Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri faced plenty of questions from reporters after he decided not to ship out O.G. Anunoby, Fred VanVleet or Gary Trent Jr. at the NBA trade deadline on Thursday.
“Why it didn’t happen? The opportunity was not there for us for a blockbuster trade,” Ujiri said.
Toronto was quiet after acquiring centre Jakob Poeltl in an overnight deal with the San Antonio Spurs.
VanVleet, Trent Jr. and Poeltl are all unrestricted free agents after this season.
“The way I look at the deadline, it’s really not a great place to make long-term decisions … in terms of some of the things we were getting,” Ujiri said.
The Golden State Warriors were rumoured to be interested in a deal for Anunoby earlier in the day, while VanVleet was linked to the Los Angeles Clippers, but in the end, the Raptors didn’t make a move.
“I believe in these guys. We believe in them. We think growth sometimes takes a while … Hopefully we can have a little bit of patience,” Ujiri said.
The Raptors (26-30) currently are 10th in the Eastern Conference, good for the final spot in the play-in tournament.
The Raptors acquired Poeltl — who was drafted by Toronto before being sent to the Spurs in the Kawhi Leonard deal — for Khem Birch, a protected 2024 first-round pick and two future second-round picks.
“On this team, I hadn’t done my part maybe for this team to maybe play a little bit better. I think we needed a big like Jak,” Ujiri said.
The Raptors went 4-3 on a recent season-long road swing and then beat the Spurs at home on Wednesday to get back into the post-season mix.
However, the team had much higher expectations this season after finishing fifth in the East last season.
“We want to solve it, but I want to caution everyone that it’s not going to happen overnight,” Ujiri said.
Ujiri, memorably, said “play in for what?” when asked about the possibility of the team making the play-in tournament in 2021 when the team played home games in Tampa, Fla.
This time, he said he’ll reserve comments on the play-in tournament until after the regular season is finished.
The trade landscape changed dramatically overnight when the Brooklyn Nets shipped Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns in a blockbuster deal.
Poeltl is expected to begin his second stint with the Raptors on Friday when the team hosts the Utah Jazz at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT on Sportsnet ONE and SN NOW.
