The Toronto Raptors are pursuing Masai Ujiri to become the team's top basketball executive, according to sources.

Ujiri was named the 2013 NBA Executive of the Year for his work as general manager of the Nuggets.

Ujiri's contract with the Nuggets expires this summer and he has been in discussions on an extension.

Korn/Ferry International, the search firm hired by MLSE to search for a new GM for the Raptors, has identified Ujiri as its top candidate.

MLSE has until Monday to make a decision on whether to retain Bryan Colangelo, who could stay with the franchise under a new decision-maker.

Ujiri worked for three years with the Raptors under Colangelo before becoming GM of the Nuggets.

Andre Iguodala will likely opt out of his player option this offseason and become a free agent, but the Denver Nuggets have been adamant about their desire to re-sign him.

When asked about Iguodala possibly returning to the Nuggets, Masai Ujiri said on Thursday: “I’m very optimistic that things will go well. … We want him back.”

Iguodala averaged 18 points, eight rebounds and 5.3 assists in the Nuggets' six-game series loss to the Golden State Warriors in the first round.

George Karl believes the Denver Nuggets did not have the right mentality to beat Golden State.

"When I talked about the playoffs, I told my team constantly: 'You don't understand how hard this is,' " Karl said. "I call it starting the fight. We started the fight in the second half of Game 3 against Golden State. ... Call it a young, cocky team. Blame it on an old coach who's too arrogant. Whatever. The lack of maturity of our team showed."

Karl is confident the Nuggets will make the necessary adjustments for next season.

"I think there's personnel development we need to do. And I think there's change in coaching. But we're aware of it, and I think we'll get it done," Karl said. "We're the No. 1 scoring team in the NBA. We're the worst-shooting team in basketball. We're one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in basketball. We're a team with a philosophy of getting fouled that didn't always shoot free throws well. And you don't think we're creative enough to figure out what we need or how to add to this team?"

Masai Ujiri has been named the NBA's executive of the year.

Ujiri, general manager of the Denver Nuggets, put together a roster that won 57 games.

The Nuggets were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in six games by the Golden State Warriors.

Ujiri became GM of the Nuggets in 2010 after a stint with the Toronto Raptors as their Director of Global Scouting.

George Karl has been named the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2012-13 NBA Coach of the Year.

Karl, who guided the Nuggets to the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, joins Doug Moe as the only coaches in franchise history to win the award. It also is the first time Karl has received the honor in his 25 NBA seasons.

Karl totaled 404 points, including 62 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. 

Andre Iguodala will be a free agent this offseason, making his situation the biggest priority for the Denver Nuggets to resolve.

Iguodala was acquired by the Nuggets last August in a four-team trade.

“Andre was a great fit, we felt,” general manager Masai Ujiri said. “He brings every aspect of the game to the table, be it defending, passing, leadership and scoring sometimes. For us, he grew with the team. I think he saw that. He’s a good priority for us. We’re definitely excited and I think Andre was excited the way he gelled with the team. We’ve had good conversations with him and we’ll continue to have those conversations. We feel confident. We feel confident with where generally everything is.”

Masai Ujiri will enter a Denver Nuggets' offseason following a six-game elimination in the first round of the playoffs by the Golden State Warriors without a contract of his own as general manager.

Ujiri called the loss to the Warriors disappointing, but is still confident of the Nuggets' future.

“I think it’s nothing that we need to panic about,” Ujiri said. “We will fix it. We knew we had a growing team and there would be growing pains, and we will fix the problems.”

The Nuggets won a franchise-record 57 games in the regular season.

“We just built a team that we thought could grow,” Ujiri said. “And they really played hard, the team started to come together.”

Ujiri was asked if the Nuggets are constructed in a flawed way to compete in the playoffs.

“I have to take responsibility, too. We built the team. Are there flaws in the roster? Are there things that we need to tweak or change? We have always said it’s a young team, it’s the third-youngest team in the NBA. There’s going to be some growing up to do. Maybe this was part of it.”

Josh Kroenke expects Masai Ujiri to return as general manager of the Denver Nuggets next season.

Ujiri's contract as general manager expires at the end of June.

"For the fans, they should know that Masai wants to be here, and I think he enjoys working for me,” Kroenke said. “I think we make a pretty good team, along with Pete (D'Alessandro, vice president of basketball operations) and Dan (Tolzman, scouting director) and the rest of our scouting staff. So I wouldn't anticipate any issues there."

Kroenke tabbed Ujiri to run the Nuggets in 2010.

After a first round exit out of a 57-win Denver Nuggets team, George Karl's future has been discussed, but the organization fully supports the head coach.

"George is under contract for next year. At this point in time, we haven't really given any thought to making any change whatsoever," Nuggets president Josh Kroenke said. "As we do at the end of every season, we'll have internal meetings and George will obviously be a major part of them. We won 57 games and in my mind, he should hands down be the NBA coach of the year.

"We'll all put our heads together and try to figure out what happened (in the playoffs) and why it happened. We were without our second-leading scorer, and some benefit of the doubt should be given to a coach with well over 1,000 wins without one of his leading scorers (Danilo Gallinari) in the playoffs."

Karl's Nuggets set a franchise record in wins this season, but they weren't themselves against the No. 6-seeded Golden State Warriors and lost the series in six games.

"I think there's a heavy burden on me, and of course my record speaks for myself," Karl said after the loss. "And even though I put an armor on to defend my record, I'm disappointed in my record, as well."

Andre Iguodala is expected to opt out of the final season of his current contract, which is set to pay him $16 million in order to explore free agency.

Iguodala may not receive as much money on an annual basis, but would welcome the security of a long-term deal.

Iguodala will be one of the NBA's most coveted unrestricted free agents this offseason.