Raptors’ off-season decisions will reveal Ujiri’s vision: Arthur | Toronto Star
There were signs of discontentment, though. Asked about Jonas Valanciunas, who played just 26.2 minutes per game despite evident improvement, Ujiri said, “We can criticize Jonas all we want, and it’s a big discussion we’re going to have with the coach and staff: how he was used and how he is used. Those guys are hard to find.” Asked about James Johnson, who was added to the roster as a big defender and who was bolted to the bench while the Washington Wizards killed Toronto with Paul Pierce at power forward, Ujiri said, “he does some things well, he does some things not so well, and I think as time goes on Dwane is going to build trust in James, and that takes time too.” And asked about what he wants to see from this team’s style of play — which morphed into a no-defence, stop-and-chuck offence hybrid that was exposed as the season went on — Ujiri said, “I think that’s one of the discussions I’m going to have with Coach Casey . . . see what direction we want to take in terms of playing style, defensively and offensively.”
Really, there were only two firm declarations: He is done swearing before each post-season begins — commissioner Adam Silver, Raptors advisor Wayne Embry and Ujiri’s wife all scolded him for it — and that the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment board has cleared the Raptors to purchase their own D-League team, something that is badly overdue. Ujiri did not commit to the Raptors having their own affiliate for next season, but said he was “hoping and pushing” for it. And that was it.
Ujiri will take his time in deciding Raptors future | TSN
“Patience is one of the things we’ve emphasized since we came here a couple of years ago and took over,” Ujiri said. “We’ve had to be patient with a couple expiring contracts that we had to wait on. Now we’re excited about the young players we have, we’re excited about some of the good contracts we have. Excited about a couple of the all-star players that we have and the flexibility. Not just this year, next year. The roster spots, the development of our young players. I think that’s the good thing for us. The organization and the basketball team, we have that to look forward to.” And it went on like that for roughly 27 minutes.
“There’s a process of meetings we’ve set up, honestly, and we’re going to wait. If this was something that was in our head, I think I’d be coming out today and saying, ‘You know what, coach Casey is not going to be our coach.’ I can’t. … To me it’s a process. I’m going to get down to understanding some of the things that we didn’t do so well, some of the things that we did well, some of the things we have to change, where we have to be accountable. And honestly … our struggles were not only in the playoffs. I think right after all-star, we started (struggling), and maybe there’s a little bit of that, a lot of it that was on me. Maybe I didn’t get a pulse on our team. Those are all the things that I think we’re going to evaluate and then move on from there. But I will say it again: It’s not doomsday. There are a lot of good things. We broke the (franchise) record (for wins in a season) this year, we won our division the last couple of years. Coach Casey has created or helped create a good culture here.”
Winners and Losers in the NBA Playoffs | Grantland
This series was an epic collapse — a failure at all levels. Washington’s punchless offense piled up 112.5 points per 100 possessions, a mark that would have topped the league by a kilometer in the regular season. The Wizards understood that Toronto’s defense gave up the middle of the floor on side pick-and-rolls, and they came in with a simple game plan: Run those plays, see how aggressively Toronto rotates, and use that aggression against them. Over and over, John Wall would dribble into the middle of the floor, lure Toronto into trapping him, and watch as Toronto’s defense bent inward to contain Marcin Gortat’s clean roll to the rim.
Raptors GM says lacklustre finish is ‘unacceptable,’ but ‘it’s not doomsday’ | The Globe and Mail
When questioned about Lowry, though, Ujiri said he expects a summer of hard work will have Toronto’s struggling point guard back to the form that got him voted into the all-star game. Ujiri said he hasn’t lost any of the confidence he felt when re-signing Lowry last July to a reported four-year contract worth about $48-million (U.S.). “I have no doubt that 100 per cent he’s going to come back to being Kyle Lowry and being the fierce competitive player playing at the level he played this first half of this season and all last year,” Ujiri said. “I’m even more confident [than when he was re-signed] because we know now what we have and what we need to work on. We know who Kyle is.”
Ujiri On An Unacceptable Finish And Planning Next Steps | Toronto Raptors
“I don’t think it was mostly on coach Casey, but mostly, maybe on injuries which happens to every team,” Ujiri said. “It’s kind of not an excuse, but he was forced to play a certain way because it was the way we were going to be able to score to survive DeMar [DeRozan’s] injury or to survive when Kyle [Lowry] was out. Now we have to go back to the drawing board and decide, now that we can maybe bring in a couple players, maybe figure out a couple things with our players, how we want to play.”
It’s time for Ujiri to put his stamp on the Raptors | Sportsnet.ca
“You know me,” he said. “No knee-jerk reactions here.” We know, we know. He inherited a coach and kept him. He inherited a starting lineup and kept it. He inherited some bad contracts and patiently let them expire. He wasn’t going to fire head coach Dwane Casey Tuesday, but he is studying where his coach fits in the bigger picture. He’s got a contract for next season and a team option for the year after, but there was no indication from Ujiri if Casey will see the end of his deal. “Our struggles were not only in the playoffs,” said Ujiri.” [But] it’s not doomsday. There’s a lot of good things … Casey helped create a good culture; the base is very good and he is a big part of it.”
Raptors to get own D-League team | Toronto Sun
Back in February, Ujiri told the Sun that the Raptors had had productive meetings with the NBA in New York City about getting their own team and that significant progress had been made. It is unclear at this point whether the D-League squad will be based in Canada or somewhere close by like New York State. Visa issues could make a Canadian location tricky. The affiliate won’t just be a place to develop young players, Ujiri says. “How you want to build a front office, a coaching model, this D-League team for us, eventually, is going to be something we want to use as our guinea pig, right,” Ujiri said.
