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Masai Ujiri Hired As Raptors GM (post #780)

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  • Drake_Marcus wrote: View Post
    ... you could make that point about literally every single GM change outside of ones following the tragic death of the GM in question.
    Except that in this case, the GM is sticking around as the president. Which means that he's going to be overseeing (kind of? or whatever the hell it is he'll be doing) his own team getting dismantled. Which will be incredibly awkward.
    "Stop eating your sushi."
    "I do actually have a pair of Uggs."
    "I've had three cups of green tea tonight. I'm wired. I'm absolutely wired."
    - Jack Armstrong

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    • Matt52 wrote: View Post
      You and Apollo have good speculation going.

      Like players, he might have had guaranteed money atached if the contract was not picked up.

      Some of Leiweke comments were really strange. I have been travelling the last week. Looking forward to getting home to get as much info that I can.
      Added to the strangeness is the fact that he made BC rep the Raptors at the lottery. I wonder if he had someone cut off his balls as well.
      "Stop eating your sushi."
      "I do actually have a pair of Uggs."
      "I've had three cups of green tea tonight. I'm wired. I'm absolutely wired."
      - Jack Armstrong

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      • Raps talent level is good organic growth again talking about some tweaks. The main players he mentions JV, Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan.

        focal point of the team though obviously things wont start getting interesting till the new GM is in town and the playoffs are over.

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        • thead wrote: View Post
          Is this not the Brian Burke situation 2.0?
          The whole part of it being a complete mess, out of hand and a little crazy? Yes.
          Twitter: @ReubenJRD • NBA, Raptors writer for Daily Hive Vancouver, Toronto.

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          • slaw wrote: View Post
            The whole thing is odd. Your speculation is as good as any, although, my understanding is that the team had an option, so, presumably it wouldn't have cost them anything to not exersice it.

            I suspect it's partly to allow BC to look for another job, get paid, and not have the stigma of a firing. We did this at my old law firm when we'd fire lawyers (even crappy ones). Instead of severance, they'd let the guy hang around for 3 months doing nothing until he got another job. The firm could say it didn't fire anyone and the guy got to say he left on his own terms....
            I'm beginning to wonder if this is a Tannenbaum induced arrangement. Given that from many accounts he has been one of Colangelo's biggest supporters over the years, and was rather vocal about resigning BC the last time his contract came up (despite some OTPP board members not being as convinced). On the flip side, to paraphrase a tweet "this was not what Tim L. wanted" and Tim L's rather emphatic 'he's not touching basketball or else' style discussion at the press conference. It may not be much of a stretch to think that Tannenbaum was able to convince Rogers/Bell to keep Colangelo in a role against Tim L's wishes.

            Whether it came down to optics (as you mentioned), contractual reason (as Apollo mentioned - although I do doubt an option in a contract came with a buy out clause, although who knows. You see some very weird clauses in non-regulated contracts) or simply out of friendship, I'm not sure.

            But I can say I disliked this set up a couple days ago when BC was going into a 'corporate role', and now that BC is easily within in ear shot of decision makers, with his guys still manning the HQ (for now anyways), I like it even less.

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            • JimiCliff wrote: View Post
              Except that in this case, the GM is sticking around as the president. Which means that he's going to be overseeing (kind of? or whatever the hell it is he'll be doing) his own team getting dismantled. Which will be incredibly awkward.
              To be blunt, I'd be shocked to see this team get dismantled, atleast this offseason or during this coming year, UNLESS they bomb the first half of next season. No matter who the next GM is.

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              • this whole this is so perfectly MLSE-ish, TL seems to have picked up on how they operate (as bass-ackwards as possible) pretty quickly.

                why was BC retained? well, i guess it's for appearances...we know he's a smooth operator, with friends on the board, so he must have had enough cache to sway at least a couple people his way; agree with others that this is more than likely temporary until he can hoodwink another team into hiring him.

                who will they hire as GM? anyone's guess. ujiri makes sense, i suppose...i was disappointed they 'let' him go in the first place, but he was ready to move up, and the offer from the nuggs was there, and TO had BC entrenched. i really don't get some of the (dumb) arguments being made here that ujiri returning to TO would be an act of disloyalty to the nuggs. sorry, but while the nuggs gave him his 'first' shot (as GM), he was also the lowest-paid GM in the L (perhaps warranted, given his experience, but still). plus, this is SPORTS...what is loyalty? weaver is a guy i was hoping for a couple years ago, and still think he'd be a top-notch option, but would he want to join this organization, with this roster, and with this mess of a management situation, as his first GM job?

                where do they go from here? who the fuck knows. they're in a tough position, with some virtually untradeable assets who are highly overpaid for what they provide (gay, fields, bargs), some assets who are very, very tradeable because they are awesome, cheap & have great potential (ok, AN asset - JV), with pretty much everyone else on the roster (under contract) as kind of meh. lowry was supposed to offer great value, but who really knows now. derozan? please. amir's the only guy not on a rookie deal you can point to on this roster and say is absolutely worth what he's making...but who knows if that will hold up?

                so, no picks, no available cash, overpaid players, management situation in flux, potential lame-duck head coach (and staff). seems like a great situation.

                the more things change...
                TRUE LOVE - Sometimes you know it the instant you see it across the bar.

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                • This is my favorite part of the article:

                  Leiweke addressed concerns that keeping Colangelo around would complicate things for any new hire by stressing that the new GM will have complete authority on basketball matters and will report directly to Leiweke, not Colangelo.

                  ''If anyone ultimately disrupts that process, then I'll clean it up,'' Leiweke said.

                  Colangelo said he understood the message from his new boss.

