ESPN survey ranks Raptors' front office as second-best across NBA
The Toronto Raptors (and their front office) are once again on ESPN’s radar.
Four ESPN analysts came together to determine the network’s Future Power Rankings, an annual survey of the NBA’s 30 franchises and how they rate in the next three seasons when it comes to the team’s players, management, salary structure, market, and draft pick outlook.
“To determine the Future Power Rankings, we asked ESPN analysts Kevin Pelton, Bobby Marks, Andre Snellings and Tim Bontemps to rate teams in five categories and rank them relative to the rest of the league,” the article reads. “Consider this a convenient way to see the direction in which your favorite team is headed.”
And the Raptors ranked in the top half of the league in all five categories, the most impressive of which was the team’s front office, ranking behind just Miami across the league.
Toronto’s front office, led by team president of basketball operations/vice chairman Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster, has been long respected for their ability to turn the Raptors from an afterthought in the NBA to one of the league’s most consistent teams.
| Raptors’ rank | |
|---|---|
| Players | 14 |
| Management | 2 |
| Money | 12 |
| Market | 13 |
| Draft | 11 |
“Management” in this case includes “quality/stability of front office, ownership, coaching,” meaning that Raptors head coach Nick Nurse and his coaching staff are also included in the process, as well as the team’s ownership conglomerate Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
Since he was hired in 2013, Toronto has missed the playoffs just once in Ujiri’s tenure, the 2020-21 season where the team played the entirety of their home schedule in Tampa, Florida.
But even that didn’t seem to faze Toronto’s president, who viewed the experience as a positive.
“The ‘Tampa tank’ year, we won,” Ujiri said at his end-of-season press conference last season. “You know why we won? [We drafted] Scottie Barnes. Our whole mindset has to be winning. You have to think about it that way.”
NBA insiders vote on the best managed teams in the NBA
(Via ESPN) pic.twitter.com/VChJvTjXxT
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) October 26, 2022
Rounding out the top five were the L.A. Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, and Memphis Grizzlies.
The full ESPN survey can be read here.
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