Masai Ujiri said "We need a culture reset"

[Bendit]

I took Masai to say he was having Casey return...albeit with a new commitment on the offensive side ...at least more ball movement and away from the dreaded/dead end/playoffnogo style iso basketball.

My own wish is to retain PJ & Ibaka as spearheading the defensive commitment. As mentioned above no softies on defense on the team including KL & DD. Defense first team and let the Offense flow from it. If Dwane is unable to manage the change after the first quarter he probably goes. Tweak the team with some 3 pt. talent/specialists.

[Jclaw]

I was going to start exactly the same thread. This was the first bomb from Masai today. Culture change was the main thing he talked about in his first ever press conference as GM. He succeeded completely, I think he means it when he says it. I just don't know what he means.

[Hotshot]

I was going to start exactly the same thread. This was the first bomb from Masai today. Culture change was the main thing he talked about in his first ever press conference as GM. He succeeded completely, I think he means it when he says it. I just don't know what he means.

- Well one thing we do know is that the whole 2 guard dominated system that bails the team out with their ISO throughout the season will change one way or another. Sharing the ball and becoming more creative on offence is the way to go.

- I also think the whole half court system worked well during the season, but during the playoffs the offence was stalled since the other team defense adjusted quickly. Our playbook of set plays is predictable. When the Raptors started to run that's when things got interesting and exciting.

- Defense will be once again be a key focus but the 3 ball will also now be up there. If you are a 3 pointer shooter and you miss on an open shot constantly, then you are not good enough to be a 3 pointer shooter specialist.

[golden]

Thank you, Masai. Way too late.... but thank you....

“Because we’ve done what we’ve done so many times and it hasn’t worked. That’s the simple answer. We can only try that so much, and it just hasn’t worked. It’s easy to defend in my opinion when you play 1-on-1, it’s predictable, we talked about it with coach, we feel we have to go in another direction, like I don’t know what it is…Is this going to work in the playoffs? We’ve always had that concern and we’ve always said it. There’s something there. Does it make it easier for teams to prepare against us, to prepare against 1-on-1 type basketball, dribbling a lot type basketball? We’re good at it, I think we’ve maximized in some kind of way, and we do appreciate that. We’ve seen this continuous, it’s not something all of a sudden we’re saying. I think in your minds, you’re hoping, you identify, you are hoping and hoping, but it hasn’t worked for us and we’ve run into the same issues. Again, I’m not making excuses here, and maybe it’s the kind of players we’re getting or something, but we want to try a different way maybe, and I’ve talked to Casey about that.”

A ton of great and pretty direct quotes from Masai. Didn't seem like he's holding back too much, especially on his dislike of the style of play. That's some serious shade being thrown at Casey (and Jeff Weltman).

http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2017/...rything-table/

[Scraptor]

I took Masai to say he was having Casey return...albeit with a new commitment on the offensive side ...at least more ball movement and away from the dreaded/dead end/playoffnogo style iso basketball.

Just empty promises if Casey is back. Just like training camp's "we're going to involve JV more".

Casey, Kyle, and DeMar are who they are. They aren't going to magically turn into the Warriors East. If they were all young and moldable it kight be a possibility, but after this much time you always revert to what's comfortable.

Remember when DeMar kept saying he was going to shoot more threes? It lasted a month or two and then faded away.

The only way to reset the culture is to shake up the three-headed monster.

[JamesNaismith]

This is just a round about way of blaming coaching and the role players which is weak.

You can't believe in a "culture reset" then you want to bring back Lowry.

Lowry is supposed to be THE leader of the team, even DeMar refers to him as such and he was the guy saying "there's no closing the gap with LeBron"...I mean your team's leader basically just said we can't catch up to him, he's just better than us.

Culture isn't just style of play. It's way of life and a way of thinking and behaving.

So your team leader is telling his guys that we can't beat LeBron, there's no closing gap between them and us and that losing mentality was shown when Kyle also didn't bother attempting to play in either of the final 2 games. These were obviously THE 2 biggest games of the year, win or go home and you sit out????? His injury wasn't even like JV's last year when it had him in crutches and a temp cast. Kyle was out there shooting and practising and he just DECIDED he wasn't going to play through pain, when your team just got blown out the previous 2 and you show you're not even going to try....f*ck that, that showed in addition to what he said that he just gave up (which is also in addition to DeMar's weak comments of paying $100 to stop LeBron and we would win too if we had him)....those are your LEADERS!

Your soldiers follow suit and if they don't believe it what chance the other guys do?! PJ and Serge can't carry a team. Your best players need to believe it so this all lip service from Masai when he says he wants a culture reset and then says he WANTS back a player with a losing/defeated mentality like Lowry. As the saying goes, what the mind can conceive and believe it can acheive....these guys don't believe it and I'm not buying this bs.

