Masai Approval Rating

[ATLTimekeeper]

He's done some good things in the past year to set the team up for the future, but all his big decisions have been flops and he's struggled to pick a side of his mouth.

[YogurtProducer]

I'm happy with all the trades he made last year, as well as the Dick draft selection.

Not gonna continue bashing him for a mistake he made, and owned up to already, two seasons ago (i.e., Poeltl trade).

Grade: A

Plus nobody in their right mind could have imagined us being in the lottery starting the season ..teams with 2 All-Stars and DPOY type player just don't perform the way were in the first 3 months of the season..just dont...more so with the last 2 seasons as references and then the impact of both players on their new teams..
Masai has only made one mistake which has turned into positive by getting us IQ and RJ; hiring Darko.
Trading for Jak was the right move to do! (I would have preferred Turner, like Bob&Masai)

While even I thought we'd be a playoff team. I still think it was just... dumb to not lottery protect the pick, at least for a couple of years. Felt like we negotiated against ourselves in that Poeltl deal... I know the Celtics were in on it, but I think a lottery protected 1st from us still would have worked.

Maybe the Spurs dont accept the deal if we lottery protect the pick. and TBH - I am glad we gave up the 8th this year rather than a 10th next year or whatever. Obvious would have preferred to keep both.

[Duffman100]

F. Team is on a direct path to 7/11 purgatory. Masai has to right the ship quickly and be aggressive in adding young assets

7/11 purgatory is exactly how GS built their title contender. The 'tanking strategy' you've long lauded and used as an example as they way we should have been rebuilding.

Hell, Curry was 7 and Klay was 11.

You can never keep your arguments straight.

In his defence, I think he meants 7th-11th in the east. Don't blame you for not giving him the benefit of the doubt however, he has lost that

Either way - anyone who thinks tanking is the only way to build a team has not been paying attention to how the NBA operates. Tanking is the best way to get top end talent - but tanking is also the fastest way to put your team in purgatory. The teams who are majorly successful are always those that either A) get FA signings or B) hit big on mid round 1sts or early 2nds.

Ah fair, apologies ItsDanger!

[Duffman100]

Plus nobody in their right mind could have imagined us being in the lottery starting the season ..teams with 2 All-Stars and DPOY type player just don't perform the way were in the first 3 months of the season..just dont...more so with the last 2 seasons as references and then the impact of both players on their new teams..
Masai has only made one mistake which has turned into positive by getting us IQ and RJ; hiring Darko.
Trading for Jak was the right move to do! (I would have preferred Turner, like Bob&Masai)

While even I thought we'd be a playoff team. I still think it was just... dumb to not lottery protect the pick, at least for a couple of years. Felt like we negotiated against ourselves in that Poeltl deal... I know the Celtics were in on it, but I think a lottery protected 1st from us still would have worked.

Maybe the Spurs dont accept the deal if we lottery protect the pick. and TBH - I am glad we gave up the 8th this year rather than a 10th next year or whatever. Obvious would have preferred to keep both.

I think they do. On an expiring Poeltl?

[aj174]

Man some really bad luck with the draft lottery. Gotta say, this Poeltl trade is his biggest mistake, but there's been solid moves and I'm looking forward to the future

We have all our picks moving forward, 2 picks in this draft, a young star and some young pieces as well

Losing a top 10 pick hurts though. Oh well

[Tor_Raps]

D

Terrible since 2020-21.

-Letting Serge and Marc walk in the same offseason

-Terrible Thad Young trade

-Not trading FVV during the trade deadline, only to walk for nothing

-Terrible Jakob Poeltl trade

-Not trading Pascal during the summer

-Not trading Bruce Brown

I would like to add not trading Lowry in the same offseason the Bucks paid an arm and a leg for Jrue Holliday. Not saying we would have gotten the exact same haul but it would have been a lot closer to that than the trash we ended up with for the GROAT.

The day you decided you let Ibaka/Gasol walk is the day you should have been looking to trade him. Or at the very least, just accept the best offer available at the deadline. Clearly its become a huge issue with him not being able to trade his players at the right time. And yes, I mentioned this at the time

[YogurtProducer]

While even I thought we'd be a playoff team. I still think it was just... dumb to not lottery protect the pick, at least for a couple of years. Felt like we negotiated against ourselves in that Poeltl deal... I know the Celtics were in on it, but I think a lottery protected 1st from us still would have worked.

Maybe the Spurs dont accept the deal if we lottery protect the pick. and TBH - I am glad we gave up the 8th this year rather than a 10th next year or whatever. Obvious would have preferred to keep both.

I think they do. On an expiring Poeltl?

Possibly they had a pick with top 12 protection from some other team on the table and we had to beat it?

my personal thought is we figured if we were bad enough to convey a lottery pick we would rather do it immediately in 2024 (in a **** draft) than extend out that process.

[YogurtProducer]

D

Terrible since 2020-21.

