Three paths were proposed by Tim Leiweke, Masai Ujiri and co with regards to this Toronto Raptors squad going forward. The first one being a complete “blow-up”, second one being a re-tool of the current roster, and the third one being a mix of both. The goal is a championship regardless of the path chosen, and with Ujiri’s passiveness in the 2013 NBA draft may indicate the direction this team will take going forward.
A chance is all I want this roster to have. After tonight, it appears that Masai will grant it that.
There have been tons of rumors by so called Raptors ‘insiders’, beat writers, or whatever you want to call them indicating that nobody is safe and Ujiri is looking to tear down the house. They had absolutely NO reason/source to imply that, and I for one am glad that they had to eat their words.
The bottom line is that Ujiri played it smart – this draft was poor, and there was no need to force their way into the draft when they simply didn’t need to. There is no reason to sacrifice proven current assets for a question mark. Besides, this team is already young enough – the focus should be current development.
I’ve said it many times, it would be pre-mature to blow up this team, and giving up a major piece for another young player doesn’t make sense unless you are blowing it up. The Raps likely could have gotten a late pick for cash or a minor piece, but Ujiri likely didn’t want to waste financial assets or a roster spot on a player solely for the sake of drafting a rookie.
Why does this indicate that blowing it up is now unlikely? The draft is the #1 way to blow it up for young assets with room to grow, and the Raps simply didn’t pull the plug. This tells me that Ujiri likes the current assets of the team to an extent, however this isn’t something we can conclude just yet.
5 thoughts on “Passive Draft By Ujiri May Indicate Raptors Future”
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
We heard the “give it a chance” argument with Bargnani.
We heard it with the overpaid patchwork teams BC tried to build around Bosh.
We even heard it with our “key additions” made in the 2012 offseason.
No offense, but haven’t you had enough of the treadmill? This roster’s ceiling is to be on the receiving end of a first round sweep. But hey, I guess there will be some fun to be had in guessing if we’ll get blown out by over 10 or 20 points in every playoff game.
Thanks for the comment. I 100% agree with you – this team needs to break out of the treadmill. I wrote some extensive stuff on this… Do me a favor and read these
https://www.raptorscage.ca/building-a-championship-caliber-raptors-squad/
https://www.raptorscage.ca/visiting-the-problem-behind-the-accelerated-rebuild/
I agree with the Lowry and whatever trade deadline 2nd rounder. This draft is as weak as Bargs… good move Raptors.
wow that was very poorly written