Just as the great fable gave us the boy who cried wolf, recent 海角社区官网sports history has given us the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment executives who stick to a repetitive refrain that鈥檚 getting harder and harder to believe.
Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan has been spouting earnest public affirmations of his beloved Core Four despite alarming post-season face plants going back to 2020. And considering his team is 1-for-9 in playoff series heading into Game 1 against the Senators this weekend, let鈥檚 just say printing up tone-deaf Atlantic Division Champion T-shirts聽鈥 with 鈥淐hampion鈥 being the most prominent word聽鈥 hasn鈥檛 exactly swung the argument.
And then there鈥檚 Masai Ujiri, who spent Wednesday doing what he鈥檚 done for too many springs in Raptorland, explaining away another disappointing season while simultaneously vowing to win another championship.
鈥淚 guarantee we鈥檙e going to win here,鈥 Ujiri said.
Ujiri been enunciating this guarantee since shortly after the Raptors actually won the thing in 2019. Time ticks, though, and the underperformances pile up.
鈥淚 know it’s been a tough couple years here,鈥 Ujiri said.
A tough couple years? The Raptors just finished their sixth full season since winning the title, and they鈥檝e won precisely one playoff series over that span, playing .475 basketball. That might be not be so bad if the team president didn鈥檛 keep following up every moribund failure with another championship 鈥済uarantee鈥澛犫 one that鈥檚 verging on sounding like Charles Barkley鈥檚 hilariously buffoonish 鈥淕UAR-AN-TEE!鈥
I say 鈥渧erging鈥 because Ujiri, if he鈥檚 threatening self-parody, isn鈥檛 quite there yet. There are still reasons to believe he still knows what he鈥檚 doing. There鈥檚 the stockpile of talent that made the tank difficult. Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Jakob Poeltl are a core four that could be the heart of an Eastern Conference playoff team. Add in trade-deadline acquisition Brandon Ingram, who鈥檒l make his 海角社区官网debut in the fall, plus an emerging pool of talent that includes Ja鈥橩obe Walter, Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, Jamal Shead, Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle, and organic growth seems plausible. And that鈥檚 not even mentioning the impending lottery pick.
鈥淚 do think these players are going to make a jump and get better,鈥 Ujiri said.
How much better, is the question, and how soon?
You got the sense, listening closely Wednesday, that Ujiri would prefer sooner than later. Which is only smart. Ownership change is afoot at MLSE. Impending czar Edward Rogers famously opposed Ujiri鈥檚 lucrative 2021 contract extension, not because he questioned Ujiri鈥檚 resum茅, but because he didn鈥檛 think Ujiri was worth the eight-figure salary. If Ujiri wants to stay employed in Toronto, it would only be human nature if he felt an urgency to justify his compensation.
It will be seven years this summer that Ujiri defined his career, and set his top-of-the-industry price tag, by pulling off the trade for Kawhi Leonard that ultimately keyed Toronto鈥檚 banner raising. In the years since, Ujiri has spent plenty of time and effort trying to replicate that franchise-transforming move, or something close. Alas, the right move聽鈥 the idea of clearing the decks for Giannis Antetokounmpo, or trading for Kevin Durant聽鈥 just never materialized.
The NBA鈥檚 ever-shifting sands figure to see more than a few giant talents available in the coming months. Durant is already on the trade block in Phoenix. There are always rumblings about Antetokounmpo eventually running his course in Milwaukee. The list of potential targets will surely get longer.
And it鈥檚 fair to ask, now that 海角社区官网has young pieces, an impressive inventory of future draft picks, and tradable contracts at relatively big numbers: How eager will Ujiri be to get back in the business of big-game hunting? Ujiri seems convinced that this is a league without a dominant team to be feared.
鈥淒o we know who鈥檚 going to win the NBA this season? I don鈥檛 think we do,鈥 Ujiri said.
There were moments Wednesday when you could convince yourself Ujiri sounded bent on getting his team back into the title-contention mix as soon as possible, and not simply by way of organic growth.
鈥淢y expectation for next season is we continue to grow. But the end goal for me is, how do we win a championship?鈥 Ujiri said. 鈥淭hat’s always going to be the end goal. How do you build and grow towards there? How do I acquire players that are going to get us there? How do we grow internally to get to this position?鈥
As for that part about acquiring championship-worthy players, Ujiri even registered a guarantee.
鈥淚 can guarantee you there are many unique opportunities that are going to come up in July and we have to look at all of them,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou have to read the market, you have to figure out what the opportunity is.
鈥淥ur goal is not play-in, not playoff聽鈥 the end goal is to win a championship.鈥
Right. We get the goal. The clock is ticking on bringing in players that can plausibly achieve the objective before an executive is accused of annually crying wolf.
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