Leon Rose and the rest of the New York Knicks' front office leadership may need to start looking over their shoulders. Masai Ujiri is officially available, and it feels like only a matter of time before his name gets tied to the organization—unless the Knicks nail this offseason.
As first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania, Ujiri is out as team president of the Toronto Raptors after spending 12 seasons at the helm, and overseeing their 2019 championship run. His exit is being framed as something akin to a mutual parting of the ways. But the 54-year-old executive had another year left on his deal, and there are already rumblings that Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Raptors, are responsible for making the call.
Either way, Ujiri is now effectively a free agent, provided he wants to stay in the business of basketball. His name will hover over every organization even potentially in need of a leadership shakeup.
Right now, on the heels of New York’s first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000, Rose and company do not appear to be on the hot seat…yet.
The pressure is on the Knicks to get this offseason right
This is a mission-critical offseason for the Knicks. More specifically, it is a defining one for Rose’s tenure.
Last summer saw him swing two mega blockbuster deals, for Mikal Bridges and then Karl-Anthony Towns, two make-or-break moves in their own right. But now comes the hardest part: ensuring that the team in place is enough—that they are as good as they were assembled to be.
Rose has already decided this core is it. Tom Thibodeau would not have been fired so swiftly if the team didn’t think he was its biggest problem. The Knicks’ relatively slow-moving search for a new coach is similarly telltale. They did not make any moves around the draft, and ended up sitting out the Kevin Durant sweepstakes, despite ranking among his preferred destinations.
These are not the actions (and inactions) of a front office that thinks the roster requires a shakeup to emerge from the East. They might be right. Perhaps a coaching change is all the Knicks need to take that next step. But if they’re wrong, a marquee replacement who already has the team’s attention is up for grabs.
Masai Ujiri will eventually be linked to the Knicks if things go sideways
While Knicks owner James Dolan notoriously has, um, mixed feelings for Ujiri given New York’s past negotiations with the championship exec in both Denver and Toronto, it stands to reason he would top the team’s list of potential replacements if the current front office doesn’t perform up to snuff in the coming months. Don’t forget: Ujiri was high on Dolan’s wish list just before he hired Rose to run the show.
None of this is meant to imply the Knicks’ front office sits on the verge of getting axed. Rose would not be charged with leading the head-coaching search if that were the case.
Still, the decision to fire Thibs was reportedly spearheaded by Dolan, suggesting that he’s both growing impatient, and isn’t unflappably married to all things CAA. If that’s true, Rose and the rest of the front office were always going to navigate this summer and the coming regular season under an immense amount of pressure.
With Ujiri now floating around the open market, like a Bogeyman to currently employed execs almost everywhere, the stakes for this regime are now cranked up to an 11-out-of-10.