It took 18 long minutes before Masai Ujiri mentioned winning. He entered the media room at 4:02 pm — extraordinarily early. Sometimes media won’t have access to a front office member until the wee hours of the morning, but the team announced “we’re done” only minutes after the deadline passed. The deadline was quiet, and perhaps disappointing, and Ujiri reflected both of those qualities when he entered the room. Instead of his usual inspirational confidence, bordering on bluster, Ujiri seemed resigned. He spoke quietly and slowly.
“The opportunity was not there for us for a blockbuster trade,” he said, not even holding up Jakob Poeltl as a consolation prize. “The way I look at the deadline [is] it’s really not a great place to make long-term decisions.”
Ujiri usually hits the word “win” like he’s playing the bongos at Woodstock. He said “we will win in Toronto,” and it inspired a generation of fans. During his end-of-season availability last season, he mentioned winning 46 times. The Raptors themselves counted how many times Scottie Barnes said the word “win” in his pre-draft interview. (He said it 27 times, the most by far of any prospect they interviewed.) The word has become something of a mantra for the team. A mantra that has been suspiciously absent all season for the team, and that was glaringly absent when Ujiri took the podium.
What did Ujiri preach instead of winning? “Patience is our thing,” he said, before admitting: “I know people don’t like it as much.”
Losing more than expected this season seems to have set the Raptors back eons in team planning. The Raptors are being patient this season. They are taking their time analyzing the fit of the current core.
“I know we have to look at fit sometimes, but I think generally if I am looking at fit with this team, I have to give it until the end of the season to look at that,” said Ujiri. Especially, he added in more coded terms, if no one meets his exceptionally high trade prices.
So does the team fit? Well, kind of. Poeltl does address a huge number of areas of need for the team. His passing, screening, finishing, and rim protection are all desperately needed. Of course, because he’s a non-shooter, he only exacerbates other areas of need. Areas — like shooting — that the Raptors are left hoping will improve.
Maybe the team is turning a corner. The Raptors are riding their second three-game winning streak of the season, and they did just finish a seven-game West Coast road trip with an excellent 4-3 record.
Part of Ujiri’s attraction as the Vice Chairperson of the Raptors is his glowing confidence. He isn’t just a basketball mind; he’s a leader, full of charisma. He’s a celebrity, perhaps as much as his players. But he came to collected media almost with contrition after the Raptors acquired Poeltl and made no other trades. He understands frustration from the fans. And he didn’t try to bluster his way out of criticism. You could have pictured him speaking with his hat in his hands: “We need to be one of those top tier 3-point shooting teams. But we’ll get there. Whether its by addition or these guys getting better. It’s patience and we are going to grow with our team but its not, and I plead, it doesn’t happen over night.”
I plead.
Perhaps the most jarring part of Ujiri’s presser: he was blindingly honest. He admitted failure from the top to the bottom of the organization. Himself: “Maybe I need to look at myself and say ‘Ok, what the hell are you doing? Is there something I am doing wrong?'” The players: “Sometimes we’ve played a little selfish.” Even the coaching staff: “With Dalano and with Malachi [minutes have] been inconsistent, so hopefully it gets better.”
Perhaps there’s value in such self-aware honesty. Well, there certainly is in private. But it’s rare to see it in public. That’s not the sharklike behavior with which Ujiri built his stature. Ujiri doesn’t need to make immediate choices. He has extraordinary job security, so he doesn’t need to trade from a disadvantage to save his job because of a poor-performing first half of a season. He can go into the offseason with three free agents seeking huge paydays because he has time to maneuver.
Ujiri is the Raptors’ North Star, the team’s endless source of confidence. Prior to Ujiri, the Raptors had a deep-set inferiority complex. It came from stars leaving or refusing to report, from endless years of losing with brief oases. The team was a joke. Ujiri (and Kyle Lowry) made the franchise into a powerhouse of success. Ujiri told Jonas Valanciunas he was better than Andre Drummond. (He was.) He said “Fuck Brooklyn.” He said “believe in this city. Believe in yourselves.”
None of that was present after Toronto’s quiet trade deadline. Perhaps the Raptors don’t need inspiration. The optimist would say the team has outgrown the need for instilling confidence. Now the team needs more talent on the floor, or at least the talent on the roster to better fit together. To address the former, Ujiri offers Poeltl. To address the latter, he offers time. Patience is his chosen mantra. Not confidence, not winning, but patience. Ujiri understands if fans are impatient. But he’s looking at the team on a different timeline. He has that luxury. We’ll find out what is waiting at the end of that rainbow: fit, a return of confidence, shooting. Or perhaps just a dead end that leaves the Raptors wishing they’d made roster decisions when they had more and better options.
