Analyzing Toronto's Dismissal of President Masai Ujiri

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00:00Coach, let's get right into it because sometimes you see, oh, we expect that to happen.

00:04We knew word was coming down any day.

00:06This guy, when he made the trade for Kawhi Leonard and basically put his career on the line,

00:11knowing that, you know, Kawhi's a little bit interesting here.

00:13And if this doesn't work, why did you do that?

00:15Why did you blow up a team that we had?

00:17They win the world championship.

00:18And forget about Kawhi Leonard leaving, which I still can't believe he left Toronto

00:21as we were talking about him being like the prince of Canada for the rest of his life.

00:25But Uzay Ujiri has always been thought of one of the smarter intellectual general managers

00:30that anybody would absolutely love to have in their management group.

00:35And we see today that he's out in Toronto.

00:37Any reasoning that you may have found out why that is?

00:41Well, listen, what a shrewd move trading DeMar DeRozan to get Kawhi Leonard to go win that championship.

00:47But if you really look at after he left, the team really didn't play particularly well.

00:54I don't know how many have playoff appearances yet.

00:56I know they were out at least the last three years on the playoffs, you know,

01:00as guys not just obviously Kawhi Leonard leaving, but guys like Kyle Lowry leaving.

01:05And then you start making trades.

01:07You know, you had O.J. at Anobi.

01:09You trade him.

01:11The return wasn't, you know, obviously R.J.

01:14Barrett and Emmanuel quickly.

01:16Two guys at the Knicks, I think maybe were not good,

01:19maybe worked to their advantage to get a player of O.J.

01:23Anobi's stature, but then to turn around, Lewis Pastel, Siakam,

01:27see the Knicks team go to the Easter Conference Finals,

01:30see the Pacers team go to the NBA Finals, and the returns just haven't been great.

01:35And you look at a roster, it's really, really weirdly constructed with quickly,

01:40though I don't know is really a true point guard.

01:42A couple of two guards, obviously, with R.J.

01:44Barrett and Grady Dix.

01:45And you look at the front court, you know, with Scotty Barnes, yes, can't stay healthy.

01:52Brandon Ingram, another guy, can't stay healthy.

01:54And Yaka Pertl was always on the trading block.

01:56So if you go into a situation, Dottie, where you're going into your left, you know the deal.

02:01The last thing you don't want is to be a lame duck GM.

02:03So either you're going to get extended or you're going to get let go.

02:07Toronto decided to let him go.

02:09And I think maybe, to me, one of the more confounding things is if Yaka Pertl is on the trading block all the time,

02:17you had Kamal Malewatch sitting at number nine.

02:20Why didn't you make the move and get him right at nine?

02:23Almost seems like that could have been the last straw.