The Toronto Raptors are stuck in the middle of nowhere and fans are not happy. So how is Masai Ujiri planning on fixing it?
When it comes to the president of the franchise, nobody ever really knows what he is doing other than he himself, but based on his assessment of the team we can make some very good inferences as to what is on his mind.
Over the past few years, the Raptors have been on a decline but at least the fanbase was happy with what the overall direction seemed to be but all of that really went away this season. Fans want the team to take a step back and focus on developing for the future but an extremely costly mistake by Masai Ujiri will likely push the team somewhere else, and fans are not going to like this harsh truth.
Masai Ujiri made a mistake, but his way of fixing it, probably would not be yours.
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0:00 – Overview
0:42 – Masai Ujiri’s resume
1:53 – No direction
3:26 – How we got here
4:21 – The Decision
6:06 – My realistic plan of change
9:39 – What is really going to happen (probably)
13:24 – What’s Next?
14:06 – Outro
This is Amateur Hour Sports. On this channel, Jacob Gramegna analyzes and breaks down the latest on the Toronto Raptors NBA team from trade rumors to post-game reactions, analysis, and much more. By subscribing to this channel you will be there first to watch and enjoy 3-4 videos a week all focused on this team and on game days Jacob goes live on the channel for a watch party where he interacts with chat, answers your questions, and analyses the game as it happens with play by play and commentary. Join the Amateur Hour Army today by subscribing and consider becoming a member to give extra support to the channel and help create better content more often.
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28 Comments
Honestly, there's no point of keeping FVV if the front office decides to trade Siakam, at least not for $30 million/year.
I disagree, we were the team that had the most assets coming into the season. The possibility of being a top candidate to land KD was proof. Masai and Bobby put us in a perfect position. All this team had to do was perform decently and we could’ve traded key pieces for a star at deadline. Us sucking and having chemistry issues wasn’t in the plan
Do you think the trade deadline moves (or lack there of) were a mistake by Masai Ujiri's front office?
The most realistic path is Fred and Jak re-sign. We host Indiana or Orlando in the play-in tournament.
Bro he said himself that he made mistakes. And that changes are coming. There’s no way this same team is coming back. Masai loves pascal though. Like a son. That’s my worry. I rather trade pascal than OG. Og works better around scottie. Sign and trade fred. Let Gary walk. Trade pascal
LFG RAPTORS.. AND LFG YAKOBSKI!!
Please don’t pay Fred
It would be so stupid to be a tax team and be a middle of the road team. That makes no sense. You can’t bring back the “same team” and be under the cap. So no. That’s not happening. Fred gone. Pascal gone. Remember this
Yeah, that post-Kawhi season performed as well as the 76ers ever have with Embiid on their roster…don't know if that's a flex or not lol but point is that people slept on that Raptors team hard.
For me personally, I agree with focusing on development, and not praying for a finals appearance next year which isn't a realistic outcome…unless Scottie REALLY blossoms next season. I'd like to see this team commit to focusing on having Scottie be their featured player and have the offence this upcoming season really run through him. Preferably, I'd like to keep Siakam over FVV if I had to choose, but would also not pass up the opportunity for that 3rd pick if the trade is reasonable with Portland. For FVV…I mean, if the FO or coaching staff can promise to COMMIT to having FVV play more off ball and let Scottie take the reigns, then I don't mind seeing him back. It isn't seeming like Freddy is coming back though haha we'll see!
So everyone was screaming for an actual centre for years, we get one at trade deadline now it’s a costly mistake??? Oh brother
Very rarely made mistakes??? Really, Len(mistake,) Baynes (mistake) trading Powell for GTJ (Big massive mistake), Telling Ibaka he was still going to sit behind a finished Gasol, (mistake), allowing FVV and Siakam pretend to be Franchise Players who tanked the team, no playoffs, first round exit, Play in Debacle, (Bad Team Mistake). And the most Egregious mistake, that destroyed the program to what it is now. Actually believing for certain he was going to get Giannis, so he dumped good players all over the place, to be made to look like a Chump when Giannis said No Way Jose, I don't care what you did for my family. (Should of been a career ending Mistake.) There are a plethora more, but do you need them all?
What is sad that Fanboys still live in denial of the terrible mistakes he has made, and pretend none of it happened.
If they keep Fred I will stop watching the Raptors. But if they sign him for $15 m or less and cut his playing time down to 20 minutes a game I might reconsider. Maybe.
It is a flawed perspective to judge the Poeltl trade. Whether we want to win now or retool, we absolutely need a center on this team. Poeltl was probable the best center we could get without giving up to much. The biggest mistake was not correcting the lack of rotation player development from Nick Nurse. This is what has hurt this team the most in the last couple seasons. Toronto absolutely depends on player development for success. Masai knows this and made it clear in the press conference.
If masai double down watch Roger JR try get masai fired. And barnes development will stagnate.
Blow it up… OG and Scottie are the only ones that matter, if you don't fit the timeline you're DONE
Trade siakam
If we lose in the play in again next year and have Fred + siakam on the roster i honestly feel like Masai should be fired. Other than drafting Barnes he has made very poor roster construction choices since the title in 2019 and I don’t see why he wouldnt build a roster to maximize Scottie Barnes after he won ROY
I think we are a middle of the pack team. Blow it up, trade Pascal and Fred for younger up and comers. Have Scotty, OG and Gary with the up and comers. Might be a terrible year but we will get another top draft choice. We will compete the following year actually making the playoffs. Maybe get Jalen Green and the fourth pick for Pascal and do a sign and trade with Charlotte, Houston or Pheonix for Fred.
Great video – but isn't it about time we stopped treating Masai with kid-gloves? It is embarrassing at this point.
I think its time for rebuild.maybe keep fred so we have a real nba pg to help the youg player
Hindsight is always 20/20. Masai made a statement that he's learned what the Raptors players are "worth" after the trade talks before the deadline. We would never know if Masai was trying to trade Fred, OG and/or Siakam or not. The fact is there wasn't a good deal to be made. Plus, there was still a sense that the Raptor's was lacking a true centre. So Masai decided to upgrade the 5 for the remaining of the season. The regular season record did improve significantly, but the performance under the stretch continued to suffer. The problem is that Fred and Siakam can't lead this team beyond the current record. After 3 years, Nurse developed ZERO bench because he was under immense pressure to win as many games as possible at the expense of playing starters heavy minutes. Now that Nurse is gone, what this time needs is a coach who can develop players and lead them into the right direction. This team needs: 1) Trade or let Fred go; 2) Trade Siakam for picks and/or young talents; 3) Pick a coach who can utilize the roster (especially development of Barnes). Perhaps Koloko, Banton and even Precious would have a better year under another coach?
Coach Nurse was not willing/able to use players 6-9
I like your proposed to trade Siakam for the pick and develop the youngs. No FVV in the team will be ideal.
When we make our trades no doubt one of the assets in return will be at least one 2024 1st round pick plus future 1st round picks.
Amazing raps people think ujiri is the greatest gm ever live. Lol. This man made a trade for kl which any gm would have done. It got rap a ring and he was made a goat. But since then he has shown he is not good at his job.
At this level. You are being an alarmist.
That's just self pity, Stop it
This is click bait.
Masai has built a bad roster with no centers and no shooting. The whole team is just a bunch of Forwards and Guards that can't shoot. No depth what so ever. I don't think firing Nurse is going to fix anything.
Perfectly said bro!!!