Masai Ujiri on Media Day
On Media Day, Masai Ujiri and Nick Nurse both talked about the upcoming season along with the key Raptors’ players you’d expect including Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry.
On Saturday morning about half an hour, after the interviews started when I got in front of my TV to play the recording, I expected to come away with all kinds of interesting things to say about how the Raptors are approaching the season. In hindsight, I’m not really surprised that in essentials, the mindset of this franchise remains the same even as NBA Champions.
When asked what he wanted out of the season, Masai Ujiri said exactly what he’s always said. The expectation is to win.
Period.
There you have it.
As far as Ujiri is concerned, there’s only one reason, not only to be a basketball team but to be a professional athlete of any sort.
Winning.
This is not an executive who believes that tanking is even a remote option. So, to you casual Toronto fans, yes, there are a lot of big contracts expiring after this season. Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and Fred VanVleet, are all on the final years of their contracts. There are decisions to be made this year, no doubt.
But don’t for a moment think that this means the Raptors will be playing for draft picks instead of to win games. As long as Ujiri is at the helm, that’s never going to happen. What you should expect is that Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam will both be Raptors in the 2020-21 season.
The Raptors have until October 17th to extend Pascal Siakam’s contract before the season, otherwise, they will have to wait until next summer. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, Ujiri want’s to keep Siakam in a Raptors uniform. When asked about it he said in part:
"He’s somebody we’re definitely going to keep for a long time here. We see what the potential of that could be."
When asked if he viewed Kyle Lowry’s situation as any different than any other player because of his history with the franchise, Ujuri didn’t shy away from the fact that he believes that Lowry has earned the right to continue to be a Raptor should he so choose, saying in part:
"Kyle has an incredible legacy here that I think we all have underrated. The inner core of who he is as a player and what he’s done in this franchise, he definitely deserves that. There is legacy status for him in my opinion. Somebody that has given it his all."
For the casual fan, it would seem to be a no brainer to trade Kyle Lowry before his contract expires at the end of the season. In fact, I often identify casuals and bandwagoners by how the talk about Lowry.
And don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider myself a better fan because I have the time and interest to follow the Raptors as closely as I do. But I know that I and other serious fans know things that those less invested fans don’t.
It’s easy to point to Kawhi Leonard and say there is not Raptors championship without him. And I don’t deny that, not for a single second. But what only never-miss-a-game fans know is that no single player that took the floor for the Raptors during the playoffs and finals wanted that championship more than Kyle Lowry did.
He’s the heart of the Raptors team, the engine, the King of Intangibles and I’d be thrilled to see him retire as a Raptor and see his number hanging in the rafters of the Scotiabank Arena.