There are two great fallacies that have been floating around the Raptors for three or four months.
First: That they burned the house down to the foundation to start some long and perilous process back to respectability.
Second: This is a multi-year process that’s sure to involve prolonged pain.
If they were really going to tank last December, they would have dealt away assets like OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa for broken-down and aging players on expiring contacts to maximize financial flexibility and roster spots. Instead, they traded for two young players they see as foundational pieces for years to come.
And given where they are, the process to respectability isn’t long at all. Maybe it’s not a championship contender right now, but a core of Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Jakob Poeltl, Kelly Olynyk and Gradey Dick with perhaps Ochai Agbaji and some judicious tweaking should be a top-six team in the East and, at the very worst, a play-in team.
And that’s a step for 2024-25. The Raptors are not looking for another year of mid-20 or low-30 wins and aiming for 2025-26.
If you look at it that way and hear Masai Ujiri talk, it seems like an awful lot of underpromising and overdelivering — a wee bit of playing possum with fans and rivals.
If you listened closely to Ujiri during his end-of-season media autopsy, you could sense he knows where his team is and what it really has.
“I think we’re in a very unique situation because sometimes you start these rebuilds with draft picks and space, and you try to have talent here and there,” he said. “I think the most difficult thing to do when you do things like this is finding the Scottie Barnes of the world, and we’re lucky to have a really good young player like this to build around.”
It’s nice for a team president or general manager to have the cover of “we need patience, this is a long process” but that flies in the face of reality here.
Sure, there are holes — size, shooting, backup point guard (and no one’s talking about Barnes as a point guard much, which is good) — and some surgery is needed on the middle of the roster. But they’re not that far from relevance.
“I’m patient, “Ujiri said, “but I’m not trying to wait like six years, to be honest.”
He shouldn’t have to. And fans shouldn’t let him make it worse than it really is, even if that “underpromise, overdeliver” thing looks nice on a front office’s collective resumé.
Speaking the truth
It was nice to hear Ujiri lie waste to the prevailing theory that the coming draft is weak and filled with suspects rather than prospects and there’s no reason to even pay attention to it.
It goes to a theory oft-advanced here: There doesn’t have to be a dozen Hall of Famers in the two rounds, just a few really good players, and it’s up to the Raptors to find some.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ujiri said during his 45-minute session this week. “I think players are found everywhere. I can guarantee you there are going to be two or three all-stars that will come out of this draft here. It happens every year, happens all the time.”
He held up 2013 as an example of a “terrible” draft and, yes, the top was weak with Anthony Bennett first and Cody Zeller, Alex Len and Nerlens Noel in the top six.
But it also included Giannis Antetokounmpo at No. 15 and Rudy Gobert at No. 27. So there are going to be gems in this draft. It’s a matter of finding them.
It’s also well-documented that Ujiri tried desperately to get into that draft to take Antetokounmpo, so maybe he knows what he’s talking about.
A sure thing?
No one knows what the Raptors will do with Gary Trent Jr. and Bruce Brown as the off-season approaches and Ujiri wasn’t showing his hand Wednesday. The Raptors will look at the market, crunch the numbers, see what else might be out there and decide in June.
But we all heard this week that if Garrett Temple wants to come back, he’ll be back. Teammates praised him Monday and coach Darko Rajakovic did the same Tuesday.
Ujiri’s take?
“He’s a leader, veteran player, positivity, ready to play, great voice, great demeanour. He checks it all, to be honest.”
He’ll be back. If he wants to be.
Mail call
We’ll keep going with the weekend mail at least through the next few weeks because there are surely some questions rattling around in your minds.
To get involved, all it takes is the usual email to askdoug@thestar.ca by mid-morning Saturday and we’ll get them answered.
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