Bruno Caboclo, prospects big winners as Raptors get go-ahead to buy D League team | Toronto Star
But a Raptors team in the D League would be more a financial loss-leader than some major money-making proposition; its value would be in the development of basketball resources, particularly young players like Bruno Caboclo and Lucas (Bebe) Nogueira. “(It) means Bruno’s going to get an opportunity, Bebe’s going to get an opportunity, whoever our rookie is this year is going to get an opportunity,” Ujiri said during is end-of-season wrapup news conference Tuesday. “How you want to build a front office, a coaching model; this D-League team for us, eventually, is going to be something we want to use as our guinea pig right. Something (where) you want to do tests and experiment and give opportunity.”
Lowry shouldn’t have say in future of coach: Feschuk | Toronto Star
As for point guard Kyle Lowry’s take on Casey — a cold-as-ice, “If he’s the coach, I’m a player” — it played to type, too. Talk to folks who’ve coached Lowry and know him, many of whom quite like him, and you hear a consistent take: If things aren’t going well for Lowry — and they haven’t been going well on the floor since around the time he started for the East in the All-Star Game — there isn’t a coach on the planet with whom he will happily coexist. He’s a malcontent by nature, and an exponentially bigger one when success isn’t his. And even if you don’t believe it was particularly dastardly that Lowry picked last year, a contract year, to momentarily reform his reputation for pouty petulance —let’s just say the record shows that last year was a glaring exception of a season that saw Lowry happily coexist with almost everyone in Raptorland. Some $48 million in guaranteed money later, maybe it’s just a coincidence that he’s back to being his old difficult self — and also back, as Casey told the media on Monday, to coming out on the losing end of his career-long battle with a weight problem, this after a late-season injury saw him balloon beyond the admirably lean-and-mean form he brought to training camp.
A little time apart may be what the Raptors need | Toronto Star
If you had a job in some overly-intense profession and had to spend eight or nine hours with the same people doing the same thing, knowing how much was at stake and listening to family and friends tell you how badly you’re being used by your bosses and colleagues, you’d have times of resentment and anger, I can almost guarantee that. I get all the lip service that’s paid to chemistry and teamwork and all that jazz around professional sports; it’s a nice story and respect and collegiality among teammates is important. And I bet that when this team reconvenes, everything will be fine again, there may not be hugs and I don’t care if they are, but there will be that respect and willingness to accept coaching and criticism so that the whole becomes larger than the sum of its parts. Yesterday was a day for some subtle lashing out, it’s totally understandable and certainly not the first time it’s happened nor will it be the last. What teams – all teams – need after nights like Sunday and days like Monday is time away from each other. And they’ve got it.
On Amir Johnson, Lou Williams and Important Free Agency Decisions Ahead | Raptors HQ
Here’s the conundrum. Ideally, you’d want Amir on this team, for his reliability even if his minutes decrease next season and beyond. But if you’re paying that price for a power forward, that slots in as your starter. It means you’re sacrificing a chance to use that money to upgrade the four spot, or elsewhere while sliding Patrick Patterson into the starting lineup. If I were to guess, the Raptors will make an offer to Amir, but perhaps only a two or three year deal, and they won’t want to get into a bidding war with other teams once the total dollar amounts and years escalate. Make an offer you’re comfortable with, and let him decide. This is one of those “always business, never personal” bridges every team has to cross, especially with a very popular player in the city and the locker room.
Dwane Casey is root cause of problems for Toronto Raptors | Raptors Cage
The success we saw earlier in the season was nothing but a result of the a hot streak from the Raptors’ guards, an easy schedule, and the fact team’s hadn’t figured out how to stop the Raptors simple offensive system. Given the simplicity of it and the failure to evolve the system, the unsustainability kicked in and inconsistent play became the story the rest of the way. Let’s talk about what was wrong with the Raptors this season.
Toronto Raptors Win The 2014-15 Brian McIntyre Media Relations Award | Pro Bball Report
The media relations staff of the Toronto Raptors has won the 2014-15 Brian McIntyre Media Relations Award, which is presented each season to an NBA media relations staff that best exemplifies the standards of professionalism and excellence worthy of acclaim, the Professional Basketball Writers Association (PBWA) announced today. The Raptors’ full-time media relations staff consists of Director of Media Relations Jim LaBumbard, Manager of Media Relations Roven Yau and Coordinator of Media Relations Phil Summers.
Is Kyle Lowry the problem? | RealGM
Rumors insist Lowry has never been fond of coach Casey. Not surprising considering Lowry has been deemed UN-coachable many times in his career. If you consider when this breakdown started (End of December) this was right after Lowry put the team on his back for 2 weeks. Clearly Lowry got cocky and tried to take the team away from Casey. When the coach loses control of one player because this player thinks he’s above the coach, it’s almost inevitable you lose control of the entire team. I’m not gonna defend Casey, he deserves to be gone based on rotational and play calling mistakes, but you can’t entirely blame him because he’s not the first coach who couldn’t control Lowry. He even tried to mend the relationship by inviting Lowry to coaching meetings. Lowry is quite possibly this teams cancer. If you bring in a soft coach like Casey or others who let the players have this much control, players like Lowry walk right over them and take over destroying the other players respect for their coach. (even if it’s a bad coach) And on the other hand, if you bring in a coach who takes control as the alpha dog, Lowry stops playing and fills the room with negativity like he did in Houston. Lowry is that guy who NEEDS 100% control over everything or he’s not happy and disappears. Another example of this is when Rudy Gay temporarily joined the team and was given team leader status, lowry completely disappeared until he was traded and could take over the team again. If we aren’t getting the October/November Lowry back ever again, there’s no way we should keep a troublemaker like him.
I can haz yo linkz??! rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
