This is super-weird timing! Why let him run your draft? Is this because he drafted another non-shooting forward (even though I love CMB)?
Agreed timing is very odd. My guess is it's either one of two things 1 Been in the works for a while and owners/Masai worked together to wrap up the draft as his final task 2 Owners disappointed with what Toronto did in the draft. They either were told something different by Masai would happen that didn't, or just didn't like his moves Even if the draft was the final straw I'd imagine decision to move on was from a lot of bad Masai moves over the last few years. He really bouched the OG/Siakam trades selling very low on both. Van vleet walking for nothing. Then they see Siakam get a win from the title.
Talk about someone who overrated his own players. The astronomical return he tried asking for FVC, Anthony and Siakam and he ended up getting very little in comparison and they are all gone from a once promising roster.
My first thought was "quick, what trade can we trick the interim GM into making" and then I looked at the Raptors roster and my faith in Ujiri's genius took a serious hit.
He might be flawed but I would take him over Cronin every day of the week so after the Blazers are sold -- consider him as a replacement for Cronin
So we can have another GM who waits too long to trade players because he massively over values them? We had that, his name was Neil Olshey.
Important to point out that Bobby Webster has been the GM of the Raptors since 2017 and by all accounts makes roster decisions, up to and including this past draft, with Ujiri being the top advisor. Ujiri was the culture and personnel leader and was the best executive the Raptors ever had, or perhaps ever will have. Ed Rogers, who inherited majority ownership of the team in a Succession-like family feud, has long been a Masai Ujiri hater, and likely made this decision unilaterally. Rogers is also looking to push out Larry Tanenbaum who has been a governor and chairman of the board for the NBA for a long time. Tanenbaum owns the Toronto Tempo WNBA expansion team (along with Serena Williams). This will be a bigger fight for Rogers, as Tanenbaum is beloved among NBA owners. In other words, we have a Dolan-esque nepo baby taking over the sports franchises (Leafs, Raptors, Argos, TFC, etc.) and we're gonna suffer for it.
Siakam commented how he found his love of playing basketball again when he was moved to Indiana. OG seemed pretty happy to leave as well. Masai also basically allowed FVV to leave with no compensation. His hit rate after 2020 was pretty low and it seems that some players were less than happy with playing there over time, especially amazing for Siakam which they basically raised. I think the Blazers are better off with who they have at the moment.