[thead]

Culture reset = pass the fucking ball

[psrs1]

Complete culture change starting with coach and ending with cheerleaders.

In agreement. Larry Bird may be right when he says players stop listening to coaches after 3 years.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

If MU's statements are more than just "BS" as he mentioned these pressers are, it's hard to understand how the core (Casey/Lowry/DeRozan) could be retained through a culture change.

Especially if Lowry walks, then the timing and situation is perfect to dump Casey and trade DeRozan while his value is high.

As has been argued on RR for years, DeRozan epitomizes the 'old' NBA - an ISO volume-scorer, who can't hit a three or defend. When you try to build around a fundamentally flawed player, how can you possibly expect to legitimately compete with the true contenders? Spoiler - you can't.

Could any/all of Casey, Lowry and DeRozan embrace a major shift? Sure. But that's not their character, and it goes against every instinct and fiber of their basketball being.

It's just hard to imagine MU actually following through with any meaningful change, but a culture change can't be achieved by simply changing the secondary pieces, so only time will tell.

[JamesNaismith]

In agreement. Larry Bird may be right when he says players stop listening to coaches after 3 years.

Pops would yell "that's bullshit!!" right now but he's busy trying to coach his team to another Finals as he has been since the 90s.

[KHD]

Pops would yell "that's bullshit!!" right now but he's busy trying to coach his team to another Finals as he has been since the 90s.

Pop also had the most coachable star in league history for 19 years. if tim duncan is listening to pop you better get in line. also the spurs have gotten rid of many a guy who didn't accept their philosophy.

I think Larry Bird's quote is off base a bit and over-generalized, but when it's been multiple years with the same mistakes it's time to change things.

[Bendit]

Just empty promises if Casey is back. Just like training camp's "we're going to involve JV more".

Casey, Kyle, and DeMar are who they are. They aren't going to magically turn into the Warriors East. If they were all young and moldable it kight be a possibility, but after this much time you always revert to what's comfortable.

Remember when DeMar kept saying he was going to shoot more threes? It lasted a month or two and then faded away.

The only way to reset the culture is to shake up the three-headed monster.

I do not disagree with this in principle. This would have to change in some fashion. KL & DD have too much emphasis re the offence and do not/cannot pay enough attention to defence. DC of course enables this. So that culture must change. I mentioned in another post that I dont think the new arrivals PJ & Ibaka took to that too well.

Anyway, it's just 48 hrs and we have some time to go and dominoes to fall. I watched again some of MU's presser...he had good things to say...and I'd be much disappointed if there weren't some serious changes made.

[S.R.]

Just empty promises if Casey is back. Just like training camp's "we're going to involve JV more".

Casey, Kyle, and DeMar are who they are. They aren't going to magically turn into the Warriors East. If they were all young and moldable it kight be a possibility, but after this much time you always revert to what's comfortable.

Remember when DeMar kept saying he was going to shoot more threes? It lasted a month or two and then faded away.

The only way to reset the culture is to shake up the three-headed monster.

I agree. I think there's too much overlap in their flaws, all 3 of them, and it handicaps the team every spring.

[slaw]

Culture usually is driven by vision, values, practices, people, narrative and place. In the Raps case, I got the sense that Ujiri was saying that the practices of the team are off the rails a little. Some of that is ordinary course stuff (every org constantly tweaks things) but there was definitely more to his comments. To Bendit's point, for example, Casey has always preached defence first but maybe Ibaka and Tucker were surprised to see that, in practice, that didn't apply to Lowry or Derozan. Stuff like that.

If that's what he thinks is wrong then he needs a new coach and maybe some new management blood, too.

[slaw]

Could any/all of Casey, Lowry and DeRozan embrace a major shift? Sure. But that's not their character, and it goes against every instinct and fiber of their basketball being.

It's just hard to imagine MU actually following through with any meaningful change, but a culture change can't be achieved by simply changing the secondary pieces, so only time will tell.

Meh, Derozan completely rebuilt his game 4 years ago. You incentivize a guy the right way and he will buy in. Casey will buy in cause he's a company guy. If the company tells him to go right then he will go right. If two seconds later they tell him right is wrong and left is right he'll go that way. Lowry is trickier but you never know. I've seen way more successful and way more stubborn people change if the reward is there. But it will be easier with a new coach.

Ujirir has overseen massive change in Toronto. i know it's not the praying for lottery balls that many would prefer but to say you don't think the guy will make meaningful changes belies everything he's done in both Denver and Toronto.