Masai Ujiri on the hot seat?

TORONTO, ON - MAY 21: General manager Masai Ujiri of the Toronto Raptors (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - MAY 21: General manager Masai Ujiri of the Toronto Raptors (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

The Toronto Raptors regressed during the 2016-17 season and they were a blip on the radar screen for any major free agent signings or offseason news. So why isn’t Masai Ujiri on the hot seat?

Masai Ujiri has been with the Raptors organization since May 31, 2013 when he signed a five year $15 million dollar deal. He was also given a multi-year extension prior to the start of last season.

On the court, the team won three consecutive Atlantic Division titles between 2013-2016 and have made four straight play-off appearances during Ujiri’s reign.

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The team’s affiliation with Drake (which was in part spearheaded by Ujiri) has been a success in certain aspects. However, the Drake relationship was supposed to be a major recruiting tool used to help lure big name NBA free agents to Toronto but that relationship has still yet to bare any fruit in that department.

Ujiri is a great ambassador for the organization as well as the city of Toronto. Ryerson University recently gave Ujiri an honorary doctorate which is something that no other Toronto sports executive or coach has ever received which speaks volumes about who he is as a person.

However, his 2017 offseason dealings and movement can be graded as average at best and if Kyle Lowry hadn’t of re-signed with the Raptors it would’ve been considered a disastrous offseason. Lowry can say that Toronto is where he wanted to be all along but the truth of the matter is he only came back for the contract he received and because his options elsewhere crashed and burned and he was left without options.

Ujiri has made some excellent moves by trading away Rudy Gay and he managed to get rid of Andrea Bargnani and his massive contract to the Knicks. But what have you done for me lately?

If Toronto isn’t a place where you can attract the big name free agents then you have to build a successful team through the draft and the Raptors draft selections under Ujiri have been nothing short of brutal. He has yet to hit on a single draft pick.

Here is the list of names Ujiri has drafted during his tenure with Toronto:

2014 Round 1 – Bruno Caboclo (I could probably stop the list right there).

2014 Round 2 – DeAndre Daniels (who?).

2014 Round 2 – Xavier Thames (who?).

2015 Round 1 – Delon Wright (couldn’t have won that D-League title without him).

2016 – Round 1 – Jakob Poeltl (made zero impact last year).

2016 – Round 1 – Pascal Siakam (see Delon Wright).

2017 – Round 1 – OG Anunoby (picks an injured guy when they need help now).

Not one of these players has proven to be anything more than an above average D-League player and his most recent pick Anunoby is coming off major knee surgery yet Ujiri has escaped criticism of any kind.

Several teams in the Eastern Conference leap frogged the Raptors this offseason and the gap in quality between the Raptors and Cleveland is growing at an exponential rate yet nobody is questioning what Ujiri plans to do about it.

During his season end press conference, Ujiri spoke about a culture shift in Toronto yet they have pretty much the exact same line-up as last years squad save for the teams best defender in PJ Tucker who signed with Houston.

Can somebody explain where or what the culture shift is yet?

His great smile and infectious personality are fantastic qualities but it has yet to prove he can lead this team to any real on court success.

If the Raptors sputter in the 2017-18 season it may be time to consider a culture change. They’ll need to make changes on the court but also in the front office. The emperor has no clothes.

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