The feeling of seeing Masai Ujiri doing work in comparison to Bryan Colangelo

[tonious35]

Hey Raptor Republicans.

I was contemplating within myself during this off-season:

Is it me or do I have the true feeling that Masai is making the right moves because he really knows what he's doing?

Based on Results: Masai's work allowed the Raps to get franchise high in wins in 2015, and franchise tie of wins in 2014. Though both resulted in Rd. 1 exits in the playoffs, but the feelings of trust in the Raptor fans and myself still feel strong in the current Raps management.

So Masai kept Casey to the dismay of my knee-jerky self, but it honestly was the right thing to do on the team, in a political, and sane/professional managerial stand-point.

When thinking back to Bryan Colangelo's entire body of work in Toronto, he kinda had the same result as Masai did in his first two seasons. Well, okay, the second season was a bit of a disappointment to say the least (waning end, and Magic raping in the butt).

Most of Bryan Colangelo's work after season one (@2007) have been really, really dumb IMHO. He traded a 1st pick that could be quality like Hibbert-before-contract extension, for injured (yet cap-relief) O'Neal. Then same year, he traded JO'Neal's big-cap-relief-injury-that-will-help-us-tank in exchange for useless wins that cost us the chance to get Curry (thx Marion). Next he wasted money on Turkoglu that caused Bosh to tell Toronto to go screw themselves in the off-season of 2010. Finally, in Colangelo's shit-stained hands, he selected Ross over Drummond (Excuse my German, !fuck you! Colangelo). Don't forget about Kapono too.

It's only year three off-season for Masai, but the Carroll, Joseph, Biyombo, Scola signings, plus Wright and Powell Drafts are looking like smart calculated choices that Masai has taken with confidence. Also the pushing and introduction of the D-League Raptors (extra thanks to Leiwike, and the Bruno factor). I really have trust that Masai's style and ideals of management will keep the Raptors in competitive and dynamic team building cycle until we can snag a super-star for the Championship contention.

That's my view to the story, what are your thoughts?

[Hotshot]

Colangelo never had the patience of allowing the team to grow organically through the draft and internally, while maintaining flexibility and having more picks for the future. He threw money at players that never really pan out, he took gambles in draft where he shouldn't (selecting Bargnani over Aldridge) and played it safe where he shouldn't (took Ross over Drummond). Colangelo seemed to always be chasing his own tail.

Masai is less reactionary and is looking out for the health of the team long terms . With 4 first round picks in the next 2 years and the roster being not committed to long term bloated killer contracts while remaining very competitive, the Raptors are in best shape they probably ever been.

[Blacklash2k4]

Colangelo never had the patience of allowing the team to grow organically through the draft and internally, while maintaining flexibility and having more picks for the future. He threw money at players that never really pan out, he took gambles in draft where he shouldn't (selecting Bargnani over Aldridge) and played it safe where he shouldn't (took Ross over Drummond). Colangelo seemed to always be chasing his own tail.

Masai is less reactionary and is looking out for the health of the team long terms . With 4 first round picks in the next 2 years and the roster being not committed to long term bloated killer contracts while remaining very competitive, the Raptors are in best shape they probably ever been.

Unfortunately, that's not really saying much, but I agree. Masai is doing a much better job than BC ever did.

[Miekenstien]

i checked "results based" because all of his love will be lost. one thing masai does well is temper expectations. he values non current assets more than colangelo ever did. he, unlike colangelo, has the patience to not make a move. colangelo won his executives of the year on swing for the fences deals. then i think he got addicted to them, he believed that he just needed the right players and magic happened. would look for a player he think might make the magic and would go all out getting said player. his bets all seemed to be based on the hypothetical upper echelon draft pick going the other way if his trades worked out.
also everything might be different without a garbo injury or ford injury.

masai has a plan and isn't re-planning every year. i think he has made fantastic trades, drafted well and done great money managing. mchappy, not singling you out just an example, had colangelo as his avatar for years. hates him now. that could happen in a year or two here with masai as well.

[SkywalkerAC]

I don't view Colangelo as the anti-Christ like some, but I love the demeanour, the humility, that Masai brings to the table. That alone is a massive difference from what BC had going on.

[S.R.]

masai has a plan and isn't re-planning every year.

That's a really good summary. Masai's said he's trying to "be competitive now AND build for the future at the same time," which you can definitely see him trying to execute.

That said, a couple important points of context for BC: there was always a "win now" pressure because the Raps had Bosh and were trying to put a winning squad together ASAP as he was already in his prime and you don't want to lose your perennial All-Star at the end of his contract. There isn't quite the same expectation with a Lowry/DD team. Also, a lot of BC's moves were pretty well received at the time. It was mostly seven years of hindsight that moved everybody into the "well, that sucked" camp. Finally, the way BC operated was the way most GMs operated 10+ years ago, and the way MU is building is the way most savvy GMs build now. Philosophies have changed and internal development of young players is much more widely valued now than in thr past. 10 years ago a winning team might have one or two you guys they're working on, but nothing like the Raps are working on now. Also because rookie scale deals have become much more highly valued.

[Apollo]

Hey Raptor Republicans.

I was contemplating within myself during this off-season:

Is it me or do I have the true feeling that Masai is making the right moves because he really knows what he's doing?

I don't think this is fair. I'm not going to detail everything Colangelo has done in his career but the guy has hit many home runs in the draft, FA and via trades. He's also had playoff successes. More so than the Raptors have seen. His problem is that he's a big risk taker and the risks he took in Toronto mostly all blew up in his face.

