or that they're title contenders as constituted. i was speaking moreso to ujiri's overall performance, which given the circumstances he inherited has been phenomenal.

he was under pressure from day 1, being forced to trade a top 10 player less than 2 years ago and dealing from a position of relatively little leverage. that team could very very easily be in the exact same place orlando is now, instead they can field a top 8 that's as good as anyone in the conference outside of LA and OKC.

he couldn't have played out the melo drama any more perfectly, i really liked the nene deal (tho i'm not quite where dream's @ with it -- http://yhoo.it/NU7YWy -- i am a big fan of vale's Tremendous Upside Potential and think he's in line for a change-of-scenery style breakout season) and i thought the way he was able to insinuate himself last-minute into this duhwight thing and nab one of those moving parts to significantly upgrade his roster was a pretty slick gambit.

i don't regard 'contending' as the sole criterion in evaluating front-office executives. the fact is unless you're fortunate / lucky enough to draft or inherit a true franchise player (which is an increasingly rare species in today's league), or you're the lakers who can go out and poach one from another team whenever the need arises, you kinda just have to 'make do' in a sense. masai's doing just that, and he's doing it pretty damn well.

reminds me a little of dumars' stellar first few years in detroit (you know, before he lost his mind and gave ben gordon and charlie villanueva $90M to not start)