Masai Ujiri's Raptors are on pace for their second sub-.500 record in three years after they won the title in 2019Nick Turchiaro/USA TODAY NETWORK
In Toronto, Dave Feschuk wrote Thursday's trade deadline “came and went” with Raptors GM Masai Ujiri “doing very little, and the truth is he still seems stumped on that small matter of the franchise’s impending direction.” The Raptors won the NBA Championship in 2019, and with his team “on pace for its second sub-.500 record in three seasons, Ujiri can’t seem to choose a course.” What he did in the lead-up to Thursday, acquiring C Jakob Poeltl from the Spurs for C Khem Birch, a protected 2024 first-round pick and two second-round picks, “amounted to a confusing half-measure.” The trade “certainly didn’t clarify the path forward” and it “certainly didn’t befit Ujiri’s reputation as an operator unafraid of big swings” (TORONTO STAR, 2/9).
RE-CASTING SHOWTIME: In California, Jim Alexander wrote for all of the criticism leveled at Lakers VP/Basketball Operations & GM Rob Pelinka “over the last 2½ seasons, much of it deserved, give him his flowers today.” Pelinka was “able to retool the roster while only spending the 2027 first-round draft pick.” He might “not have made the uber-blockbuster deal that the fan base demanded," but this is "an upgraded roster and one that could conceivably do damage going forward” (Riverside PRESS-ENTERPRISE, 2/9).
