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Toronto Raptors: Four takeaways from Masai Ujiri’s season ending press conference

By Chris Okrainetz

May 23, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri (right) gestures as he speaks with media during pre-game shoot around before the Raptors host Cleveland Cavaliers in game four of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
May 23, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri (right) gestures as he speaks with media during pre-game shoot around before the Raptors host Cleveland Cavaliers in game four of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports /
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May 7, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (10) controls a ball during the third quarter in the second round of game four of the 2017 NBA Playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports /

The offence will finally change

A lot of the issues, or concern, with Casey revolves around his offence. After Tuesday’s press conference it’s clear Raptors fans aren’t the only ones tired of seeing isolation set after isolation set. Ujiri is too.

The Raptors president was as explicit as he could be when he said he believes the team’s offence is easy to defend.

"“We’ve done what we’ve done so many times and it hasn’t worked,” said Ujiri. “That’s the simple answer. We can only try that so much and it just hasn’t worked. It’s easy to defend in my opinion when you play one-on-one, it’s predictable. We talked about it with coach and we feel we have to go in another direction.”"

Not exactly a strong endorsement of Casey, but it’s the truth. This Raptors team is stuck in the 1990s era of basketball and the constant barrage of isolation sets does nothing but make you easy to defend, especially during the postseason where teams like the Cavs will just trap you to death.

Thankfully, Ujiri harped on changing the team’s style of play and also their need for not only more threes, but also ball movement.

"“Now it’s time to address it and see if we can move the ball more and figure out a way to pass the ball more to get better options and use the players that we have” said Ujiri. “I don’t think this is a matter of changing players or anything like that. How do we change a little bit of how we play and how we approach this game?”"

You can argue it wasn’t Casey, or the offensive philosophy, that missed a ton of open looks during the postseason, but as we’ve seen during these past three playoffs, and even the second half of this regular season, the Raptors offence is in need of a makeover and Ujiri is going to make sure it happens.

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