We have clearly had calmer Fridays than those of Raptors… It was indeed on a somewhat hectic morning that the club of Toronto started on the last day of the week.
First, around 9:30 am (local time), ESPN announced what was finally relatively expected in Canada: the dismissal of Nick Nurse, by mutual agreement with the management of the club after a disappointing 2022/23 season. Then, at 11:00 a.m., it is precisely the president Masai Ujiri who spoke for the first time since the end of the Raptors season, beaten in “play-in” last week by Chicago.
Naturally, he started his press conference by talking about the big news of the day.
” I think you all read the press release. We have decided to end our collaboration with Coach Nick Nurse. We wish him and his family all the best for the future, and thank him for all he has brought to this organization over the past ten years. » he thus declared by way of introduction. ” These decisions are never easy to make, and we discussed them extensively with Nick throughout the week. And we finally arrived at this decision. »
Then Masai Ujiri to get to the heart of the matter, obviously evoking the failure to qualify for the playoffs, and in particular that last mediocre play-in game last week, as the main factor in his decision.
Rediscover the “Raptors culture”
” I think this game summed up the current state of things in this franchise perfectly. The soul that has defined this club for several years passed away this season, it was very disappointing he continues, bluntly. ” Now we wants to find ‘momentum’ as a group, cohesion too. All those things that built the culture here. This year, all of those things were missing. »
Disappointed with the season, like everyone at the club, Masai Ujiri particularly regrets a profound lack of “life” in the game offered by the Raptors. The symbol of a group undeniably arrived at the end of its potential, and whose cohesion with Nick Nurse was increasingly weak, even non-existent at the end of the season.
” We have all noted it, throughout the season: at no time have we felt a particularly reassuring energy emanating from this team. No soul, no cohesion. We’ve all seen it. And I don’t blame it on Nick. Everyone is responsible for it. I also take responsibility adds the Nigerian leader, before releasing perhaps the most significant sentence of this press conference: “ It wasn’t us this season. […] Personally, I haven’t enjoyed watching us play this season. And it bothers me, it bothers us all, from the players to the staff, to the fans. […] So we are going to make changes, on all fronts. We will review everything. »
In other words, the culture of the Raptors has crumbled this season, and the club has regressed. An accident following which it is now necessary to react urgently, for Masai Ujiri, not the type to sit idly by after a failure, as he had shown in the 2018 off-season…
” We just gotta get back to winning “he assures. ” We have proven that we can do that here. To rebuild a culture, sometimes you have to make major changes. »
A new coach, for a new offensive identity
Another important subject, in the upcoming news of the Raptors: the recruitment of a new “head coach”, and this one will have to convince Masai Ujiri of an established game plan and a clear identity. Particularly in attack, we imagine, after a 2022/23 season that is frankly too often painful for the eyes, on this side of the field…
” We will have to convince ourselves of a style of play in line with our culture, and our team, the players we will have with us next season. “he warns as well. ” The style of play will be key in our decision. »
A style of play in which young people will have to occupy an important place, while the GM of the Raptors is not particularly satisfied with the 2022/23 season, on this subject…
” Obviously the answer is no ” launches Ujiri, when a journalist asks him if the development of the young people of the Raptors was good (he quotes in particular Malachi Flynn, Dalano Banton, Christian Koloko and Precious Achiuwa, editor’s note). ” We could certainly have seen them more at work, giving them more leeway to show what they were capable of. So our development system wasn’t very good, no. »
In conclusion, after a first major change and while others will follow in the coming months within the club, Masai Ujiri assures in any case that his motivation to continue to build the present and the future of the Raptors, ten years already after his arrival in Toronto, is still intact, despite this mediocre 2022/23 season.
” As long as they still want me, I won’t go anywhere “he places on this subject, to conclude. “We have lost our luster, but the situation is not beyond repair. I have a feeling we’re going to win again here in Toronto.”
This puts an end, from the start, to the Wizards rumor where his name has been circulating for years, and especially since the dismissal of Tommy Sheppard.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Pascal Siakam | 71 | 37.4 | 48.0 | 32.4 | 77.4 | 1.8 | 6.0 | 7.8 | 5.8 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 3.2 | 24.2 |
| Fred Vanvleet | 69 | 36.7 | 39.3 | 34.2 | 89.8 | 0.4 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 7.2 | 2.0 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 19.3 |
| Gary Trent, Jr. | 66 | 32.1 | 43.3 | 36.9 | 83.9 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 17.4 |
| Og Anunoby | 67 | 35.6 | 47.6 | 38.7 | 83.8 | 1.4 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 16.8 |
| Scottie Barnes | 77 | 34.8 | 45.6 | 28.1 | 77.2 | 2.3 | 4.3 | 6.6 | 4.8 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 2.2 | 15.3 |
| Jakob Poeltl | 26 | 27.2 | 65.2 | 0.0 | 56.9 | 3.2 | 5.9 | 9.1 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 13.1 |
| chris butcher | 76 | 20.0 | 49.3 | 32.8 | 76.2 | 2.1 | 3.5 | 5.5 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 9.4 |
| Precious Achiuwa | 55 | 20.7 | 48.5 | 26.9 | 70.2 | 1.8 | 4.1 | 6.0 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 9.2 |
| Otto Porter | 8 | 18.3 | 50.0 | 35.3 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 5.5 |
| Malachi Flynn | 53 | 13.0 | 36.0 | 35.3 | 75.8 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 4.6 |
| Dalano Banton | 31 | 9.0 | 42.3 | 29.4 | 70.8 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 4.6 |
| Will Barton | 16 | 13.2 | 35.4 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 4.5 |
| Thaddeus Young | 54 | 14.7 | 54.5 | 17.6 | 69.2 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 3.1 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 4.4 |
| Christian Koloko | 58 | 13.8 | 48.0 | 8.3 | 62.7 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 3.1 |
| Juancho Hernangomez | 42 | 14.6 | 42.1 | 25.4 | 56.3 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 2.9 |
| Jeff Dowtin | 25 | 10.3 | 43.9 | 31.3 | 66.7 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 2.4 |
| Ron Harper | 9 | 5.3 | 50.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 2.2 |
| Khem Birsh | 20 | 8.1 | 59.4 | 50.0 | 80.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 2.2 |
| Justin Champagnie | 3 | 3.6 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 2.0 |
| Joe Wieskamp | 9 | 5.5 | 21.4 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
