Masai Ujiri has proven himself to be a patient man. He resisted the calls to lop off Dwane Casey’s head after the ghastly series sweep at the hands of the Washington Wizards in 2015 and was rewarded by the best three years in franchise history.
He ignored the seemingly yearly clamour to deal DeMar DeRozan, and now has a player who can legitimately be called an All-Star.
He decided to double down on last year’s core, even after LeBron James and the Cavs eviscerated it, and saw Toronto, for all the playoff hand-wringing, have a season 28 other NBA teams would have loved to have.