Is Ujiri a better GM than Colangelo? I'd say certainly yes. Is Colangelo incompetent and incapable of running a pro team? I'd say clearly no. He's better than some people running teams in the league and was one of the darlings of the league prior to Toronto.

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[Raptorfanatic]

Colangelo tried to go for it every year.........unfortunately it did not pan out...didn't seem to plan to far into the future.
His last move to take Ross over Drummond was another example of not taking the best player available.....Bargnani over Aldridge

Ujiri benefited from extremely good fortune/luck ..tried to tank in his first year...got rid of Gay and tried to get rid of Lowry ..then turns around and wins Division...at least he will admit he never anticipated that result.
Last year a different story won division as expected but failed to pull the trigger to bring a big man for rebounding for the playoffs. Raptors with the right addition were in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The recent signings by Ujiri are positive but still need a starting PF....had a chance to get Portis to help address the team's weakest position and takes Wright....who will play behind Lowry and Joseph. For that matter he selected Caboclo over Hood the previous year. I hope that move pays off but at least we have Carroll for 4 years at SF.
I know Joseph was signed after the draft but I suspect the Raptors had him and Carroll targeted from the beginning.
This year (3rd) will tell us what kind of GM Ujiri is ....much like Colangelo.

[JimiCliff]

My feeling about Colangelo is that, because he was gifted his place in the NBA by his father, he was constantly trying to prove himself as being some kind of basketball savant by taking gambles and thinking outside the box.

Masai, on the other hand, doesn't gamble and doesn't think outside the box.

And the results are speaking for themselves. He's already had more success than Colangelo (in terms of raw wins), while at the same time accumulating more assets than Colangelo ever did in a two year period.

[Miekenstien]

And the results are speaking for themselves. He's already had more success than Colangelo (in terms of raw wins), while at the same time accumulating more assets than Colangelo ever did in a two year period.

in toronto. colangelo put together a pretty good pheonix team that was one brain fart away from taking down the spurs in the playoffs.

picking amare and signing nash were brilliant, and that is where i think he overthought his position. he got lucky one time and he figured he could do it again. in toronto, his last year and a half he did ok with asset accumulation, but he got here with the top pick, a superstar in the making and shit tons of money. i think i would have made the bargnani pick as well. he is noted as
saying he wanted to move down a couple and still take bargs but no one was trading. like masai last year with bruno except his was #1.

enter the league, get fucked out of #1 pick we should of had. win the lottery and get fucked out of drafting high school players. two franchise altering anomalies. i think joel mchale was right and we have to sacrifice the biebs

[JimiCliff]

in toronto. colangelo put together a pretty good pheonix team that was one brain fart away from taking down the spurs in the playoffs.

picking amare and signing nash were brilliant

Nash was brilliant in hindsight, but no one could have guessed it would have worked out as well as it did. He was literally the perfect player for that team and system, and probably one of only two players in the league (other than J Kidd) who makes that team anything other than a first round exit year after year. It was a gamble, and it worked, big time. Give someone enough chances, and you'll see some gambles pay off.

[Joey]

Now I'm no BC Apologist, but going into last year, our record winning season, Colangelo was responsible for bringing in 4 out of 5 starters. This year, 3 out of 5. And in all of Masai's wisdom, he hasn't seen reason to change that, so obviously BC did something right.

As for the Rudy Gay trade, many around here were clamouring for us to trade for Gay before there was even talk of it being a real possibility. I even remember a hashtag perhaps? And considering what we traded for him (and I didn't like the trade when it happened) it still wasn't a bad deal.
Not to mention that I'm sure Masai will be the first to credit BC with "taking him under his wing" or something along those lines as well.

But ya.. Masai is way better.

[Miekenstien]

Nash was brilliant in hindsight, but no one could have guessed it would have worked out as well as it did. He was literally the perfect player for that team and system, and probably one of only two players in the league (other than J Kidd) who makes that team anything other than a first round exit year after year. It was a gamble, and it worked, bit time. Give someone enough chances, and you'll see some gambles pay off.

exactly what i am saying. that happened early in his gm career, and gave him the false confidence he could do it again

[Joey]

Nash was brilliant in hindsight, but no one could have guessed it would have worked out as well as it did. He was literally the perfect player for that team and system, and probably one of only two players in the league (other than J Kidd) who makes that team anything other than a first round exit year after year. It was a gamble, and it worked, big time. Give someone enough chances, and you'll see some gambles pay off.

I don't think that's fair. I think they knew exactly what they were getting from Nash. He was an All-Star with Dallas after all. Though I do remember people were completely blown away by the deal, but Phoenix made a big presentation and they REALLY wanted Nash.

[JimiCliff]

Now I'm no BC Apologist, but going into last year, our record winning season, Colangelo was responsible for bringing in 4 out of 5 starters. This year, 3 out of 5. And in all of Masai's wisdom, he hasn't seen reason to change that, so obviously BC did something right.

As for the Rudy Gay trade, many around here were clamouring for us to trade for Gay before there was even talk of it being a real possibility. I even remember a hashtag perhaps? And considering what we traded for him (and I didn't like the trade when it happened) it still wasn't a bad deal.
Not to mention that I'm sure Masai will be the first to credit BC with "taking him under his wing" or something along those lines as well.

But ya.. Masai is way better.

I don't really buy this line of thinking. The main strength of our team over the last two years has been bench play, and that was all Masai. And as for Masai not changing those starters: his very first move was getting rid of the starting centre. Soon after he gets rid of the starting SF. Then he has trade in place to get rid of the starting PG...only to have it nixed by an owner. And if the PG is gone, the SG might have very well been next. As has been written here ad nauseum, no one expected the team to start playing like they did after the Gay trade; the tear down was under way.