Contract extension for Raptors president Masai Ujiri remains priority, MLSE chairman says | The Star
The long-term future of Ujiri, whose contract runs out at the end of next season, is a growing concern among the team’s fans but Tanenbaum knows there is no need to rush. There are other priorities, as Ujiri spelled out last week.
“Our fans, they love Masai for all that he’s contributed to the Raptors franchise and to our community and to our country — and our appreciation for him, that can’t be measured,” Tanenbaum, the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, said in an interview Tuesday. “But it was his and my game plan to secure his management team extension before his own.”
That plan is halfway complete with coach Nick Nurse getting a contract extension earlier this month and plans are being finalized on a new deal for general manager Bobby Webster.
Then, and only then, will the focus shift to Ujiri, whose importance is not lost on his boss.
“We have time and we’re going to work through the process in the right time and the right way, I know that for sure,” Tanenbaum said. “He’s so incredibly caring and he’s an important person for the world to understand. It’s not only the Raptors.”
The plan to take care of others on the senior management team first was actually hatched more than a year ago, Tanenbaum said. And it was delayed when a global pandemic got in the way.
“We just let everything rest because after that (2019 NBA championship) parade and the whole thing, everybody had to catch their breath,” the chairman said. “It was an incredible summer and then I sat down with Masai in September and that was our game plan.”
Then when the pandemic took over in March, there were other priorities.
“Masai is getting it done (with Nurse and Webster) and we, too, will get it done.”
Koreen: Why a sensible Kyle Lowry trade is tough to find and unlikely to happen – The Athletic
When Masai Ujiri spoke to the media a few weeks ago, he did not seem to be a basketball executive seriously contemplating a rebuild for his team. Any plan resembling that would involve trading Kyle Lowry, the player with the most trade value who may not be part of the Raptors’ long-term plans.
Emphasis on may.
“I don’t even want to say it’s been up and down anymore with Kyle Lowry,” said Ujiri, referring to the notion that Lowry has been a difficult player behind the scenes with the Raptors, especially early in his career. “That guy is a stud. OK? I’m telling the whole world that guy is incredible. What he has done for this whole organization … I don’t want to start pushing him as a Hall of Famer and all this stuff, because I want 10 more incredible years from this guy. It seems to me the older he becomes, the better he becomes. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen anything like that. As a human being, as a person, as a teammate, Kyle was phenomenal.”
Does that seem to anybody like a comment about a player on the trade market?
Or, let’s galaxy brain this thing: Ujiri, a veteran dealmaker, is pumping up Lowry’s value. “You’ll have to pry him out of our cold-blooded, competitive hands with your best offer to get him,” more or less. Savvy stuff.
More likely, Ujiri was just speaking the truth. He has immense respect for what Lowry has achieved on and off the court as a Raptor. Given that Ujiri’s offseason priority seems to be remaining competitive while preserving flexibility for the 2021 offseason, Lowry is the perfect player to have on the Raptors roster this year. He is still incredibly productive on both ends of the floor, can absolutely be one of the best players on a championship team and his contract expires after next season.
The same applies to other would-be contenders, too, which would make Lowry appealing to them. Given the Raptors’ plans, though, why would they be obliged to trade him, aside from a highly unlikely trade request if the Raptors signal a transition year if they are not able to retain Fred VanVleet or either of their free-agent centres?
There are a few reasons: They are being aggressive in going after a talent upgrade that helps them now, they are offered a collection of young talent that is too hard to pass up, they increase their flexibility in a major way or they have lost their damn minds. Or some combination of any of those things.
Try to make any of those things line up while being even halfway realistic, though. For simplicity’s sake, I will divide these proposed trades into present-focused and future-focused moves. Lowry is set to make $31 million next year. All trades either work, or are the basic foundation of something that is close to working, under the rules of the salary cap.
