The Raptors will need to spend some serious money if they want to retain their free agents after this season. Can Masai make it happen?
We don’t spend a lot of time discussing the business aspects of the Toronto Raptors. For obvious reasons, we’re more interested in what happens on the floor. However, we can’t ignore the financial affairs of the team, because money governs every move GM Masai Ujiri attempts to make.
Forbes magazine has released its annual valuation report, and has decided the Raptors are worth $1.125 billion. That’s up from $980 million in 2016. Last year’s revenue was $193 million.
The article does say 3 teams (Clippers, Cavaliers, OKC) lost money last fiscal year, because they went deep into the luxury tax due to bloated player payrolls.
No summertime relief
The biggest issue facing Masai is what to do about two key players, Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, who can walk at season’s end. The Raptors are already over the salary cap, but retain Bird rights to both players, so can pony up as much as they chose in new deals.
The Raptors will be in a fool’s paradise for the balance of this season. Lowry and Ibaka both command $12 million, which makes them bargains by today’s mad standards.
This post is necessarily incomplete, because so much of the Raptors’ summer signings will be influenced by what happens in the team’s last 27 regular-season games, and in the playoffs.
Assuming reasonable success, like another EC Finals visit, here’s the most likely scenario: Masai will go to a board meeting of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, and ask for an open chequebook. He will make the case that retaining the services of both Lowry and Ibaka is essential to the franchise. He can point to the astonishing increase in franchise value and the spike in revenue due to playoff games as reasons to continue to invest.
Heated words behind closed doors
Whether the gray men of the board will allow him to enter uncharted tax-payer territory remains to be seen. These guys don’t like losing money, even for one season. And it’s the nature of the beast to push back on anyone, even (or especially) a senior executive who wants to spend big dough with no guarantee of return on investment.
Masai should prepare myself completely. Here are some words, which he’s welcome to borrow – no charge! “If you people don’t want to pay what it takes to play in today’s NBA, I don’t want to be here. Just remember: when I arrived in 2013 the franchise was valued at $405 million. Your asset has nearly tripled its worth under my stewardship. Are you sure you want to kill the goose that’s laying the golden eggs?”
Hardball against the suits – whatever it takes, Masai.