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One day after waiving Lorenzo Brown, the Toronto Raptors have found a target to fill his roster spot, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski: Former Golden State Warriors swingman Patrick McCaw.
Patrick McCaw plans to sign a deal with the Toronto Raptors, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 9, 2019
McCaw’s route to the Raptors is a circuitous one; as you may recall, he was a restricted free agent this past summer, but he and the Warriors were unable to come to an agreement, and no one else signed him to an offer sheet.
That is, until the Cleveland Cavaliers signed him a couple of weeks ago. Golden State didn’t match, and the Cavs... promptly released him. It initially seemed as though McCaw intended to go back to the Cavs, and the signing was a way for him to get out of Golden State and for the Cavs to get an asset at a reduced rate; it was such an odd situation that the league has since opened an investigation to confirm whether or not any shenanigans went on behind the scenes.
And now, it seems that McCaw has actually gone from one Finals contender to another by signing with Toronto.
It’s difficult to say that McCaw will have much of an impact in Toronto. The Raptors are relatively stacked at the wing, with Kawhi Leonard, OG Anunoby, Danny Green, Norman Powell, C.J. Miles (uh, maybe) and even Delon Wright. But McCaw provides injury insurance — certainly an issue for the Raptors this year — and, perhaps fills a spot if the Raptors should choose to trade one of the aforementioned wings.
Still, this is another young wing, with playoff experience, and you can do a heck of lot worse with your 14th roster spot. He certainly couldn’t bring any less to the table than C.J. Miles is right now (I’m sorry C.J., no hard feelings, please find your game soon).
As for the 15th roster spot that the Raptors have left open/filled with two-way players this year, it looks to remain that way. Chris Boucher’s NBA days will run out at some point (two-way players get a maximum of 45 days with the big club) so there’s some possibility he’ll be converted to a full roster spot, but I imagine the Raptors will try and hold off filling those days before Jonas Valanciunas returns, making converting Boucher a moot point.