Report [UPDATED]: Patrick McCaw to undergo surgery on knee, miss several weeks

Say what you will about Patrick McCaw, the 24-year-old guard (and three-time champion) could at least be counted on to fill some minutes for the Toronto Raptors. As of today, as per reports from Shams Charania, that is no longer the case — for at least a few weeks.

That’s right, the troubling left knee situation that’s had McCaw in and out of Toronto’s lineup for most of the early season is now a full-blown crisis. (For those keeping track, McCaw missed the Raptors’ final preseason game, then sat the first three games of the regular season, appeared in two games, and then was absent for last Saturday’s game against the Bucks.) While McCaw wasn’t exactly filling the stat sheet, he was well-established as the team’s eighth man, working as both a minute-eater for the squad, and as ball-handling relief for Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, their overworked starting backcourt.

Now that’s all up in the air, as several weeks sounds more like a month at least (the typical turnaround time for a “minor” knee surgery). In that time, the Raptors will need both of rookies Terence Davis and Matt Thomas to step up, and there extremely thin bench corps will have to figure out ways to produce. As we discussed this morning, McCaw’s absence highlights some of Toronto’s ongoing weaknesses, and suggests they may soon need to acquire some more usable players — not just prospects who could be good — to fill out the bench.

Here’s our previous coverage on the situation when it was announced that McCaw was going to be out “indefinitely.”

UPDATE:

It’s official from the Raptors now. McCaw underwent arthroscopic surgery today and he’ll be “reevaluated in four weeks.” As per the team, apparently a benign mass had to be removed from the back of his knee. Doesn’t sound serious, per se, but it definitely doesn’t sound fun.

We’ll check back in on the situation come early to mid-December.