Morning Coffee – Thu, Sep 24
Raptors Head Coach Nick Nurse confirms @TheFrankIsola report that his assistant Nate Bjorkgren has interviewed for the Pacers head coaching job pic.twitter.com/NsUD3WdQa6
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) September 23, 2020
Yessir!!! Nate is one of the best. Well deserved https://t.co/r2fyRt7Jct
— Fred VanVleet (@FredVanVleet) September 23, 2020
Raptors Reasonablists Volume V, Part I: How to approach 2020 with 2021 in mind – The Athletic
KOREEN: There’s nowhere for me to go this offseason, so that might mean no extended Walter visit for you. Do you know what would happen to me if I was just sitting here at home, enjoying some time off, with no dog to occupy some of my time? Why, I might write my long-anticipated debut novel. And I’m not ready to open myself up to the world like that, Blake. I get huffy when someone hits my replies with a fair, if slightly mean, retort. Can you imagine me dealing with actual book reviews? I’d be like Taylor Swift fans responding to a Pitchfork 8.0. (If you need a few days with him, just holler. A little Walter is good for everyone.)
I find this offseason fascinating. If I’m Masai in this case, does that mean I get to say a swear? I will keep that in my back pocket. Speaking of El Presidente, I got a kick out of Masai Ujiri answering one of my questions last week by sarcastically saying it was Bruce Arthur’s annual “biggest offseason ever” columns. It isn’t, obviously, because that’s the next offseason. Duh. For all the reasons you pointed out, it is one of the Raptors’ more complicated offseasons ever.
Retaining Fred VanVleet should be the obvious priority for reasons I’ve already explained, but there is no simple move on Day 1 of free agency. To get back to the heart of your question, although I’m not in one group or the other, I would be slightly more future-minded than present-minded — take that, Headspace — in all matters this offseason. I just see next season as a tough one for the Raptors to realistically take the East. From a talent perspective, I think it’s safe to say Milwaukee and Boston will both be ahead of the Raptors. Additionally, Brooklyn exists, and their ceiling next year is higher than the Raptors’, I’d say. I’m not brave enough to form actual expectations for Philadelphia, but they still have two players who can lay waste to their opponents any given night. And then there’s the team that might take the East this year, the Miami HEAT
. I don’t think the HEAT
However, you cannot just simply punt on next season. I don’t think it’s very likely Giannis Antetokounmpo or whoever is coming to join the Eastern Conference’s ninth seed. In that sense, VanVleet is the best possible free agent you could have this summer. He is certainly smart enough to know the balance the Raptors are trying to strike. That does not mean he will, or should, fall in line with it. No, VanVleet is going to get every last dollar he can, because this is the moment that has been intricately set up by his two major decisions prior to now, draft day 2016 and his restricted free agency in 2018. I just think he is unlikely to be insulted by any reasonable route the Raptors take. Emotion will not play much of a role in his decision, which is bad in that it means he won’t be feeling that DeMar DeRozan loyalty to the Raptors but good in that a lower offer than expected won’t tank negotiations.
Saying that, I’d extend something like a four-year, $68-million offer to VanVleet the first moment I could, with an understanding that he is important to the Raptors and there’s room to maneuver from there.
Reviewing our 15 bold predictions entering the Raptors 2019-20 season – The Athletic
4. RIGHT: Nick Nurse experiments with a beard
Of course he did. He even asked me for beard grooming tips on Zoom during the hiatus.
New details in Masai Ujiri case show mixed security messages, credential confusion – The Athletic
In a written answer, Jerome Pickett, the NBA’s executive vice president and chief security officer, said the league told Oracle Arena security, which would have included Strickland, before the June 13, 2019 game to both be on the lookout for people trying to access the court with “fictitious” identification, but also not to create an altercation in the event such a scenario occurred. Pickett replied in writing in July 2019 to dozens of police questions, which were filed as an exhibit by Strickland on Tuesday.
At the same time, while 25 key Raptors personnel were approved for orange armbands — the accreditation necessary to access the court right after the buzzer at Oracle Arena — Ujiri’s was with Teresa Resch, Raptors vice president of basketball operations, who could not find her boss in time, Pickett told the police, according to the filing.
Ujiri instead had a game credential, which as he tried to walk by Strickland he began to pull out before the officer pushed him, Strickland’s bodycam footage shows.
