Masai Ujiri Discusses Attempts to Acquire Damian Lillard & Trying to Get Younger

When last season came to an end for the Toronto Raptors, team President and Vice-Chairman Masai Ujiri said changes were coming. The organization fired head coach Nick Nurse, let go of essentially the entire coaching staff, and changes were imminent “on all fronts,” Ujiri said.

Six months later, things didn’t quite play out that way.

Yes, Fred VanVleet is elsewhere, having signed a lucrative multi-year deal with the Houston Rockets. He was given a Godfather Offer, if you will. But that wasn’t how the Raptors had hoped things would play out. Toronto made an aggressive offer to the 29-year-old, but Houston’s offer was too good to match.

“I think if that was a failure, we take responsibility for it,” Ujiri said of VanVleet’s free agency departure.

Toronto did, however, look at making other moves. The team was reportedly seriously considering moving Pascal Siakam. While Ujiri didn’t mention Siakam explicitly, he did admit the organization looked at getting younger. That, for all intents and purposes, would have meant moving Siakam.

“Sometimes those opportunities are there and sometimes they’re not there,” Ujiri said. “We can’t force them. It takes two to do deals and you move on when those deals are not there.”

The Raptors also seriously considered going after Damian Lillard, the superstar point guard who ended up being dealt to the Milwaukee Bucks in a blockbuster deal.

“We were very aggressive,” Raptors General Manager Bobby Webster told Sportsnet’s Danielle Michaud. “I’d say probably the biggest offer we’ve ever made for a player.”

For now, the Raptors say they are pleased with the roster and are happy to go into training camp with the players under contract. To Ujiri, the fact that other organizations are inquiring about Toronto’s players suggests those players are valuable players to keep.

But it’s hard to look at their actions over the summer and how last season finished and think this roster is truly settled. There remains a lack of quality backcourt depth, the center rotation appears alarmingly thin with news that Christian Koloko is out indefinitely with a respiratory issue, and shooting remains a glaring need, even if Gradey Dick and Otto Porter Jr. should help this season.

There appears to be a move coming. At some point, Toronto is going to have to pick a direction and Ujiri acknowledged that’ll come after more information is gathered throughout the season. But in the meantime, it’s wait-and-see for the Raptors until the next opportunity arises

“We'll continue to attack those things when the right one comes,” Ujiri said. “The right one will come. I think we've shown in the past that we could do that.”