Toronto Raptors: Has the ‘culture reset’ officially begun?

By Jonathan Turco | Jul 29, 2018

(Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) /

Masai Ujiri infamously said the Toronto Raptors would see a “culture reset.” With Dwane Casey fired and DeMar DeRozan traded away, is this what he meant?

In his press conference at the end of the 2016-17 NBA season, Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri said the team would see a “culture reset.” One year later, it appears the team is ready to undergo such drastic changes yet again.

The Raptors had a very successful 2017-18 NBA regular season, winning franchise-record 59 games to earn the first seed in the Eastern Conference, giving them the second-best record in the association.

Unfortunately, the playoffs did not match the success of the regular season, and Raptors top brass were not accepting mediocrity. Toronto was swept at the hands of the eventual Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers for the second straight year, ending a promising season that fell well short of expectations.

The Raptors were one of very few teams to end the regular season in the top five in both Defensive Rating (103.4) and Offensive Rating (111) with the NBA’s third-highest Net Rating (+7.6), per NBA.com.

As one of the best teams in the league, statistically speaking, playing basketball at a high level on both ends of the floor, with one of the deepest rosters in the league, it was not unheralded to expect an NBA Finals appearance.

At least, Masai Ujiri and company didn’t expect any less of a result. Per Sportsnet‘s Michael Grange, Ujiri was livid at head coach Dwane Casey after Game 3 of the Cleveland series for poor defensive execution during the last possession of the game on LeBron James — the Raptors’ boogieman who scored the game-winning fadeaway shot. The result was the firing of the NBA’s Coach of the Year and the longest-tenured coach in Toronto’s 23 years of existence.

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Last week, a nuclear “Woj bomb” dropped, with ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting a blockbuster trade involving DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a top-20 protected 2019 first round pick heading to the San Antonio Spurs for disgruntled superstar Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, and cash considerations. To some fans’ dismay, DeMar DeRozan will be donning a different jersey for the first time in his NBA career at the start of the new season.

Fresh off a plane from Africa, Ujiri had a presser to address the Toronto media and fans about acquiring a “top-five talent” in Leonard. During the presser, media were critical of the trade, and the mishandling of the situation when it came to informing DeRozan in advance of a possible trade, for a return that could be a one-year superstar rental.

At face value, it is easy to scrutinize the trade from a Toronto’s perspective. Ujiri has done everything in his power to convince everyone this was the right move to make and even took ownership for whatever outcome proceeds, per the Toronto Star.

Then again, maybe he did already warn every media member, fan and analyst at his season-ending presser last year that this was to be expected. The infamously claimed “culture reset” took place in 2017-18 with the team taking more 3-pointers, spreading the ball and relying more on the league’s best bench.

Now, it seems it’s time for another culture reset, with the Raptors firing Casey, hiring Nick Nurse as the new head coach, and trading DeMar DeRozan.

During the 2017-18 season, most of core stayed intact, with Toronto choosing to add more depth and reinventing the offense to adapt a pass-first, outside shooting, and more uptempo style of play. Was the “culture reset” — directly correlated to the team’s top-five offensive execution — the only real changed aspect of the team? Or was this merely in technological project terms, a beta-test for what is to come?

The Raptors promoted Nurse from assistant to bench boss of the team, mostly recognized for his implementation in reinventing the offensive side of floor. The acquisition of a new face of the franchise in Kawhi Leonard, on his last year of his contract, brings up the question of how the new-look Raptors will produce?

The one benefit the team had prior to the trade and firing of their former head coach was the continuity. Those results, as mentioned, were not on a satisfactory path for Toronto’s top brass. In two swift moves, Ujiri has learned from last year’s beta-test and decided to reinvent how the Raptors will be winning basketball games.

A scenario in which you transform your roster around a newly acquired top-five player in the world is a pretty good plan. In doing so, if that superstar were to decide to leave the team, Toronto has enough promising young core pieces moving forward to still be competitive in the inferior Eastern Conference, not to mention more than $30 million in cap space for the 2019-20 offseason with large expiring contracts in Kyle Lowry ($33 million) and Serge Ibaka ($23 million).

If Leonard decides to re-sign with the Raptors — who have acquired Leonard’s Bird Rights via the trade from San Antonio — can offer him a contract extension in the five-year, $191 million range, as oppose to any other team, which can offer four years for $141 million.

In another scenario where Leonard is adamant to leave via free agency, both the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers — his desired geographic location to play for and hometown teams — desperately try to persuade Toronto for his services, and a bidding war could ensue. This could give leverage to the Toronto Raptors to pursue a sign-and-trade to one of the Los Angeles teams, acquiring assets, quality players, and/or prospects in return for a soft roster rebuild.

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It sounds like a win-win-win scenario for Toronto moving forward. General Manager Bobby Webster and team president Masai Ujiri have implemented a plan that is two steps ahead of the competition. The owners and top brass want to bring the city of Toronto a chance at a championship for the first time in franchise history and they have officially executed their “culture reset” to ensure exactly that.

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