-Letting Serge and Marc walk in the same offseason

-Terrible Thad Young trade

-Not trading FVV during the trade deadline, only to walk for nothing

-Terrible Jakob Poeltl trade

-Not trading Pascal during the summer

-Not trading Bruce Brown

I would like to add not trading Lowry in the same offseason the Bucks paid an arm and a leg for Jrue Holliday. Not saying we would have gotten the exact same haul but it would have been a lot closer to that than the trash we ended up with for the GROAT.

The day you decided you let Ibaka/Gasol walk is the day you should have been looking to trade him. Or at the very least, just accept the best offer available at the deadline. Clearly its become a huge issue with him not being able to trade his players at the right time. And yes, I mentioned this at the time

We were never getting anything NEAR what the Pelicans got for Jrue.

Lowry was 34. Jrue was 30.

Jrue was traded in the off-season after NO missed the playoffs. Lowry was never being traded the off-season after we were a team with a 60-win pace.

[Tor_Raps]

D

Terrible since 2020-21.

-Letting Serge and Marc walk in the same offseason

-Terrible Thad Young trade

-Not trading FVV during the trade deadline, only to walk for nothing

-Terrible Jakob Poeltl trade

-Not trading Pascal during the summer

-Not trading Bruce Brown

I would like to add not trading Lowry in the same offseason the Bucks paid an arm and a leg for Jrue Holliday. Not saying we would have gotten the exact same haul but it would have been a lot closer to that than the trash we ended up with for the GROAT.

The day you decided you let Ibaka/Gasol walk is the day you should have been looking to trade him. Or at the very least, just accept the best offer available at the deadline. Clearly its become a huge issue with him not being able to trade his players at the right time. And yes, I mentioned this at the time

We were never getting anything NEAR what the Pelicans got for Jrue.

Lowry was 34. Jrue was 30.

Jrue was traded in the off-season after NO missed the playoffs. Lowry was never being traded the off-season after we were a team with a 60-win pace.

Read my comments again, I said the return would have been closer to that than to what we ended up with. I was also pissed off how we handled Gasol/Ibaka that offseason.

He thought Baynes/Len could give us similar results to Gasol/Ibaka. Masai was so hellbent on only giving 1 year deals because he thought we had a chance to pursue Giannis when he signed his extension a full season before his free agency.

Just horrible miscalculation after miscalculation that got us in our current situation of being in the bottom 10 franchises in the nba of present/future outlook.

Look forward to seeing Masai earn his contract extension that came after rhe championship. As of now, he has barely earned any of that contract.

[ash_k]

I'm happy with all the trades he made last year, as well as the Dick draft selection.

Not gonna continue bashing him for a mistake he made, and owned up to already, two seasons ago (i.e., Poeltl trade).

Grade: A

Plus nobody in their right mind could have imagined us being in the lottery starting the season ..teams with 2 All-Stars and DPOY type player just don't perform the way were in the first 3 months of the season..just dont...more so with the last 2 seasons as references and then the impact of both players on their new teams..
Masai has only made one mistake which has turned into positive by getting us IQ and RJ; hiring Darko.
Trading for Jak was the right move to do! (I would have preferred Turner, like Bob&Masai)

While even I thought we'd be a playoff team. I still think it was just... dumb to not lottery protect the pick, at least for a couple of years. Felt like we negotiated against ourselves in that Poeltl deal... I know the Celtics were in on it, but I think a lottery protected 1st from us still would have worked.

We had to make the pick attractive and we have seen what a 100%-Jakob can do out there entering his prime years with no major injuries on his body; it was unimaginable(unless injuries) that we would be in such position with such talent. The criticism has never made sense to me... cant predict injuries.. cant predict our new coach would be so ineffective.

[Chandan]

MaCai Ujiri

[720]

If we’re looking at post Kawhi and championship then the Thad trade, Poeltl trade, not trading Fred, trading Siakam too late, not trading OG a year earlier. All slowed down our rebuild. But the Scottie pick almost makes up for most of this. Plus RJ and IQ are young guys we can grow and raise their trade value.

[bballsparkin]

C. Not his finest stretch. Lets see how it plays out in the off season. Poll seems to check out with a bell curve so far. Most voting D-B, which seems about right.

[ontnut]

Up until 2020, Masai deserved an A+.

Since then he earned a C+.

Time for the pre-2021 Masai to take charge.

Pretty much this. I'm giving him a C based on more recent performance.

[YogurtProducer]

I would like to add not trading Lowry in the same offseason the Bucks paid an arm and a leg for Jrue Holliday. Not saying we would have gotten the exact same haul but it would have been a lot closer to that than the trash we ended up with for the GROAT.

The day you decided you let Ibaka/Gasol walk is the day you should have been looking to trade him. Or at the very least, just accept the best offer available at the deadline. Clearly its become a huge issue with him not being able to trade his players at the right time. And yes, I mentioned this at the time

We were never getting anything NEAR what the Pelicans got for Jrue.

Lowry was 34. Jrue was 30.

Jrue was traded in the off-season after NO missed the playoffs. Lowry was never being traded the off-season after we were a team with a 60-win pace.

