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With so much great work being done in NBA front offices, it's hard to narrow it down to a single midseason Executive of the Year winner, especially before the Feb. 7 trade deadline, when—who knows?—the ultimate winner could emerge.

You could point straight to the Lakers and say, "Game over," since Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka did sign the best player on the planet, LeBron James. Then again, Mary Poppins could've been the Lakers' GM, and Jame still would've gone to L.A.

You could point to Oklahoma City, where Sam Presti's gamble to trade for Paul George paid off, as the All-Star agreed to a four-year, $137 million deal to stay with the Thunder. George and Steven Adams are having career years, OKC is third in the West (only four games behind the Warriors) and Russell Westbrook isn't even playing like Russell Westbrook yet.

Speaking of the Warriors, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the offseason acquisition of DeMarcus Cousins, who is beginning to Boogie in the Bay Area. Not to diminish Golden State's excellence under the leadership of Bob Myers, but they did kind of luck into Kevin Durant (2016 cap spike) and now Cousins (available at a bargain-basement price because he was coming off an Achilles injury).

You could point to the Indiana Pacers, who fortified their depth with a series of under-the-radar moves (Kyle O'Quinn, Tyreke Evans, Doug McDermott). Under the former Portland leadership of Kevin Pritchard, Chad Buchanan and Nate McMillan, the Pacers climbed all the way to third in the East...though Victor Oladipo went down Wednesday night with a serious knee injury.

In the end, I'm going with the team that sits second in the East after a series of bold offseason moves: the Toronto Raptors. Team president Masai Ujiri fired Coach of the Year Dwane Casey and promoted Nick Nurse, a coaching grinder who came up through the inglorious minor league ranks and earned a shot after five years as Casey's assistant.

Ujiri also traded the popular DeMar DeRozan to the Spurs and added a top-five player in Kawhi Leonard—not to mention Danny Green, a sharpshooter with championship experience. When you fire a successful head coach and break up an All-Star backcourt and your team gets better, that's the stuff that Executives of the Year are made of.

If the prediction holds, it would be the second such honor for Ujiri, who won the award with the Denver Nuggets in 2013.

—Ken Berger