Toronto Raptors Looking At Pacers Kevin Pritchard For GM

Void of a general manager after removing Bryan Colangelo from the role, the Toronto Raptors have been doing their best to fill the vacancy.

Their initial hope was that they’d be able to sway current Denver Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri back to his former stomping grounds in Toronto, even willing to pony up over $2 million a year to do so. But the Denver Nuggets haven’t exactly been happy to oblige, yet to give the Raptors permission to speak to the highly desired GM.

*UPDATE* – Raptors have been given permission to speak to Ujiri now

Next in line, apparently? None other than former Portland Trail Blazers and current Indiana Pacers GM, Kevin Pritchard.

Per CBS’ Ken Berger:

"The Toronto Raptors have asked permission to interview Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard to head up their basketball operations, league sources told CBSSports.com on Friday."

There’s been no word on if the Pacers have approved or denied their request.

Pritchard was a driving force behind some of the solid moves the Portland Trail Blazers made a few seasons back, although, at the time he wasn’t even the GM – simply an assistant. Going off of his recommendations though, the Blazers built up a solid core of youth that unfortunately didn’t materialize, much in part due to injuries.

Pritchard also rubbed a few the wrong way when he coined the phrase “Pritchslapped” in reference to “winning” trades with opposing general managers, though, it apparently hasn’t haunted him too much.