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'Zero concern': Raptors president shoots down notion of team turmoil

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

The Toronto Raptors have fallen upon hard times.

Having dropped 10 of their last 14 games, grumblings from star point guard Kyle Lowry were dripped in frustrations. Lowry said, "something gotta change," after blowing a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter of Sunday's loss to the Detroit Pistons.

Lowry's comments spawned speculation as to friction within the locker room, but Raptors president Masai Ujiri dispelled any rumors of discontent on Wednesday.

"Sometimes the frustrations come out a little bit more. It happens. Honestly there is zero concern on my part," Ujiri said of the health of his locker room on Sportsnet's Tim and Sid.

Ujiri was specifically asked if Lowry and head coach Dwane Casey were feuding, to which he answered that disagreements are commonplace.

"Honestly they've butted heads like two months ago ... when we're 22-8. It happens once in a while. It happens with other players too. Again, it's the nature of things. I'll bump heads with Kyle, I'll bump heads with Coach Casey."

"There's no malicious person. Everybody's intent is purely to win. It's sometimes the heat of the moment. If there's a deep issue with our team, trust me, I'd know, because I'd have to solve it, I'll be in there. And I haven't seen anything like that."

Ujiri attributes Lowry's comments to exhaustion and frustration from having to carry a disproportionate load for the reeling Raptors.

"Kyle has carried our team. DeMar was hurt. We've played him a lot of minutes, I know he's tired, he's given it his all, we're going through it."

The Raptors have fielded the same core for going on four years. The team has been extremely stable within that run and they have established a winning formula. That chemistry has been absent since the calendar flipped to 2017, but Ujiri insists that they can get through it.

"Not everybody is holding hands every day ... we'll get through it. When adversity comes, that's when real men show up. Real men work, real men fight through adversity. I know we have real men on our team. These guys have been together in tough times, rough times, good times. We want to win and all of them want to win."

Ujiri also gave his roster a vote of confidence by trading for a win-now piece in Serge Ibaka at the trade deadline.

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