Toronto Raptors 2019-20 Player Review: The Mystery of Patrick McCaw – Raptors HQ
An NBA team does not need their eighth man to be consistently great or even good for that matter, but they do need some form of upside. McCaw had the lows of an inconsistent bench player without the highs, vacillating from excruciatingly bad to quietly mediocre, never seeming to provide a consistent positive impact.
Defensively, McCaw was solid when he appeared. He is athletic and long, making him versatile enough to effectively defend both guard spots and battle against small forwards. His defense is not, however, nearly good enough to make up for his offense — as much as Matt Devlin loved to yell, “That’s why he’s out there!” every time McCaw did something mildly effective.
McCaw is a significant negative offensively, submarining possessions with indecision and lacking the touch to space the floor as a shooter. In his career, McCaw has never shot higher than 43 percent from the field or 33 percent from 3. Those numbers are bad. They get even worse when you factor in the teams he played for.
Other than three games for the Cavaliers, McCaw has played with the Steph-and-KD Warriors and the two best iterations of the Toronto Raptors. No matter the situation, he has been the last player on the minds of the opposing defense, yet he still has not been able to capitalize on those openings with any real efficiency.
The numbers have shown more of the same this season. McCaw shot 41 percent from the floor and 32 percent from three. Bleh. Of the top 12 Raptors in minutes, he was the only one with a negative box plus/minus. So, back to the mystery I noted earlier. What did Nick Nurse see to keep trotting out McCaw like he was a reliable veteran?
Best and Worst Landing Spots for NBA’s Top 5 Free Agents | Bleacher Report
Best: Toronto Raptors
Fred VanVleet is the top graduate of the Raptors’ much-celebrated player development program, going from an undrafted free agent to earning an NBA Finals MVP vote within three seasons.
He’s also a perfect fit up North. His simultaneously becoming a new father and hitting numerous big shots during the team’s title run endeared him to the fanbase for life, and his in-your-jersey defense is similarly appealing from afar.
Toronto’s roster might look drastically different soon, but VanVleet shouldn’t be part of the team’s turnover.
Worst: New York Knicks
If VanVleet doesn’t re-sign with the Raptors, the Knicks and Detroit Pistons figure to be his top suitors. The Pistons could be a good fit, as they have his former coach in Dwane Casey and the outline of a competitive roster if Blake Griffin can stay healthy and productive (granted, that’s a big “if”).
The Knicks, however, remain a mess.
On paper, VanVleet appears to be a perfect fit for new coach Tom Thibodeau. Combining his work ethic with high-IQ play should make him a prime beneficiary of the coach’s consistent emphasis on present results over future development. But as we saw in Minnesota, that mismatch of styles usually does more harm than good (even to veterans), and that Timberwolves team had much more talent than the current Knicks do.
VanVleet’s individual stats could see a small bump, but they likely wouldn’t result in any team success.
Raptors Have Spoken to Stanford Sharpshooter Tyrell Terry – Sports Illustrated
Listed at 6-foot-2, 160-pounds, there are questions about how Terry’s body will translate to the next level. It’s why after breakfast and some morning meditation to keep his mental health in check, Terry heads to the gym most days to start adding muscle.
“I’ve been working on my body so hard the last few months trying to show teams in the world out there that I’m more athletic than I’m given credit for,” Terry said on a pre-draft Zoom media availability Tuesday. “A lot of people were doubting that I’d even get a shot at an NBA roster a few months ago, so I kind of took that in the back of my head and worked my butt off all summer. I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve been trying to show from now until draft night is I’ve made those improvements.”
This story should be one Toronto Raptors fans are quite familiar with. Toronto’s backcourt last season was led by two undersized guards whose bodies once raised serious concerns about their NBA potential. Instead of floundering at the next level, those guards, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, have found ways to flourish in the NBA thanks to their high basketball IQs.
That’s what makes Terry such an interesting fit for the Raptors in this year’s NBA draft. The 19-year-old Staford freshman who has interviewed with Toronto is a lights-out shooter with a high basketball IQ and some physical question marks that will likely force him to slip to the back end of the first round in November’s NBA Draft.
