Masai Ujiri's Best Moves

 I debated putting this post off until I've had more time to digest the news. I've also got some personal life things going on that make it harder to be sad about basketball stuff, lol. That being said, the Raptors are my favorite distraction in the world, and they did just do something wildly controversial on Friday that demands response from Lohensports. On Friday morning, the Raptors announced they'd be parting ways with team president Masai Ujiri after 13 seasons with the team. Many in Toronto regarded Masai as one of the best executives in all of sports. The Raptors had the most successful 13 year stretch by a long shot with Masai at the helm, and the departure came as a bit of a shock. In this post I am not going to cover why or how this happened, I'd just be speculating anyway and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter why. I wanted to take this time to go over some of my favorite moves that Masai made during his tenure as the Raptors president, which will be a fun way to look back at some of the best years in Raptors history. I will probably have more Masai posts in the near future, but today is all about the good times. 

Getting a First for Andrea Bargnani 

In one of his first moves as team president, Masai Ujiri traded Andrea Bargnani to the Knicks for a group of inconsequential role players, a 2016 first round pick and second round picks in 2014 and 2017. Bargnani was the Raptors only first overall selection in franchise history, and though he could score the basketball, he was allergic to playing defense or getting boards as a 7 footer. He was detrimental to the team's success and Masai recognized that he had to go. Apparently the Knicks didn't recognize this because they sent real draft assets out to Toronto to make the deal happen. The 2016 first ended up as the 9th pick which turned into Jakob Poeltl, a guy who's once again a member of the Raptors after being included in another deal I'll definitely get to in this post. This trade may have genuinely kickstarted the best era in Raptors franchise history. While it didn't immediately result in consequential talent on the Raptors, getting Bargs off the team was a major addition by subtraction and it led to the Raptors giving more shots to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. Bargnani went on to play just 116 more games in the NBA before calling it quits. 

The Rudy Gay Trade that Started it All

This one was almost more of an accident, but if it wasn't for the next 2 moves I'll list it'd be the greatest trade in franchise history. In 2014 after a slow start to the season, Masai Ujiri traded "franchise star" Rudy Gay to the Sacramento Kings for John Salmons, Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes. This is an interesting one, while the players the Raptors got back were all pretty useful role players for the Raps, it was more of another addition by subtraction situation. With Rudy Gay off the team, it gave space to DeMar DeRozan to operate where Rudy used to, and the team took off. That was the beginning of the We The North era, the Raptors went on a crazy run to finish out the season as the 4 seed and got the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs. Masai endeared himself to the fans by going on stage and shouting "FUCK BROOKLYN" to roaring applause. None of it could've happened without the gutsy move of trading away Rudy Gay. 

Greivis Vasquez Traded To the Bucks

Many remember Greivis Vasquez as a fun offense first backup to Kyle Lowry in the 2014/2015 season. If I close my eyes I can still see the shimmy he did after hitting a huge shot against the Wizards in the playoffs, before going on to lose the game and series in 4 of course. Masai seeing that this team had run its course, decided to trade the fan favorite to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for a 2017 first round pick and the 46th pick in the 2015 draft. The 46th pick turned into Norman Powell, and the 2017 pick became the 23rd pick, OG Anunoby. Now it took a good amount of drafting luck to turn the Vasquez trade into one of the more lopsided ones in Raptors history, but drafting was something Masai was always good at. Greivis Vasquez would go on to play just 26 more games in the NBA for his career. Norman Powell became a key member of the Raptors from 2015-2021, including being in the championship team's rotation. OG Anunoby is one of if not the best perimeter defender in the league while also being a high volume 3 point shooter. He had countless playoff moments with the Raptors and went on to be traded for 2/5 of the Raptors current starters in RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. Masai turned the last 26 games of Greivis Vasquez' career into a decade of quality starters. 

The Kawhi Trade

You can't have a Masai Ujiri trade appreciation post without the biggest trade in his career. In the summer of 2018 after the Raptors just got swept in the second round once again by LeBron and the Cavs, changes needed to be made. Masai took a big risk by trading franchise legend, and the first star guy to want to stay in Toronto, DeMar DeRozan, to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard. Jakob Poeltl was also sent to the Spurs and Danny Green was sent to the Raptors. At the time, Masai got absolutely grilled for this deal. It wasn't clear that Kawhi was even going to report to Toronto, he had stated he would only play in LA. He was coming off a mysterious injury that held him out for the majority of the previous season and the guy he was traded for was an icon in the city. All concerns were answered when Kawhi started playing. 2018/2019 was maybe the best year of Kawhi's career, he was awesome in the regular season though he needed to be load managed, then in the playoffs he was nothing short of incredible, delivering moment after moment and taking home the finals MVP. This was a move that could've gone south in so many different ways. If that 4 bounce shot in game 7 of the second round rimmed out, we could be talking about trading DeRozan just to lose in the second round again. It went in though and the Raptors are forever champions, thank you Masai. 

The Marc Gasol Trade

A move that isn't talked about as often as the Kawhi trade, but honestly might be every bit as important to that championship team. At the trade deadline in 2019 the Raptors traded Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright, CJ Miles and a second round pick to the Memphis Grizzlies for Marc Gasol. At the deadline, you wouldn't think that center was a position the Raptors needed to address with JV and Ibaka both holding it down admirably. JV did have his limitations though, especially on defense and so Masai took the opportunity to upgrade to Marc Gasol. In that season, Marc Gasol took the Raptors defense from awesome to elite. In the second round against the 76ers, Marc made Joel Embiid's life incredibly difficult allowing the Raptors to guard the 76ers without double teaming the post a lot of the time. He could stretch the floor and was a great passer opening up a lot more options on offense that the Raptors didn't have before. The Raptors don't win the championship without Marc Gasol. It's crazy too, so many people would've stopped after the Kawhi trade thinking they already shook things up enough, but Masai recognized this might be his one and only shot at the title with Kawhi, so he went all in. Gasol to this day might be my favorite Raptor ever. 

Where He Left Us

You may notice that all the best moves I mentioned above are from 6 years ago or earlier. After the championship, the Raptors had a slow drain of talent with guys aging out or moving on to new situations. While it's been a lackluster few years for the team, I think the Raptors are just now starting to be in a position again where they have a lot of depth, similar to where they were after the Rudy Gay trade. Last season Masai traded Jalen McDaniels, my candidate for worst Raptor of all time, for Davion Mitchell and 2 second round picks. The first second round pick turned into promising point guard Jamal Shead and the second was picked this year: Alijah Mitchell. Time will tell if either or both of those guys can be rotation players on a winning team, but I like what I've seen so far from Shead. Masai also completed the Siakam trade in a roundabout way essentially turning Pascal into Brandon Ingram, Ja'Kobe Walter and Jonathan Mogbo. Mogbo and Walter each had pretty promising rookie seasons, especially Walter and BI figures to be the leading scorer on the Raptors next season if all goes well. While you can gripe with trading a first round pick to get Jakob Poeltl back, or trading down in the draft to acquire Thadeus Young, I think Masai has put the team in a place where they have a ton of young talent to work with again. 

That's that! Nothing too sentimental today I am not ready to go over that yet, just remembering a legend and a guy who was far and away the best executive the Raptors have ever had.