The NBA attracts the best and brightest basketball minds in the world. That’s what mountains of money will do in today’s capitalist world. Teams can offer those mountains because they’ll make far far more back if they can unlock team construction secrets and win more games. It’s amazing to watch the teams that the absolute smartest basketball minds have assembled battle it out nightly for a full season just to determine 1 or 2 more wins than the other guy’s team. The differences between these basketball geniuses is truly difficult to measure.
Masai
Masai Ujiri came into NBA basketball with the Denver Nuggets as an international scout. Many might not know he played basketball all over Europe and a lot in England but we’ll leave that story to another day. Actually Masai did some unpaid scouting for Orlando before the Nuggets hired him but money talks and everyone needs to eat so the Nuggets got Masai. 4 years later he was scooped away by Brian Colangelo in Toronto and eventually promoted to assistant GM. The Nuggets stole Masai back in 2010 as GM and VP in charge of all Basketball operations. He was finally the guy and he got to implement his basketball team construction theories. He took over from Mark Warkentein who won NBA executive of the year only 1 year earlier. It was a huge move for the Nuggets. This is where our story today begins…
Masai took over a top quality franchise in Denver. They had won 50 games or more for 3 straight years. Masai’s first year would see 50 wins while the shortened second year would see a poor 38 -28 record. His third year the team would bounce back with 57 wins…the most in over 2 decades. Let’s look at the player moves Masai made and see what we learn about his team construction philosophies!
Masai’s Vision
Masai's very first moves were to sign Marvin Ely, a 6’10” PF and Gary Forbes, a 6’7” Guard. If you know a bit about the current team Masai runs, our Raptors, you’re likely already well aware of where this story is headed. Neither signing was a big impact but the theory of bigger athletic players is obvious. Masai’s immediate big task was to trade away Carmelo Anthony. He was a young superstar and the Nuggets had a rapidly aging group around him that needed to be rebuilt. Carmelo didn’t want to go through a rebuild so refused an extension. Masai had to trade him to get something so swung a deal with the Knicks. He masterfully played the Nets off vs the Knicks in a bidding war that cemented Masai’s young career as a good NBA executive. The big piece in return was Danilo Gallinari who played great in Denver and has had an excellent NBA career. Of course a 6’10” forward…no surprise. The ‘other guy’ was Wilson Chandler…a 6’8” forward who was a young core piece in NY and turned into a Rock Solid Core piece in Denver. Masai’s widely regarded as winning the trade and setting Denver up for the full rebuild they would do after Masai was hired away to Toronto…apparently breaking a handshake deal to stay in Denver. Before bolting thou Masai would bring in JaVale MaGee which would turn out to be an injury disaster in Denver but there was no way for Masai to predict that would happen from his spotless history at the time of the trade. JaVale was a 7 footer in case you’re wondering…
Vision 6’9”
So Raptor fans really need to understand the Vision Masai is bringing to the Raptors. “Vision 6’9” is absolutely, 100% Masai’s theory on winning NBA basketball. He immediately implemented his vision in Denver and he was in fact hired AWAY from Toronto to GM the Nuggets because of his basketball vision. Nick Nurse was promoted to Head Coach after Dwayne Casey won Coach of the Year simply because his style of hyper aggressive play fits Vision 6’9” type players the best. It’s a marriage of basketball minds. Masai with the Tall, athletic ‘do it all’ players and Nick with the hyper aggressive, switch happy ‘play all positions’ style. Casey’s idea of using every player to their ‘maximum’ potential doesn’t fit Vision 6’9”. Masai will simply bring in ALL players that fit Vision 6’9” so the coach can use them all the same way…hyper aggressively. Casey is old school NBA thinking where the coach adapts the system to maximize winning. Masai is new school thinking where he decides the best way for the team to play and only brings in players that fit that style.
Reality
However Masai’s ‘Vision’ has clearly run into the reality of a rapidly changing NBA landscape. Nobody could have predicted how fast the league would turn into a 3 pt shooting league 15 years ago when Masai was just breaking into the league. Masai’s Vision has NOT focused on great shooters while many teams have greatly emphasized shooting in their player drafting strategy. Nick Nurse has convinced Masai that he can coach better shooting given enough time. The results are mixed in Toronto to date and while Nick currently claims shooting ‘gains’ are not linear…as in all the shooting work suddenly kicks in after a longer development period… that theory is far from proven. There certainly is a lot of NBA evidence showing players do shoot better over their entire careers…but that’s a long development window. The NBA has moved to better shooting so fast young players are pushing out older vets at an astonishing speed now…simply because they shoot so much better right out of high school and college.
