Masai Ujiri leaving the Toronto Raptors for the New York Knicks is asinine

Phil Jackson was fired, the end. And with that end starts a search for new beginnings. The New York Knicks are looking to lure Masai Ujiri from his perch with the Toronto Raptors to turn the Knickerbockers into proper pantaloons.

In yesterday’s episode of the Rich and the Foolish, on the heels of the Toronto Raptors promoting Bobby Webster to the position of general manager, the Knicks fired their president. James Dolan, owner of the Knicks and frontman of JD and the Straight Shot, the worst country blues band you’ve ever heard of, fired the illustrious Phil Jackson from his position of president of basketball operations.

Knicks fans despise Dolan to their very core but this move has fans singing his praises. Jackson’s tenure as president has been a demonstration in how to completely implode a franchise in just two short years. First, alienate your best player by bashing him in public and trying to trade him even though he has a no-trade clause. Then, Alienate role players by forcing them to adhere to an archaic style of basketball. Alienate the future franchise player of the team by discussing him in trades, and, finally, alienate potential free agents due to sheer self-immolation over the past two years.

It was a magical time that has come to an end. And with that end starts a search for new beginnings. The Knicks are looking to lure Masai Ujiri from his perch in the north to turn the Knickerbockers into proper pantaloons. In fact, they’re confident they can swoop in and steal a rival team’s president of operations because, well, they’re the Knicks. Why wouldn’t you want to be associated with them?

It’s not like the owner is an overbearing meddler that has consistently put the team in positions to fail. Or maybe it’s the fact that player’s actively tell their agents that they don’t want to go to New York because the situation is a mess.

In a vacuum, yes, the Knicks should be able to lure talent from anywhere in the league. It’s a massive market with a historic arena and a landmark team that draws adoration and attention regardless of the number in the wins column. But, the Knicks and it’s gravitas that enveloped the league for decades has devolved into a gnawing tick you only hear when it’s quiet at night.

The Knicks can try to lure Ujiri all they want but there needs to be something to lure him with. Ujiri is already a president of basketball operations, so to make the move to the Knicks there needs to be a reason he’d want to work there. The times of large markets luring talent just because it’s a large market — on and off the floor — are generally over. What brings people in is talent and maneuverability, both of which the Knicks have been in short supply of for a long time now.

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How does one fix the Joakim Noah contract situation without severely hamstringing the franchise’s future? Courtney Lee is still signed for three more years at roughly $12 million a piece. And don’t forget Carmelo Anthony still has that no-trade clause in his contract that he refuses to waive. Did I mention the team doesn’t have a starting point guard on the roster? Kristaps Porzingis is cool but the Knicks are near barren. There’s nothing attractive about the Knicks basketball-wise other than Porzingod and a few unproven youngsters. They’re moldable but it could take great time and that’s why the Knicks need a saviour. Masai Ujiri can be that.

Ujiri is the maestro of taking a rag-tag group and mercurial culture, harnessing it and molding it into determined players and Spursian culture with very little incident. Sure, there have been missteps, like the drafting of Bruno Caboclo (and to an extent signing DeMarre Carroll), but there were strokes of genius, too, like absolutely fleecing the Knicks in the Andrea Bargnani trade (a trade they won so hard that James Dolan vetoed a Kyle Lowry for Iman Shumpert trade in 2014). He’s taken both the Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors into upper echelon’s of their conferences, delivering multiple 50 win teams without a true superstar, all with the help of the Knicks moronic front office. So why would Ujiri want to take over an organization that is terrible because he pillaged it twice?

He’s already in a good situation. Toronto loves him, the media and the players are copacetic with his approach to the entire franchise. Wanting to take more money is understandable, Giants of Africa is dependent on him and every extra dollar counts. But professionally, he’s got security in a better situation than the Knicks could ever provide. If you want to look for an example of how volatile the Knicks can be, consider Phil Jackson got renewed weeks ago for two more years and is now fired.

Lost in the shuffle of all of this is that Ujiri is still a contracted employee of the Raptors. Ujiri just penned a four-year extension on his deal of which he still had two years left.

You can’t just go around to other teams and pluck staff off of them. If the Knicks are serious about acquiring Ujiri they need to acquire good graces from the MLSE to speak to Ujiri about any sort of movement. It’s uncommon for organizations to deny other teams to talk to staff but it’s happened before, Dan Gilbert did it this year regarding David Griffin. If MLSE wants to stop this train in its tracks immediately, James Dolan and co. could be receiving the Heisman in the coming days.

Next: Raptors Podcast: Addressing the Ujiri and Lowry rumours

If in some bizarro world they allow the Knicks to speak to Ujiri for a lateral position change, they are still able to demand compensation. And, if the Knicks some how finagle a meeting and agreement with Ujiri it’s well within the rights of the Raptors to demand multiple draft picks. Jeff Weltman netted the Raps a second rounder when he left for the Magic and Doc Rivers snagged the Boston Celtics a first when he was traded to the Clippers. So how much is an elite executive worth in Ujiri’s position? Two first rounders? three?

That may seem crazy but we’re dealing with the Knicks here, so it’s just another Friday.