Masai Ujiri keeping Raptors aligned as locker room changes shape

Say what you want about the Toronto Raptors , but there seems to be a strong sense of alignment throughout the organization. What that means or adds up to in the coming few seasons will be for the future to decide, but we’ve seen the benefits of it before. Such as in the early days of the Kyle Lowry - DeMar DeRozan era, when from ownership to management to coach to the locker room, there was a coordinated effort to pull on the same rope.

It led to some of the most successful seasons in franchise history and laid the foundation for a championship. It’s what was missing in the final years before Nick Nurse moved on and the championship team was dismantled. For whatever reason, getting Fred VanVleet , OG Anunoby , Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes on the same page was a challenge.



It was too much of a challenge for Nurse, who was let go as the most successful coach in franchise history. Figuring out what went wrong and how to fix it was a challenge that Raptors president Masai Ujiri and his staff couldn’t solve. It was a difficult stretch.

But if there is one takeaway from a week of reflections shared by the players, head coach Darko Rajakovic and on Wednesday by Ujiri, it’s that there is a shared goal is back in place and a mutual understanding of how to get there. Ujiri is always one to state his goals up front, and as long as he’s been running the Raptors — 12 years now — he’s never shied from putting the biggest, shiniest one out there. He’s won a championship once and says he’s just as committed to accomplishing it again.

In part, because the Raptors never really got to take their victory lap the following season, with the departure of Kawhi Leonard in free agency, the pandemic interrupting the following season and — on a personal note — that on his way to join the celebration on the floor that night at Oracle Arena, there was a physical encounter with a police officer working security that resulted a lawsuit that dragged through the courts for nearly two years before being dropped with no findings against Ujiri. The experience, or what he didn’t get to experience, still resonates. “The goal is always a championship, and there’s something about our championship that maybe, and I feel like maybe I did not enjoy, and I feel like we just have to win another one, and we will win another one here.

And that's, that's how I feel inside. Every day I wake up, I sleep, I drink, I eat, is to come and try to win. You know, nothing else,” Ujiri said.

“There's nothing else that I think of in terms of sports than trying to win. Maybe it's from not enjoying it, from what happened to me that day. Maybe it's because we're always so, you know, like, focused on everything.

You know, like, honestly, the day we won the championship, the only thing I was thinking about is: Are we going to resign Kawhi (Leonard, who left for the Clippers in free agency)? There's no time to enjoy it. There's nothing. And yeah, I guarantee you I'm going to enjoy it.

And I guarantee you we are going to win here. That’s where my mind is in terms of the day-to-day job.” How close the Raptors are to making that vision come true is an open question.

They finished 34 games behind first-place Cleveland in the Eastern Conference and 14 games behind Detroit for the sixth and final playoff spot. Ujiri feels confident that the developments over the recently completed 30-52 season — from the leadership growth demonstrated by Scottie Barnes, to the surprising depth and quality of their class of rookies, to the promise the trade for Brandon Ingram trade represents — at least has created some momentum forward, though he’s not about to shout it from a top of Scotiabank Arena just yet. “Identifying all of those .

.. young guys with the draft, and trading for Brandon Ingram and then signing him, extending him, I think just in a tiny little way of where we are, this kind of helps us head towards our goal,” he said.

“Which is getting better and adding more players and building this team and growing to be a championship team. A championship is the end goal of all of this, and when that comes, we don’t know, but we have to identify those players and build with those kinds of players.” In the meantime, you can get as prepared for success as possible.

Two seasons after criticizing the remnants of the post-championship teams for being ‘selfish,’ the Raptors have twice set a franchise record for team assists in a season. Ujiri didn’t gush about the team’s improvement defensively in the second half of the season as much as he noted it stood for an encouraging level of buy-in and good habits. He had plenty of positive words about Barnes’ progress in his fourth season but was most emphatic about the 23-year-old’s off-court growth.

“For me, one of the things I really challenged Scottie with, and he challenged himself with this year, was becoming the leader. Because he's not shy about that. We've put this on him, and he's taken it with pride,” said Ujiri.

“...

that has been impressive for me to see him in this mode and hold guys accountable and try to be accountable himself. “You guys have seen him here and the way he's developed as a young man in this league and trying to win. We put him in a tough situation, too, this year with the team and what we're trying to do.

But Scottie was always there. He gave it his all. There are many things he's going to work on.

I had long talks throughout the year and at the end of the season, and I believe he continues to get better with everything. But honestly, I was very, very focused and we were very focused on off the court (and) many of the things that he's going to have to represent in this organization, and I thought he got an A-plus with those things.” That wasn’t the only top mark Ujiri was handing out.

If the Raptors' talent base isn’t exactly where he wants it — “I can guarantee you there are many unique opportunities that are going to come up in July and we have to look at all of them” — he believes the environment is in place for the talent already here to thrive. “A-plus, A-plus,” he said when asked to grade the team’s culture with the post-championship era fully in the rearview. “When you look at these guys and see what they've done .

.. we have that focus, of playing together and playing the right way, and attacking the game.

It's really built our culture." “You see, the culture of the players even off the court. I never want to reference this, but there's great resemblance to the 'Bench Mob' (the nickname for the bench unit featuring then second-year Raptors Jakob Poeltl, VanVleet and Siakam that was so effective in the 59-win 2017-18 season) .

.. I'm not even talking about play,” said Ujiri.

“I'm just talking about the camaraderie they had, that they have together. These guys, they do it for themselves, and I'm proud of them for that.” Ujiri also referred to what he believes will be a seamless ownership transfer with MLSE becoming majority-owned by Rogers Communications (who own Sportsnet), and if he didn’t address his own future with the organization, that he’s working to get his executive team new contract extensions and was speaking about his plans for the team so passionately would have to be encouraging signs.

For now, and absent evidence to the contrary, we’ll take that as alignment. He even brushed aside questions about where the political situation between Canada and the United States, since President Trump was elected, could pose challenges. Without addressing it directly, Ujiri made the point that the NBA and basketball generally are only becoming more internally focused, which could bring opportunities on its own.

“There's something unique about this market that we're going to be in the forefront of what basketball is,” he said. “And also, I've never really been worried about that, but it's just part of our business. We are not going to hide under the table because a player doesn't want to come here or what anybody's perception of this market is.

We are the only team that's outside the United States in the NBA, and I believe it's a unique opportunity, and it's going to be an incredibly unique opportunity in the years to come.” It's been five years since the Raptors won their championship, and the years since have not been without turbulence. There are plenty of potential challenges — seen and unseen — on the horizon.

But Ujiri’s message after his rapid rebuild is that the foundation has settled nicely, the lines are straight..