                  ''The bottom line is, if I get in the way, I'm not going to be around,'' he said.
                  Fun times.
                  your pal,
                  ebrian

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                  • yertu damkule wrote: View Post
                    where do they go from here? who the fuck knows. they're in a tough position, with some virtually untradeable assets who are highly overpaid for what they provide (gay, fields, bargs), some assets who are very, very tradeable because they are awesome, cheap & have great potential (ok, AN asset - JV), with pretty much everyone else on the roster (under contract) as kind of meh. lowry was supposed to offer great value, but who really knows now. derozan? please. amir's the only guy not on a rookie deal you can point to on this roster and say is absolutely worth what he's making...but who knows if that will hold up?

                    so, no picks, no available cash, overpaid players, management situation in flux, potential lame-duck head coach (and staff). seems like a great situation.
                    Think about what a GM lives for though, and you realize this is the perfect opportunity. A general manager in sports really is the clean up guy. It's Newman from Seinfeld, whose solution to Elaine's excess muffin stumps is to bring in a few jugs of milk. Or "The Wolf" from Pulp Fiction, called in to clean up an accidental shooting to the face and a blood-soaked car. A GM enters a bad situation and tries to make it good again. That's what they live for.

                    It's the same reason Tim Leiweke came here in the first place. He sees Toronto's potential, sees the mess we're in and wants to be the guy credited for turning it around.

                    Imagine if you were a GM, and you just inherited the Miami Heat. There wouldn't be a whole lot to do. You might win a bunch of championships, but ultimately your resume wouldn't say a lot because someone else assembled that team. The job of Heat GM would be to keep everything status quo. I think the reason the Raptors could be perceived as a dream scenario for a GM is because of the mess, not in spite of it.
                    Last edited by ebrian; Wed May 22, 2013, 09:14 AM.
                    your pal,
                    ebrian

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                    • Craiger wrote: View Post
                      To be blunt, I'd be shocked to see this team get dismantled, atleast this offseason or during this coming year, UNLESS they bomb the first half of next season. No matter who the next GM is.
                      I tend to agree, although, after the last couple of days, I have no idea what they are thinking/doing. At this point, nothing would surprise me. The entrance of Rogers/Bell doesn't seem to have made much of a difference early on for the Raptors - looks a lot like the same old, same old MLSE.

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                      • good points, and i can't disagree. but we all know that this is a results-oriented business (well, outside of TO it is), and considering how much work is involved in getting this team to where it needs to be to be a legit championship contender (i.e. not just playoff fodder, which is where they are now, if everything breaks just right), by the time the ship is righted, a new GM who has worked magic will likely only be seeing the fruits of their labour come to fruition 2, 3, 4 years down the road may be on the verge of being ousted. does anyone think that the next GM will be given nearly as much leeway/time to rebuild/retool/tweak (whatever the fuck it was that BC was doing this last 1/2-decade) as the previous regime? and if you're an up-and-coming GM, who is going to be getting a good shot at multiple locations (as is the case with weaver), it likely behooves him to wait & see what else is out there. being 'the guy' to turn around a franchise is great & all, but considering how rarely that actually happens, it's also a risky proposition for one's very first GM job.

                        as it stands, i'm going to give TL the benefit of the doubt and trust that he has enough bball instinct to know the difference between a team being constructed for show, and one for go.
                        TRUE LOVE - Sometimes you know it the instant you see it across the bar.

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                        • I am sorry if already posted. Thought you should want to hear:

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                          • ebrian wrote: View Post
                            Think about what a GM lives for though, and you realize this is the perfect opportunity. A general manager in sports really is the clean up guy. It's Newman from Seinfeld, whose solution to Elaine's excess muffin stumps is to bring in a few jugs of milk. Or "The Wolf" from Pulp Fiction, called in to clean up an accidental shooting to the face and a blood-soaked car. A GM enters a bad situation and tries to make it good again. That's what they live for.

                            It's the same reason Tim Leiweke came here in the first place. He sees Toronto's potential, sees the mess we're in and wants to be the guy credited for turning it around.

                            Imagine if you were a GM, and you just inherited the Miami Heat. There wouldn't be a whole lot to do. You might win a bunch of championships, but ultimately your resume wouldn't say a lot because someone else assembled that team. The job of Heat GM would be to keep everything status quo. I think the reason the Raptors could be perceived as a dream scenario for a GM is because of the mess, not in spite of it.
                            This assumes people in general, and more specifically people in the world of business, enjoy or crave a challenge. Its been my experience this isn't the case. As Yertu points out the league (and really business in general) is results driven. There is alot more money to be made and an easier reputation to be built when you step into an easy situation rather than a tough one. I feel very confident saying, if all else is equal, a GM would take a job with an existing star/first overall pick/lots of cap space etc, over the opposite 99% of time.

                            That said, there are only 30 NBA GM jobs available in the world, and few are available in any given year, so the Raptors will have no problem finding someone to fill the job. Whether thats the person they apparently want - Masai, Phil J, Pritchard etc - given the other options available to them is a different story.

                            I do hope your right though.

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                            • I don't understand why you people are still focusing on Colangelo. What does it matter what his new "title" or "role" is with the raptors? The only thing us fans have to worry about is who is in charge of building our team.

                              And that is no longer Colangelo.

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                              • phez wrote: View Post
                                I don't understand why you people are still focusing on Colangelo. What does it matter what his new "title" or "role" is with the raptors? The only thing us fans have to worry about is who is in charge of building our team.

                                And that is no longer Colangelo.
                                Yeah, I have to agree.

                                It was made pretty clear he has no say in basketball decisions and if BC forces the issue TL is not going to "fire the Toronto Raptors." There are a lots of things to focus on in his role: 2016 All-Star game, rebranding nonsense, new state of the art training facility.

                                I would consider myself a pretty hardcore fan and I don't really care which direction they go with the franchise right now. I am just excited for a new direction where ever that takes the franchise.

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