Read my comments again, I said the return would have been closer to that than to what we ended up with. I was also pissed off how we handled Gasol/Ibaka that offseason.

He thought Baynes/Len could give us similar results to Gasol/Ibaka. Masai was so hellbent on only giving 1 year deals because he thought we had a chance to pursue Giannis when he signed his extension a full season before his free agency.

Just horrible miscalculation after miscalculation that got us in our current situation of being in the bottom 10 franchises in the nba of present/future outlook.

Look forward to seeing Masai earn his contract extension that came after rhe championship. As of now, he has barely earned any of that contract.

Read your comment again... nothing changes except you are using insane hindsight to try and say Masai **** up.

He did not think Len/Baynes would give us similar results. He likely thought the dropoff would not be as significant, and he likely would have been right if Baynes did not fall off a cliff from the year prior.

And funny how when we miss it is a "horrible miscalculation" but when it works out (like Kawhi) it is a "fluke".

Y'all just complain about everything

[Morris_Shatford]

I am in that B- to C+ range.

My unbelievably cold take is that I would have moved pick 8 in this draft for a cost controlled Jakob Poeltl in a heartbeat.
So the lotto results yesterday didn't bother me all that much, if anything its nice to have control of our picks moving forward and then walking into a draft class that appears to be light-years ahead in 2025 anyway.

I also no longer need to try and convince my self that guys like Nikola Topic and Dalton Knecht are can't miss franchise cornerstones which is nice.

My even less popular opinion is I am over the moon that a direction was picked and we are not here fretting if we get to be the lucky team to give Siakam $247.1 million over five years or if we want to bet on a healthy OG at 4/140 or 4/150.

Over the moon with the OG trade, content with the Siakam trade, happy with the Dick Pick, indifferent to meh in moving pick 29 this year for Olynyk and Agbaji, don't hate the Olynyk extension so all and all draft to draft 2023 - 2024 I am less disgruntled than draft to draft 2022 to 2023

[HumbleRen]

C- so I rounded down to D.

Poeltl trade is indefensible. Waiting until you had 0 leverage with Siakam if you never had any intention in paying him is indefensible.

2 moves that might of ruined the Scottie timeline.

[SpezNc]

So after the lottery, let's take a pulse from the Raptors fanbase on where they stand with Masai currently. This is the overall grade based on how you feel about the job Masai has done to date and as things stand today.

My approval rating is High because in my opinion Masai Ujuri brings respect and legitimacy to the organization.

That is said the upcoming moves or non moves will be key.

If Masai think that BBQ is the foundation to a contenter and just need to improve on the margin and just need for them to reach their ceiling , then I am going to be disappointed.

Up until now, even if I disagree with the direction they took during TDL 2023, I can still understand the rationale.

But the goal is not to become “mid”.

I hope he understands that .

Conclusion he has my full confidence. But my confidence is not unlimited or forever renewable.

[djsunyc]

Changed direction at least a year too late. We do have a cleaner slate than before but there's a relatively short runway to do something before we have to reset again because he wasted couple of years trying to cling onto past glory. And we paid dearly for it with Poeltl trade, failure to trade VanVleet, and getting next to nothing from Siakam trade. Most of damage is already made that will take a long time to recover from.

So would give him F until he shows he's finally done sleeping at the wheel, makes moves, and get results. Will be hard. #19 pick in this draft is underwhelming at best. FA's probably dead end yet again. Now have to start locking Barnes to rich extension that eats even more into the cap. Kinda need to hit a home run here with #19 but could also be a case that you can't pick 'em if no one's there. The team is in no man's land and will require small miracle to move forward in one direction or other. Otherwise, just have to keep chuggin' at it and I wouldn't be surprised if we have to reset again in 2-3 years possibly with different management at the helm at that point.

i think in this new nba, with the new cap rules, teams can only really operate in 3 year cycles. things are moving too fast, contracts are mainly 4 years and extensions come up within 3 years. i don't think you can be a great team anymore unless you are well into tax line with multiple $40+ mil players - like boston and denver are.

scottie is still 2 years away from hitting that #. quickley is gonna be our highest paid player next year - probably around $28-32 mil. rj/yak are on reasonable deals. we need to hit on some $15-20 mil players over the next 2 seasons.

[djsunyc]

If Masai think that BBQ is the foundation to a contenter and just need to improve on the margin and just need for them to reach their ceiling , then I am going to be disappointed.

masai is gonna go into next season with bbq-dick as 4 "core" pieces...but they're only "core" pieces in so far as to how they perform. he will still draft - sign players and make trades. he will trade any of those "core" players if there's a clear upgrade but going by his remarks at the end of season presser, he's going to give these guys time to develop and keep adding talent to them.

the question is how much time do you give them to see if they are good enough? kyle + demar + jonas were not a foundation of a contender but they won games so we kept riding with them, adding to them and then making big moves when they presented themselves.

i think he's gonna do the same with BBQ-dick - you have to give them more time tho since they are all so young.