The Toronto Raptors are going to go for it

Damn, I’ve never clickbaited so hard.

Feels greasy. Sorry not sorry.

Because, in all honesty, it’s how I feel. The title choice was stream of consciousness. I’m tellin’ ya how it is, folks.

Something big is brewing. Big, big. I can feel it in my marrows. They’re jiggling in anticipation. My spidey senses tingling like I injected jalapeño margaritas into my spinal cord.

It feels wrong, I know. Why and in what world would Toronto think now is the time to punch the big, fat, red all-in button? They’ve won nothing the past two years. Their core is young, untested, and unsubstantiated. Seems rash.

Rather, the best path forward would be the patient one. No big free agency issues loom – other than Jakob Pöltl’s player option a year from now. They’re as young and hopeful as a clump of fresh daisies. And the team’s stocked full of draft capital. Potential is abound. If the Oklahoma City Thunder are the gold standard of teambuilding – they are – then planting and watching your flowers grow is the wise way to go.

But that’s just not how the world works. Nothing – you can tell Chat GPT didn’t write this for me – is a simple algorithm. There’s no code input that will assure winning. (Prospect + Prospect + Young All-Star)*(Time/Number of Tank Years = Divisional Title). It’s all just too unpredictable. Obviously.

The League is as contextual and ethereal as all else in life. The inexplicability of timing, momentum, esprit du corps and all the other stuff we simply can’t account for muddles what we can control. It’s the beauty of sport. A microcosm of life and the happenstances – good and bad – we incur day-to-day.

Masai Ujiri knows all this. He is a hallowed NBA executive for a reason. One of the few in all the League ubiquitously feared. Notorious not only for his determination and savviness – and stubbornness – in negotiation. But also for his magicking. His reading of the elements. Understanding of the unknown. His divining of time, of what has passed and what is to come.

His trade history is a litany of transactional singularity. The right player(s), at the right time, for the right price. He seems to sense what no one else does.

I can’t pretend to have any intuition, really. I don’t even know when I’m hangry, let alone sense the metaphysical alignment of opportunity. Still, I can piece together what we already know. Precedent suggests the evidence we currently have is proof of some future occurrence – I’m like a Minority Report detective.

Let’s consider the state of the Eastern Conference.

First, the injuries. Goddamnit, there’s something wrong with the NBA. Ligaments are snapping like Christmas Crackers at the family dinner table. Nearly every good team has an injured star(s): Boston, Indiana, Milwaukee, Philadelphia. Those who are “healthy”, like Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, and Orlando, have guys returning from season-ending surgeries. Not a single contender, other than New York, can claim total health.

Second, the disorder. Boston is in complete teardown mode. New York doesn’t have a coach. Cleveland might be trying to trade its All-Star point guard. Atlanta and Orlando are retooling. Miami’s big fish hunting in a kiddie pool. No one wants to play for Charlotte, apparently. Only Chicago…CHICAGO!…has any kind of stability. Enough said.

Third, the Apron System. The new rules make building and keeping big, expensive teams together nearly impossible. Hence, Phoenix and Boston pounding the eject button on their aging cores. And, why Milwaukee has little wiggle room to rebuild around Giannis Antetokounmpo. Why the Orlando Magic got Desmond Bane for “cheap”. Why the Knicks have no bench. And why Detroit might just do nothing at all. Everyone is scared of the Aprons and the paralysis they inflict.

Fourth, player movement. With teams scrambling to deconstruct for whatever reason – injury, luxury cap relief, pessimism – players are more available than ever. True, it’s harder to acquire a player with all the cap restrictions in place. It’s also true that fewer players are untradeable and fewer teams are unwilling to listen to offers. The Bane and Anfernee Simons trades were both made by teams we would, traditionally, assume more patient with their situation. Even contenders are antsy. The New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwovles got to their respective Conference Finals and within days of elimination there were rumours of core guys – Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, and Julius Randle – being traded.

Shit, Denver’s owner just went on national TV and said there’s a world where even Nikola Jokić gets traded. Ya, a world of insanity. The NBA.

Finally, the circumstances. With all the aforementioned, we’re in Masai’s realm. I’ve said it before; it’s not a secret. Masai Ujiri is a practitioner of the Shock Doctrine. He waits for chaos. For malcontent. For desperation. For arbitrage. And he exploits it.

I can think of fewer eras of the NBA where there is so much tumult at all levels – the League, teams, and individual players. This is his realm.

Masai is waiting for something. Maybe it’s something bigger, more transformative, more unforeseen. The obvious dude is Antetokounmpo. It’d be foolish to rule out other, less likelier superstars though.

Might Jaylen Brown be the guy? Or Devin Booker? Can Ja Morant or Jaren Jackson Jr. be pried away? Zion Williamson anyone? Is Bam Adebayo untouchable?

It’s a different era of NBA management; there are fewer dupes to swindle. Others are just as opportunistic. Orlando, as mentioned. Houston and Atlanta too. We’re sure to see more in the days to come. It’s harder for Masai to get his way – as well all know tooooo well – than it once was.

Perhaps, there’s just too much conjecture out there now. Monster trades are too normative and obvious for Masai to make a move. He prefers the shadows. Or, maybe, I’m getting too meta for my own good. Trying to outthink the great thinker, I think, is a bad thought experiment.

Feels different, though. An energy courses this speculative space. Can’t truly know what it is, but that’s not my job. That’s what makes Masai who he is. What he is.

I’ve no knowledge of what the Toronto Raptors are gonna do, but it really feels like they are going to go for it.

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