TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors are doing their best to convey business as usual, even if it’s anything but.

For the third straight summer, the team is working out of a hotel ballroom-turned-state-of-the-art basketball facility in Las Vegas, where they’re approaching the halfway point of a tournament they have a good shot at winning.

Their attendance record is nearly perfect. Toronto’s loaded Summer League roster has been practicing on one side of the gym while a full contingent of its veteran players train on the other. The team website lists 80 people on its staff – from front-office personnel to the coaches, trainers, and chefs – and more than 90 per cent of them made the trip in the hopes of showing face, proving their worth, and sussing out their place in whatever comes next.

The elephant in the room is the one person who’s no longer in the room: the recently dismissed team president, Masai Ujiri. Nobody is talking about their former boss or even speaking his name aloud. Ask somebody about him, on or off the record, and you’ll get a scripted response, something along the lines of: "He did great things and will be missed, but life goes on."

Requests to make general manager Bobby Webster or other members of the front office available to the media have been declined, even for stories unrelated to Ujiri, and the sense is that the code of silence is a directive coming from the very top. The nervous energy is palpable.

Most people in the organization knew that change was inevitable, with Ujiri going into the final year of his contract and Rogers taking control of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. But the timing – the day after the draft – hit them hard and, two weeks later, the shock hasn’t worn off.

On one hand, in the highly competitive world of professional sports, it’s not unusual to have doubts about one’s job security. But, even by NBA standards, to have this many people looking over their shoulder at once is notable. And given that the longtime face of the franchise was just let go and the new-look ownership group has promised more change, it’s entirely justifiable.

“Everybody is scared,” said one team source, who asked to remain anonymous. “The closer you are to the top, the more you feel it.”

Fortunately, the players are far enough removed that it shouldn’t affect the on-court product in any meaningful way. If there’s anybody who should be feeling the pressure it’s Ujiri’s top lieutenant, the generally calm, cool, and collected Webster, who has been thrust into an unfamiliar position.

The Hawaiian-born executive has worn many hats during his two decades in the NBA, which accounts for half of his life. He’s been the team’s pseudo-accountant, using the expertise he gained working in the league office (where he helped create the old CBA) to manage the salary cap. He’s been a........

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