“With respect to the Toronto Raptors, I have since confirmed that Teresa Resch and Roven Yau, senior manager of communications for the Raptors, distributed orange armbands to team personnel,” according to Pickett’s written responses, which were included in a nine-page report Q&A compiled by Sgt. O. Daza-Quiroz, the lead investigator. “Yau advised me that he distributed orange armbands to team ownership, front office staff, PR staff, and internal media. Resch advised me that she had the orange armband intended for Masai Ujiri, but could not find him after the game and therefore did not give it to him prior to him getting access to the court. Resch stated that after Ujirii was already on the court and approaching the stage for the trophy ceremony she provided him with the orange armband and advised him that he needed to wear it.”
Sgt. Daza-Quiroz asked Pickett whether Ujiri had been told about the armbands, 207 of which were distributed to a wide variety of NBA divisions and media.
Pickett’s response is not specific but broad, writing, “Participating teams are advised of the credentialing procedures for NBA Finals games, including prior to Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals.”
“You have the challenges and we have to face them,” Ujiri said. “We don’t know what the cap numbers are. We have to figure out how we manoeuvre, where we keep our cap space for the future and for that year, ’21 (when one of the most lucrative free-agent classes ever may be on the market).
“We have to address that in some kind of way. We are going to speak to all the agents when the time is right, and speak to all the players when it is right, and we’ll try and figure this out the best way we can.”
Yes, there are challenges, but it’s nothing that we haven’t dealt with in the past.”
But the truth is, they’ve never had to deal with circumstances like this, even their own.
Both of them have contracts that run out at the end of next season and the longer they dither in re-signing, the more questions will linger about the long-term future. It’s not going to affect how they do their jobs — they’re too professional and competitive for that — but it does hang over the organization.
Ujiri did say they are “close” to a new deal for Webster, but that was a week ago and nothing has been announced, while he’s downplayed his own contractual status, saying he’d take care of others in senior management before thinking about himself.
Whether there are opportunities even bigger than running a franchise that might interest him is unknown, and Webster, while a highly respected general manager, isn’t seeing a market with a whole lot of job promotions available to him right now.
“We are getting there,” Ujiri said of negotiations on a new deal for Webster. “It is a priority for me to get to our leadership team and take care of the team and the organization in general, so we’re close.”
The jobs at hand — despite the uncertain timing — are clear cut and well-documented.
Toronto Raptors 2019-20 Player Review: Is Rondae Hollis-Jefferson here to stay? – Raptors HQ
Hollis-Jefferson went out there for Toronto and was about as good as he could be and the results were… fine? There’s no major shame in a deeper bench player having a weaker on-off split — when you replace excellent players you’re going to cause a drop-off.
If you squint hard enough you can see a bit of the Draymond Green role for Rondae on offense. Set screens for a dangerous shooter, get 4-3 opportunities, have the vision to spray the ball around the court, or the willingness and athleticism to attack the rim.
The fact you need to really squint though shows just how special a player like Green is — and where Hollis-Jefferson lacks. While Draymond has been an even worse overall shooter than Hollis-Jefferson the last couple of years, he’s a genius playmaker and a better defender. He’s also helped by having two all-world shooters by his side — as good as Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet are, they’re not so dangerous that they can carry a non-scoring threat like Hollis-Jefferson for long minutes.
Maybe there’s a world where if neither Serge Ibaka nor Marc Gasol come back, the Raps will retain Hollis-Jefferson for continuity sake. If Matt Thomas gets more minutes, he could be an interesting pick and roll partner with RHJ. In this scenario, Thomas’ gravity could create additional space for RHJ to make the clever passes he has shown he has in his pocket.
Ultimately though, it feels like Toronto will be willing to go in another direction. For a team with continued title expectations, Hollis-Jefferson just has too many holes in his game to secure a bigger role. At the same time, RHJ is too good a player to settle for a bit role yet again.
Maybe he makes sense in, say, Portland, who could use a bigger wing defender, a little extra off the bounce, and — in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum — might have the shooting to both use RHJ’s playmaking and the ability to survive his lack of scoring. In any case, it seems like a safe bet that Rondae’s days in Toronto may already be numbered.
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Morning Coffee – Thu, Sep 24 originated on Raptors Republic.