Toronto – The eve of the playoffs is often when Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri does his best messaging.
A few years ago there was his “F-Brooklyn.” In April of 2015 he visited the crowd at Jurassic Park outside the Air Canada Centre and declared “I don’t give a sh** about ‘it’” in reference to Paul Pierce – then of the Washington Wizards – arguing the Raptors didn’t have that certain something that winners need.
Turns out Pierce was correct as the Wizards smothered the Raptors in four games.
Ujiri has backed off the public proclamations since.
But if you listened carefully on Friday – or even not all that carefully — he was laying it all out there for anyone paying attention.
There was no hedging. No carefully crafted predictions with lots of wiggle room.
There was no need. For the first time in the Raptors’ four straight playoff appearances under his charge, Ujiri believes – he might even know – that he’s put together a team that not only can win, but should expect to win. And not just a round or maybe two.
The Raptors are playing for keeps.
“Nobody feels sorry for us anymore,” said Ujiri. “This is not a first-time [in the playoffs] goal … this is ‘you’re playing to be a top team in the NBA and to win.’
“I know sometimes nobody gives us a chance. [The players] hear that, they see that. But we’re out to play, and to prove that. You know what, if DeMar [DeRozan] didn’t miss eight games, and Kyle [Lowry] didn’t miss 21 games, and Patrick [Patterson didn’t miss 17 games, I know these can be excuses I’m making here, but I want to say being one game or two games out, maybe we could have competed for first place in the East. We feel confident about that. So, it’s playing to win, and these guys understand that. We’re not putting pressure on ourselves or on anybody, but these guys understand that we want to win.”
It’s a bold statement even without the profanities, but one Ujiri felt compelled to make.
For four years Ujiri has been a careful manager of expectations as he deftly tried to bridge duelling agendas.
From the moment he signalled his decision to rebuild the team he inherited from his predecessor Bryan Colangelo when he traded Rudy Gay only to realize – to his surprise — that a team driven by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan could make it to the playoffs, Ujiri has always been focused on the future while trying to maximize the present.
His favourite adjective for this version of the Raptors was that it was still a ‘growing team’ – emphasizing the seven roster players on rookie contracts over the veteran core. It was his favourite hedge: the future was always just around the corner.
But on the eve of the Raptors’ fourth straight playoff appearance, which they open Saturday afternoon as the betting favourite against the talented but young Milwaukee Bucks, Ujiri acknowledged that a team with three members of its projected eight-man rotation aged 30 or older and three more aged 27 or older and featuring four pending free agents can’t look too far past the present.
“We understand we are a growing team,” said Ujiri. “But I’m not going to come here and continue to say we are a growing team. We want to win. Basketball and playoff basketball is all about winning and that is what we want to do.”
The program was accelerated when Ujiri pulled the trigger on two trades on either side of the all-star break, sending out Terrence Ross and a first-round pick for Serge Ibaka and two second-round picks for P.J. Tucker.
It was a landmark event for Ujiri. Never before had he sent out youth, and potential to fill current needs and add experience. Tucker and Ibaka have been as advertised. He’s been rewarded with a generous dose of three-point shooting and defence as the newcomers combined to shoot 39.8 per cent from deep for Toronto while helping the Raptors to the NBA’s fourth-best defensive mark after the all-star break.
But the pair have brought even more than that, and that was what Ujiri was looking for, too.
“Yesterday I was standing by my office and P.J. and Serge were arguing with [Raptors assistant coach Rex Kalamian] about something and Coach Casey comes up and says ‘those guys are talking about defence’ said Ujiri. “That tells you what they’re about. There’s a level of intensity they’ve brought. Kyle is our force and then DeMar is our style and force. We get toughness from Jonas and DeMarre. [But] these guys we brought, they bring intensity and toughness and they’re about winning. That helps our ball club. As teammates, they’ve proven to be good teammates where they were, and in the short time we’ve had them, we’ve seen it here too.”
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Ujiri’s given his stars, DeRozan and Lowry, the support they needed. There is no more trying to win games with a gaping hole at power forward or short of a quality wing defender. He’s given his coach a roster of experienced players who are comfortable competing; who have no objection to making other people uncomfortable.
“It’s about intensity, attention to detail, no oh crap moments,” said Casey. “And it’s so important right now. I think we have it. I think we have natural guys that we don’t have to say ‘giddy up’ to. I think that’s so important, that you have a group that have a heartbeat like that, that have a culture like that. If a guy’s not bringing it he sticks out like a sore thumb. That’s what we’ve tried to develop here. We talk about that every night. So now once the playoffs come, it’s nothing different.”
What’s different is that for the first time in franchise history the Raptors are heading into the playoffs truly expecting to win and are confident in saying so.
There will be no need for any bold proclamations in Jurassic Park from Ujiri this time around.
He expects the club he’s put together will speak louder through their actions than he ever could with his words.
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