Double Down
The recent move to add Jacob Poeltl in a ‘contrarian’ move to what the rest of the American NBA ‘talking heads’ expected, a big trade to re-tool, speaks volumes about Masai’s team construction philosophies yet again. He’s clearly prioritizing defensive ability and size and length over shooting…yet again. Brilliant people tend to stick to their ideas much more than others I’ve learned. The Raptors were one of the worst 3 pt shooting teams in the NBA BEFORE the Jak trade…and Jak can’t shoot farther than 5 feet from the basket. In fact his shooting from the free throw line is so bad he’s a liability on the floor late in games where he has already been intentionally fouled simply to get a turnover and advantage given his sub .600 free throw shooting (Yeah I saw what you did Jokic!). It’s no surprise Jak has been seen non-stop shooting free throws after practices. Nick started his magic shooting lessons immediately and they include untold amounts of reps. Jak will be shooting more free throws than anyone else in the NBA. Hope he understands that before he re-signs in Toronto!
A Big Offensive Change
However there is much more team construction going on with the addition of Jak. The most successful offensive play in the NBA is the Pick n Roll. It’s used an absoulte ton by almost all NBA teams to generate offense. The Raptors were one of the lowest PnR use teams…prior to the addition of Jak. Now Freddy and Jak are on an absolute PnR tear. In fact the whole team is starting to integrate PnR actions much more. It’s been successful in Toronto already as Jak has a tremendous finishing ability as well as great passing vision to finish the roll with more than simple shots at the rim. This offensive change brings Toronto much more in line with traditional NBA offense generation. Prior to Jak they relied much more on individual match up exploitation…ie: ISO. While Pascal is the obvious leader in that much of the Raptors offense prior was free flowing Nick letting guys who feel a defensive mismatch try to exploit it. The Vision 6’9” theory is that an exploitable matchup will be there because your tall athletic team can’t all be covered defensively. In practice it’s very hard to actually exploit other teams defensive weaknesses because they work hard to cover them up. Thus the shift to more PnR offensively is an adjustment to Vision 6’9” theory and a realization that what the majority of the NBA is doing actually works very well and is needed.
Where is this all going?
Good Question! The Raptors have a summer of Salary Cap Hell coming up immediately after these playoffs end. They are around $45 mil over the Luxury Tax if everyone gets their ‘anticipated’ salaries. That’s a huge amount of salary to ship out while not taking much back in return. Masai is going to have to work hard and fast because he doesn’t want to be the last one standing when trading partners have all found chairs. He probably already knows teams that will cough up lots of draft picks to replace the ones he gave up to get Jak. He already knows the values of his players as practically every single one of them have been shopped this trade deadline. The player values won’t change much from the deadline to after the playoffs. While there may be some last minute intrigue Masai certainly has a well informed game plan for this summer. We don’t know it but if any insider wants to give me the scoop your just a confidential email to ‘raptorsslander@proton.me’ away from telling hungry fans!
Crystal Ball Time
Fans do know one thing…Masai has a Vision and it’s not suddenly changing. I would be shocked if any player under 6’6” is traded for by Masai…at any position. They would have to be All Star material. I would be shocked if he traded Pascal who fits Masai’s Vision absolutely perfectly. I would NOT be shocked to see Gary, a less versatile player and great shooter, traded away as Masai doesn’t value his skills as much as other GM’s do. I would be shocked if Jak wasn’t resigned because of his defensive value and PnR skills. I would be shocked if a great point guard to run the PnR with Jak wasn’t signed…that very likely being Freddy unless some great deal to replace him with a younger, cheaper and taller version happened. Someone like Markelle Fultz? 90% it’s Freddy thou. It’s almost certain that Thad is gone. Boucher has a value around the league and makes too much money to keep most likely. O.G. is so valuable for his contract the team simply can’t afford to trade him away. Precious is another Masai protege…I’d fall off this chair he gets traded away. Will Barton is a cheap vet that can play better than we’ve seen and will fit the tight Salary Cap situation next year. Great insurance in case Freddy walks because in UFA negotiations you simply never know what some people might do.
So there is a little Basketball talk about the Raptors for you. I find that when I know the people making the decisions better I understand the decisions better. I like to know Masai better. I certainly don’t always like the decisions! I’m not a big fan of adding a non-shooting center. The league has swung so rapidly to long-range shooting it’s revolutionized the game. But as the title of this article states, very few get to actually implement their vision for success in the NBA. Masai has worked extremely hard for that privilege and responsibility. I only get to watch it and add my 2 cents occasionally. It’s enough for me thou.
Well said