When you look at the Toronto Raptors, you recognize that one of the biggest reasons they reached the NBA mountaintop and won the franchise's only championship was because of some masterful work from behind the scenes by team President Masai Ujiri. On Thursday, fans of the team got some news concerning the organization's leader that could prove problematic in the future: Ujiri is being targeted by the Atlanta Hawks as their next President of Basketball Operations.

According to NBA journalist and insider Marc Stein, the Hawks reportedly have interest in trying to hire Ujiri away from Toronto (subscription required). Stein notes that at this time, it is not clear exactly what kind of chance Atlanta has of landing the Raptors' President.

Obviously, Masai leaving Toronto would be less than ideal, but there's reason to believe he could end up sticking around. At the Raptors' exit interviews on April 15 following the conclusion of the regular season, he expressed a desire to bring another championship to the franchise.

"I feel like we just have to win another one and we will win another one here," Ujiri said.

With that said, it would be an abject disaster if Ujiri did end up leaving town. As we know, right now the Raptors' roster is loaded with wing players that may or may not complement each other super well. If Masai leaves his post, whoever is appointed as his successor would inherit a relatively expensive roster with no clear identity beyond what plans Ujiri has stored away.

It would essentially be passing off what could be a promising situation to someone who just doesn't understand how to put the pieces together, because the architect took them with him when he left. If that situation were to play out, it would almost certainly set the Raptors back years due to having to start their rebuild over.

Fans in Toronto don't want to imagine that kind of disaster unfolding. The Raptors have already missed the playoffs in four of the last six seasons since Kawhi Leonard left town and moved to Los Angeles. And let's not forget, it was Masai who even got the 2019 Finals MVP in the city in the first place.

The potential for Toronto to get back to playing high-level hoops in late April and May is there, but things become much more complicated if Ujiri leaves. He's proven he knows how to build a championship team, and seeing him depart in the middle of the Raptors' rebuild would be a total gut punch.