy who spends foolishly. That probably means not enough is known. Reporters are complaining about lack of access means they don't know, either.