1.) He is gearing up to have a much flexibility as humanly possible in 2015
2.) adamant about not taking on any long term contracts. Which makes it tough to tank when you wont take back shit contracts.
3.) Only tanking that is going to occur will be of the natural variety. I.E. we just end up plain sucking. As he says its win-win if we suck we win if we don't we win.
Its number 3 which concerns me. What if we are just some where in the middle?
Stay patient, stay calm, see what a little consistency can do for our team, evaluate max potential in the system of his choice, and if you do well, hoorah!, if not: 2014 draft man!
Just on SN590 radio interview; not sure if a slip of the tongue considering how much ujiri and his staff have kept to themselves, but he pretty much just flatly said it. They have a 2 year plan for the raptors.
There are some implications for this. The 2014 draft class, and the 2014 free agency, both absolutely loaded with talent and possibly the most loaded year in the NBA in recent history, is only just next year, rather than the 2015 "end of 2 year plan" date.
We all know Ujiri is looking to "build" this team and its talents in much the same way he did for denver. Ujiri hasn't done anything with the core of the team (bargs obv doesnt count), but has made significant changes to the bench.
And let's not forget we have some draft picks, finally.
But then I keep going back to TL, "we want to build a championship team". By all means TL has indicated this will be an accelerated process as well.
One thing to take away from this 590 interview is that in the next year with Ujiri and Casey's new development staff, they will take a fresh look at the raptors over the year, rather than relying on data from BC's tenure.
Ujiri has said along the lines of "it doesnt matter" if the raptors succeed or if the fail, the point is to gauge where the players are at.
Based on all these things and what they've said in the past months, I feel like they will be pushing hard for player development, increasing our player's talents to match the random market values BC pulled out of his ass, and to increase raptor brand value.
I mean, this is exactly what he did in Denver. I feel there will be big moves for the 2014-2015 year, despite this "2 year" statement.
They said there's a two year plan (to be championship contenders if you go with TL's line of thought) maybe that involves 2015 FAs: speculation get our own big 3
get Rondo, LaMarcus, to join Gay ... while JV and Ross would still be on rookie contracts
At first I thought, "Oh good gawd. Not another man with a plan."
But all we know is he has goals for the next two years.
What those goals are is entirely speculation at this point.
Considering the reason Colangelo got fired was because he thought this roster could compete and Leiweke has made it clear this is a treadmill team, whatever the plan is, big changes will occur between now and 2015.
I think the team stays as is until a beneficial deal comes along. I think the Raptors take a step backward before making multiple step forwards when it is all said and done. But like Ujiri, I will be patient. He has shown enough of his cards to let everyone (fans/opposing teams) know whatever he is planning will be on his terms and to his benefit.
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