Following Monday’s press conference to introduce Masai Ujiri as the new general manager of the Raptors, the chatter around Raptorland immediately started to swirl around which path Toronto would take in its quest to return to the post-season.
Will the Raptors bottom out and keep their fingers crossed for a top pick in next year’s draft — a a chance to select local phenom Andrew Wiggins?
Or will Ujiri and his management team (still yet to be fully assembled) decide to keep a major portion of the current core together and tweak the parts as needed, hoping to get Toronto into an seventh or eighth playoff seed at the very least while gradually building on the fly?
If I had a say, I’m not tearing it all down. There are pieces in place that can be worked with and I would fear a total overhaul that would be rooted in a hope and a prayer for Wiggins. If the tank worked, you may be getting a star-in-the-making but it’s hard to bank on a ping-pong-ball lottery system.
Leiweke spoke of different methods for a rebuild in Toronto on Sportsnet 590 the FAN Monday.
“One is a complete rebuild which means tank it and go in to get the best picks in what is an extraordinary draft and hope we get some luck in the lottery. A lot of pieces – you’ll need a bunch of picks here,” Leiweke said. “The second way is a gigantic master trade that with our existing pieces gets us a piece or two that makes us competitive and gives us a shot to be something more than a fringe team.
“The third way is a combination of those two and you build on the fly. He hasn’t made that determination yet. We talked about all three in depth. Talked about what resources he needs in all three cases. I will support him in whatever direction he chooses.”
While Leiweke did use — or acknowledge — the word “tank” on Sportsnet 590 the FAN yesterday, he and Ujiri also spoke of the importance of the 20th anniversary of the Raptors which is only two years away.
During that season, Toronto hopes to host the NBA All-Star Game as well, and there has been a lot of talk of “rebranding” the Raptors as well — whatever that means.
So if I were to connect the imaginary dots, I would speculate that the Raptors would not want to be selling their city and their team to the league — with the spotlight on Toronto during All Star Weekend — let alone selling their city and their team to Canada during a 20th Anniversary season with a core group of players that is two years removed from a full-out tank-job and many years removed from a playoff berth.
But that’s just me. We’ll see how it all unfolds!
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