Raptors GM acknowledges team needs a ‘culture reset’ after getting swept by Cavaliers

After a deep Toronto Raptors squad got swept in their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, general manager Masai Ujiri suggested things up north would be changing.

“After that performance, we need a culture reset here,” Ujiri said in his exit media session. “The style of play is something we need to change. I’ve made it clear. [Head coach Dwane Casey] has acknowledged it.

”I don’t think this is a matter of changing players, but how do we change how we play/approach the game,” he added, via City News Toronto’s Danielle Michaud.

The Raptors run an inordinate amount of screen-and-roll with two gifted ball-handlers in DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. But far too often, Toronto possessions end in isolation situations. The Raptors found themselves one-on-one sixth-most in the NBA, behind only the Rockets, Knicks, Mavericks, Clippers, and Cavaliers.

To Toronto’s credit, their formula has worked in the regular season. The Raptors won 56 games last season and won 51 this year, despite Lowry’s stretch of 21 missed games due to a wrist injury. They also made two midseason trades — one for Serge Ibaka and another for P.J. Tucker — that made them a daunting foe on paper.

But with Lowry’s injury right at the trade deadline, the group never jelled together.

Ujiri has his work cut out for him. Lowry openly admitted he will opt out of the final year of his contract to enter unrestricted free agency this summer. It will cost the Raptors a max salary starting at $35 million annually to retain him. That’s Objective A on Ujiri’s list.

“It’s our jobs to get Kyle back,” he said, via The Athletic’s Eric Koreen. “He’s been a huge part of our success here. We want him back.”

The salary cap is projected at $103 million for next season, though those figures have historically changed prior to the summer.

The Raptors have $76.8 million committed in guaranteed salaries for next season and will likely keep Norman Powell ($1.47 million) and Fred VanVleet ($1.31 million) on through their contract guarantee dates in late-June and early July. The cap hold on Lowry’s contract is $18 million.

That leaves Toronto less than $6 million below the salary cap even before accounting for the cap holds for the team’s other free agents. Add Lowry’s full $35 million max salary, and Toronto is eyebrows-deep in cap rigidity.

Serge Ibaka also becomes a free agent this summer, and he will undoubtedly look for a pay raise from the $12.3 million salary he collected this season. Patrick Patterson and P.J. Tucker also hit the market this summer, each playing themselves into a pay raise.

The Raptors can exceed the cap to re-sign their own free agents, but doing so comes with a hefty luxury tax depending on how far over the “apron” the team’s total salary ends up. The apron is $4 million more than the luxury tax, so if the current cap figures hold, it would be $127 million.

For a team between $15 and $20 million over the luxury tax, the NBA taxes $3.25 for every additional dollar paid. That’s a lot of money to shell out to keep together a team that just got swept in the second round.

That’s why Ujiri iterated the obvious: It’ll be impossible for Toronto to keep all of its free agents. That’s the issue he conceded plagues the Raptors moving forward.

“Where do we go with this team, and where does this team get you? That’s the big question,” Casey said.

When the Golden State Warriors hit a road bump in the 2013-14 season, they switched head coaches from Mark Jackson to Steve Kerr. The decision hurt the players with whom Jackson built a relationship, but Kerr’s offensive genius led Golden State to a championship the next season.

The same thought can be applied to Toronto. What Ujiri said in his presser falls just short of an indictment on his head coach.

“All I know is what we have been doing has not worked. And I have to look at that, we have to take a serious look at that. Because we’ve tried it and tried it and tried it and tried it and you know what, it hasn’t taken us to the highest level,” he said. “It’s gotten us to a good place as a team but it hasn’t worked for us. I don’t know that that’s the way to go but we have to evaluate how we are playing for sure and figure out a way to change that.”

Ujiri has been a standout GM in Toronto after winning Executive of the Year with Denver in 2013. He got three players AND three draft picks for an oft-injured Andrea Bargnani, turned Terrence Ross and a late first-rounder into Serge Ibaka, and flipped John Salmons for Lou Williams and Lucas Noguiera.

Now, he must make sure all those efforts don’t come up empty. And if you ask him, it starts with resetting the culture.

Ujiri’s calls are normally spot-on. Hopefully for Raptors fans, this one is, too.