TORONTO — Masai Ujiri, the president of the Toronto Raptors, had seen enough high-powered offenses to recognize that the N.B.A. had turned into the autobahn. The problem was that his players were still chugging along in a Studebaker.
But that was all about to change.
The Raptors would finally embrace ball movement and the art of spacing. They would rid themselves of their propensity for one-on-one play, which had constipated their half-court sets. They would launch 3-pointers and run the floor while cleansing themselves of their fanatical devotion to midrange jumpers, the low-percentage shots that pain the sport’s growing collection of analytics acolytes as much as the bunt vexes their baseball cousins.