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“...Ujiri would be intrigued by the challenge of fixing the Knicks....”
Whoa! Ring the alarm! It’s time to panic. Only six months removed from delivering on his promise of an NBA title, Masai’s on his way out? Wait, haven’t we heard this before?
ESPN Sources: The Washington Wizards are preparing to make a prolific offer to Toronto's championship architect Masai Ujiri -- as much as $10M annually -- to run its basketball operations. https://t.co/KQf18YUkLN
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 14, 2019
Pardon me for being skeptical, but when rumours have the words “New York” included, my guard goes way up. In a season where the team has looked as lost on the court as the executives who constructed the roster, Knicks fans have nothing but wishful thinking to get through the day.
The previous paragraph will absolutely blow up in my face if it ends up happening, but let’s run through the pros and cons.
Actually, just listen to the episode and see if you agree/disagree. Also, it’s December 15th! All NBA players who were signed during the offseason are now trade eligible. So, fire up your trade machines and make all your GM dreams come true!
On This Episode:
In Masai we trust. It’s a bit of a cheesy catchphrase, but nobody seems to question its validity. Whether it’s the trades he didn’t make (Hi Kyle), or the trades he did (Hi Marc), the trades he didn’t ‘win’ (Too bad, Mirotic), or the trades he couldn’t lose (Bye Bargnani), Ujiri has earned the trust of all Raptors fans. So, why is that trust in question because of a rumour from New York media?
Six weeks into the job, Masai turned Andrea Bargnani’s horrible contract into cap space and a package that included a pick that would become Jakob Poeltl. We already know what happened to Poeltl. Rudy Gay was traded for a package that would later become (in subsequent trades) Lou Williams, Norm Powell, and OG Anunoby. Does Masai have any new trade ideas up his sleeves? What do you make of recent trade targets like Kevin Love, Chris Paul, and Robert Covington?
Whether or not you’ve played Pokemon, Dre’s Raptors-as-Eevees segment is pure gold. That’s it. That’s the descriptive paragraph.
To end off the episode, we went back to hypothetical trades. However, this time we only looked at Raptor-for-Raptor swaps! If you could trade a current Raptor for a former Raptor (in their prime), who would you choose from our starting lineup? Also, you can only replace three Raptors.
3:00 - The segment where we trusted in Masai
14:28 - The segment where we made dumb trades
29:50 - The segment where we talked a lot about Pokemon
37:30 - The segment where we combined the previous two segments