I don’t know if there are many Cavs fans here, but there are a ton of media members, and a large Athletic article, that rightfully goes after the team and organization for failing to put together a competitive squad.
From the failures of their President Koby Altman putting together a modern NBA team, them just not developing Mobley, their poor culture, issues with coaching, and continued lack luster performance, everyone involved with covering the team and even national media are doing their jobs.
It’s WILD to see how everyone in Toronto failed to hold the Raptors accountable for years. Masai had a few tough questions thrown at them at the last presser, but none of his bullshit responses were questioned. After their first round loss to the Sixers, when it was very clear the team’s roster construction was trash and they had thrown way a pick for Thad Young and missed out on drafting Walker Kesller, Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Nikola Jovic, Peyton Watson, (or Tari Eason or Mark Williams if they didn’t throw away the pick) no one was in the hot seat, no one made it public how dysfunctional the team was behind the scenes.
Holding teams accountable is part of the job of media. Fans can’t do anything about how the team operates but enough articles from enough reporters have a much larger impact on how owners evaluate the jobs of their FOs, which usually forces change.
EDIT\* This is the kind of shit I’m talking about – [https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10121308-nba-rumors-donovan-mitchell-grew-frustrated-by-some-cavs-lack-of-maturity-focus](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10121308-nba-rumors-donovan-mitchell-grew-frustrated-by-some-cavs-lack-of-maturity-focus)
Imagine if a major news outlet reported on the very obvious locker room issues that forced players and the FO to be held accountable for their atrocious play the last few seasons and possibly force the FO to make a move earlier.
by MortimerCanon
12 Comments
Did you watch the post trade and end of season presser from Masai? He admitted a few times that they didn’t make the right decisions because they were optimistic and felt like they owed the old group a real center. After that press conference, you have guys like Blake and Will continuously not agree with the premise (they think the trade should have happened last trade deadline), but they got an honest answer from the FO.
So…. after they admit they didn’t do things the right way, what is “holding accountability” mean for you? Just waste the press’ time and keep asking the same questions over and over again? The only thing the media hasn’t done is advocate for a change in leadership — and if that’s what you want, just say that.
FWIW Even guys like Grange and Lewenberg were highly critical of the Jakob Poeltl trade, due to the weak protections and the Raptors then-poor position in the East’s standings, and there was an equal amount of pressing about the way they handled the Siakam exit/extension butchering
Toronto media has been a lot more willing to play hardball with the FO and less willing to cheerlead – and with good reason
> they had thrown way a pick for Thad Young and missed out on drafting Walker Kesller, Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, Nikola Jovic, Peyton Watson, (or Tari Eason or Mark Williams if they didn’t throw away the pick)
You are that upset that they missed out on those guys? Wait until you find out we could have drafted Nikola Jokic and didn’t. Oh wait, everyone else could have.
Lewenberg has openly questioned what the hell Masai has been doing the last few years. Other media have been less direct but have been critical.
Also Cleveland isn’t that bad! 2nd round loss to the best team in the league, missing their star player. Seems a bit harsh given where they are in their current growth trajectory.
Finally, when Toronto was consistently losing to those very Cleveland Cavaliers before 2019, they were getting roasted by the media for softness and falling apart in the playoffs.
There is no accountability with this team. Like we just made an awful trade and lost our 8 pick. What does Bobby say? “Oh well you know it would have been hard to develop 3 rookies anyways …”
It wouldn’t be so bad if the team weren’t so abysmal to watch the last 3-4 seasons. Fans should be pissed at Bobby and masai for doing such a bad job and Scotiabank tix still being like the 5th most expensive
There accountability and then the reality of the situation and winning a championship will certainly give you a bit of a leway with fans
Can we stop pretending our media members suck up only to the FO? They definitely ask them difficult questions as needed. But there’s nothing for them to gain by hounding the FO or insulting them. They still need to maintain a cordial relationship to get some insider info too. There’s a middle ground to these things and it helps that our FO isn’t manipulative with the media the way NY often is. They’re quite generous with media passes and not just to their own outlets but plenty of indie ones too. They find ways to get interviews or other access things to all of them.
Raptor fans: DOUG SMITH IS AN ASSHOLE, HE IS A SHIT REPORTER
also Raptor fans: THE MEDIA JUST LOBS SOFTBALL QUESTIONS
Man people are going to cry about this until they die and they will put it on their tombstone.
The FO missed. We are way past that now lol move tf on already.
their hottest hit was telling us scottie has no work ethic lol
Other than Doug, who was critical of Scottie, most Toronto media, from the bigger names like Koreen, Grange and Lewenberg, to Will Lou and Blake and online sources like Es and some Raptors Republic contributors have been critical and offered a decent variety of accountable analysis of the FO.