Raptors front office loses a major contributor

Masai already had a lot on his plate. Now his hand-picked GM, Jeff Weltman, is moving on. The troubles pile up.

We don’t spend a lot of time around here worrying about the executives of the Toronto Raptors. However, we’d be remiss not to bring to your attention the departure of Jeff Weltman, just announced as the new President of Basketball Operations for the Orlando Magic.

Weltman had been Masai Ujiri’s most senior decision-maker, having been promoted to the role of General Manager just before last season started. He’s been in Toronto since 2013, with previous stops in Milwaukee, Denver and the Clippers.

May 5, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors guard Norman Powell (24) comes down with a pass against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game three of the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /

I strongly suspect Masai is the least surprised person on the planet. I’m sure he knew Weltman was likely to bolt if a top job was offered. You can’t blame the man for wanting a chance to run his own show.

Weltman is highly regarded around the NBA, and has done every underling job he needed to on his professional climb. He was credited with insisting upon grabbing Norman Powell, who was lightly regarded coming out of UCLA. The price the Raptors paid was negligible: Norman was partial(!) payment for Greivis Vasquez in a draft-night deal in 2015.

The rules about poaching executives from other NBA teams are murky. Orlando asked Cleveland for permission to interview Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin, but was reportedly denied. The Magic, perhaps discouraged, seemed to stop searching among current GMs and concentrated on those, like Weltman, just below the top rank.

Masai has a top group around him

While we in Toronto may regret the loss of a talented and seasoned executive, we can view Weltman’s promotion as a tribute to the quality of Masai’s executive staff. Weltman departs with our best wishes.

That’s quite enough of the warm and fuzzy stuff. Masai now has a giant hole on his staff at a crazy-busy time. The draft is a month away. While the Raptors have only one pick, that being #23, there are still a bunch of youngsters to be put through their paces. Weltman’s eye for talent will be sorely missed.

Dan Tolzman has been the “face” of Raptors management during the pre-draft workouts, and he or Bobby Webster are likely to fill the hole created by Weltman’s departure. Sometimes when people leave the vacancy isn’t filled, but papered over in a restructuring. I can’t see that happening in this situation; Masai must name a second in command.

Whether losing Jeff will have any impact on the thinking of the Raptors free agents (Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, P.J. Tucker, Patrick Patterson) is unclear. I suspect their agents will be more bothered than the players themselves.

What do you think, Rapture Nation? Has our team suffered a body blow, or will we scarcely notice he’s gone? Comments please.

[Note: that’s Weltman on the extreme left of the photo listening to Masai.]

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