Masai Ujiri built the Raptors into a winner once, he’s determined to do it again

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The primary twenty years of the Raptors’ existence went like this: Growth doormats, Vince Carter, laughingstock, Chris Bosh, laughingstock after which Truly Good Now.

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That final section lasted some time. It was preceded, not coincidentally, by the arrival of Masai Ujiri to run the basketball operations and reached its crescendo in Oakland about 28 months in the past.

However except for the on-court performances, the Raptors as a franchise have advanced in numerous methods over the previous decade. One in every of Ujiri’s primary objectives as its steward was to not simply enhance the wins and losses, however to alter Toronto from an NBA backwater — that chilly place within the international nation — to a fascinating place to play.

It’s, regardless of all the things, nonetheless a piece in progress. It’s been there within the subtext, and typically proper within the pretext, of Ujiri’s uncommon classes with the Toronto media. When the Raptors had established themselves as a very good staff that couldn’t keep away from throwing up on itself within the playoffs, the staff president held sway in his season-ending press convention and insisted that issues have been principally continuing based on plan. As a franchise, the Raptors had added a swanky observe facility, and a staff within the developmental league, that they had hosted an all-star sport, that they had two all-stars within the backcourt and so they have been reliably a playoff staff if not a staff that gained within the playoffs. They weren’t a joke anymore. Even after the Kawhi Leonard commerce, Ujiri jumped in throughout the season-opening media session to reject the premise of a query about whether or not Leonard would depart town after a 12 months. Toronto had arrived, he insisted. It was now not a part of the NBA’s low-rent district, he mentioned. “Consider in your self,” and “consider on this metropolis,” he mentioned to nobody specifically. The championship that adopted in that season backed up the bravado.

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Two-plus years later, the Raptors’ place within the NBA panorama is once more a matter of some uncertainty. Leonard left as quickly as he may, Kyle Lowry finally did the identical, and not one of the would-be free-agent superstars that have been as soon as regarded as obtainable this previous summer season ended up coming north. Even Ujiri delayed a call on a contract extension about so long as it was doable to delay such a factor. Alongside the best way he had some pointed observations concerning the franchise needing to struggle for a greater spot on the league desk, and it was affordable to assume that he may need been bored with making an attempt to function in a market that has by no means satisfied a big-name NBA star to take its cash except he was already right here.

In the long run, he returned, which if nothing else stabilized the franchise’s credibility in league circles. The Raptors usually are not beginning over, not trying to find a brand new high boss who would need to put his or her personal stamp on the group.

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However that is nonetheless a brand new period. When the Raptors lastly took to the Scotiabank Area court docket on Wednesday night time after about one million days away, solely three gamers had ever stood on that exact hardwood as members of the staff. A fourth, Pascal Siakam, is right here however recovering from harm. Not one of many 5 starters towards the Washington Wizards began that sport in Oracle Area within the spring of 2019 — not that way back! — that gave the Raptors their NBA crown. Two of the starters, Valuable Achiuwa and Goran Dragic, have been primarily ballast within the sign-and-trade deal that despatched Lowry to Miami in the summertime and Dragic in all probability isn’t signing any long-term leases in Toronto. The roster is filled with younger, versatile gamers with promise, which is able to give head coach Nick Nurse the prospect to go full mad scientist, tinkering with lineup mixtures and rotations like he has by no means accomplished earlier than in Toronto. In his first season, he insisted that the primary few months could be a time for experimentation, however that staff had a bunch of veterans who knew what they may and couldn’t do on an NBA court docket. This group, or at the very least most of it, doesn’t even know what it’s prefer to play in Toronto. It’s from this level that Ujiri and his normal supervisor Bobby Webster will start the method of constructing an elite staff once more. It’ll possible take a while.

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For an evening, anyway, none of that mattered. The packed crowd saved beginning loud Let’s Go RAP-TORS chants throughout the prolonged pre-game ceremonies and must shush down whereas one factor or one other passed off on the court docket. Fred VanVleet took the microphone to greet the gang, and the cheers virtually drowned him out. Even for a cynic on press row, it was a touching second. After 600 days with out an NBA sport in Toronto, the gang was simply determined to cheer for somebody in a Raptors uniform. That it was VanVleet, who may but turn into Lowry 2.0 on this city, was all the higher.

When the gang finally let him communicate, VanVleet supplied due to the followers who caught with the Raptors. Extra cheers. He mentioned he and his teammates have been excited for the season forward, and to lastly be dwelling.

“Let’s get it,” he mentioned.

A easy message, however one which was sufficient for the night time. After a 12 months and a half in exile in Florida, the Raptors have been again in Toronto. They will determine the opposite stuff out later.