TORONTO – Masai Ujiri believes there are 3 ways to construct a successful NBA team: the draft, via trade or in free agency.
The Raptors president said at his season-ending news conference on Wednesday that his front office has done well to show the team’s fortunes around and Toronto is poised return to the post-season.
Ujiri acknowledged it was a fantastic line to walk trying improve the Raptors this season without damaging their position on this summer’s NBA Draft.
“We’ve got to play the sport and check out to play the sport one of the best we will,” said Ujiri within the media centre of Toronto’s OVO Athletic Centre. “And in addition maintain our business and attempting to construct our team depending on the markets that you just are or the way in which you may acquire players.
“We tried to attack to the chances within the lottery and see what we will do.”
Toronto (30-52) finished seven games out of the Eastern Conference’s final play-in spot. That offers the Raptors the seventh-worst record within the NBA, with a 31.9 per cent probability of getting a top-four pick and a 7.5 per cent shot on the first-overall selection on the NBA Draft Lottery on May 12.
Duke Blue Devils guard Cooper Flagg is the consensus top pick within the draft to be held on June 25, but Ujiri said it’s a very promising group of players to pick from.
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“Wherever we fall, we’re going to go for one of the best talent available,” said Ujiri. “I realize it’s the reply everybody gives or possibly we give, but it surely’s a novel draft, and we feel that we’ll have a talented player available, and we’ll attempt to get one that matches our ball club.”
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The Raptors entered the 2024 draft with only one pick but, through trades and a free agent signing, wound up with five rookies: Ja’Kobe Walter (nineteenth overall), Jonathan Mogbo (thirty first), Jamal Shead (forty fifth), Ulrich Chomche (57th) and Jamison Battle (undrafted free agent). Chomche missed a lot of the season when he tore his ulnar collateral ligament in February, but the opposite 4 all impressed.
Toronto also added former all-star Brandon Ingram through a take care of the Latest Orleans Pelicans before the NBA trade deadline, presumably solidifying next 12 months’s starting rotation with the wing joining Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., and Jakob Poeltl.
“That is the way you construct a team, through the draft, through free agency, or through trading for a player,” said Ujiri. “We’ve done all of them here, but you have got to read the market. You’ve to determine what the chance is.
“Sometimes I can guarantee you there are lots of unique opportunities which can be going to return up in July (when free agency opens) and we have now to take a look at all of them.”
Throughout the 2023 off-season Ujiri repeatedly said that the team needed a cultural reset, to develop into less selfish on the court and more close off of it. He gave Toronto’s current culture an A+ on Wednesday.
“We’re working on our offence, and I believe our offence will recover as we grow, but we have now that focus, of playing together and playing the proper way, and attacking the sport,” said Ujiri. “It’s really built our culture. You see the culture of the players even off the court.
“These guys, they do it for themselves, and I’m happy with them for that, and I’m happy with (head coach Darko Rajakovic) for setting that and (general manager Bobby Webster) for setting that platform for them in some ways.”
Ujiri also praised Rajakovic for the impact he’s had on the young team. He added that he picked up the choice on Rajakvoic’s contract last off-season as a vote of confidence despite a 25-57 record after his first 12 months as a head coach within the NBA.
“Not everybody desires to feel such as you’re looking over your shoulder in some type of way, and I believe it’s the proper thing to do,” said Ujiri. “But greater than that, he was deserving. For development and training these guys, his communication, his leadership, how he brings all of the departments together. I believe he’s done an exceptional job.
“We put him in a troublesome situation, and we understand that, and I understand that. It’s good to make anyone feel comfortable along with his job and feel comfortable where he’s.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
