JANUARY 10: Patrick McCaw has officially signed his one-year contract with the Raptors, according to the NBA’s transactions log. McCaw was waived by the Cavaliers on Monday, allowing him to enter unrestricted free agency and sign with any team.
JANUARY 9: Shooting guard Patrick McCaw will sign with the Raptors, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. McCaw, who cleared waivers today, will receive a one-year deal worth $786K, the pro-rated amount of the veterans’ minimum, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The signing will end an eventful two-week odyssey for McCaw that will eventually leave him right where he started. Because he is set to sign a one-year contract, he will become a restricted free agent again at the end of the season if the Raptors submit a qualifying offer, and the team will be able to match any offer he receives.
McCaw had been waiting for a contract since July, but nothing materialized until December 28 when the Cavaliers signed him to a non-guaranteed offer sheet worth $6MM over two years. The Warriors elected not to match, sending him to Cleveland, but only for a few days. The Cavs waived McCaw on Sunday, paying him about $323K for his brief stay with the team.
McCaw spent his first two NBA seasons with Golden State, but turned down a qualifying offer from the team over the summer and a subsequent two-year, $5.2MM offer with only a guarantee on the first year. That still would have paid him substantially more than he will make in about a half season with the Cavs and Raptors. McCaw explained that he didn’t want to re-sign with the Warriors because he was seeking “a new opportunity.”
The NBA plans to review the unusual way that Cleveland handled the McCaw situation. There are accusations that the Cavaliers circumvented the salary cap, signing McCaw only so he could have a path toward unrestricted free agency with no intention of keeping him. The franchise faces fines or a loss of draft picks if the league determines something inappropriate happened. McCaw played just three games during his time in Cleveland, averaging 1.7 PPG.
The expected signing will bring Toronto back to the league minimum of 14 players and increase the team’s projected luxury tax bill by $2.56MM to $34.74MM, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The bill was at $34.5MM before Lorenzo Brown was waived on Monday.
Wouldn’t it be fun if he hit the series winning basket against the Warriors in the finals? It’ll never happen outside of a Disney movie, but it would definitely be fun.
Raps aren’t making the finals
Says who?
They’ve got the makings of an Eastern Conference Finals team.
Who stands in their way? The Sixers LOL the Celtics, Maybe. Raptors are happening baby.
what’s wrong with the 6ers
Sixers are very good but they’re not going to make it to the finals this year. They’re still a little young and don’t have all the pieces necessary. But they’re close they’re getting there. They’re doing a great job.
“Raptors are happening” I wouldn’t go that far. Although ESPN only talks about the big markets the Bucks are the biggest threat out the east. If not them the celtics still have more depth than anyone and would beat the Raptors out of 7, they have more wings and capable bigs who can stretch out their defense…
Yes the Bucks too !
I would say the Bucks are a big-time threat. Four Strong teams in the east.
Everybody says the Celtics are a given…, I don’t think so.
I agree with you
Right ? Sixers fans out here lmaoooo
Curious to know what your reasoning is. Who do you have coming out of the east and why?
Good odds for a GSW-TOR finals, and a revisiting of this odd journey.
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Exhibit 1 for the defense in the investigation into the Cavs’s actions is McCaw’s lousy 3-day audition.
If it’s played on ESPN… it would be a Disney Movie.
What the NBA is looking into the unusual non-guarantee of the contract. Not sure if it ever happen before for a player who is restricted signed a non-guarantee contract with another team. Did the Cavs even tried him out before signing the deal? There was no way he would be NBA ready after barely playing in the last year.
You apparently have never seen McCaw play.
So he turned down a $2 million deal with GSW to sign for almost 3x less money. Not like the raptors are going to give him more playing time than he would have with GSW. McCaw should have stayed in school and learn business.
I can’t figure out why the raptors think they needed to sign him. The only scenario I can work out is that he will fill Delon Wright’s shoes after Wright gets traded in the coming weeks. Or in other words, McCaw is a depth piece they hope not to call on much, who is cheaper than Delon and will fit the end of season roster construction in this way.
Cavs screwed the Warriors out of a right to match a market deal (which was the spirit of the RFA rules). But it appears they did so adhering to the letter of those rules.
Cavs can legitimately ask — when, when it comes to the NBA salary cap, has the spirit of the rules – vs the letter of the rules – ever mattered-? Deals fall through, get caught up and/or made more complicated by salary cap rules, all the time, whether or not those rules were designed to deal with their circumstances.
An offer sheet in this instance needed to be for at least 2 years, excluding any option years or termination rights. But there is no requirement that any part of contract be guaranteed. The two concepts (team option vs non-guaranteed salary) are treated as different things (there was a time when the first year of an offer sheet had to be fully guaranteed, and that was expressly changed).
Cavs should prevail, but the fighting Silvers don’t always play by the rules.
But GSW could have matched; the spirit of the law was maintained. They could have painlessly closed that small gap between what they & Cleveland offered. But they cared less about Mccaw than this investigation.
McCaw is just the wing-y type GM Altman has been gunning for; the interest was legit.
Probably the truth is, Mccaw is a snob, who said to Altman, thanks for the business end, but no way am I going to live in Cleveland. So, he intentionally bricked his audition and left town.
His goal was always freedom… which includes the freedom to screw up!
Being able to match the Cavs’ offer sheet is the letter of the rule. The spirit was that, in effect, that right gave them (as the home team, and one that drafted him and invested in him for 2 years) the right to keep him, as long as they paid him market (the highest salary that any of the other 29 teams was willing to pay him). That’s his Toronto salary. Yes, Warriors could have matched the Cavs offer sheet, but that wouldn’t give them the right to keep him at his market salary. They’d either have to release him (after 10 days), after having cut someone to have him on the roster, or pay him 2.5 times his market salary. They didn’t get the right to match Toronto’s market salary.
But exploiting a loophole has never vitiated a deal, or resulted in punishment of a team. The league’s response is always to amend the CBA to close the loophole. Because of the CP3 deal, the rule of matching salaries was changed to exclude NGC’s (when for years those could be and often were used). The league didn’t punish Houston, they called the NBAPA and got the rule changed ASAP.
Cavs could argue their intent was pure. But, if that doesn’t fly, I think they can alternatively argue that their intent was and is irrelevant regardless. I don’t expect the NBA to punish the Cavs. I do expect a quick CBA change this summer.
He signs for the pro rated minimum, loses half a season playing time and pay, and ends up a restricted free agent with another team next year. Hahahaha. What’s funny is the minutes were there all along for him in GS this year. The lesson here is to be careful who you listen to for advice!
McCaw’s master plan apparently was to f*** himself in the @$$ with a cheese grater. Because he ended up getting half the money he would have made with the Warriors and does not even become an unrestricted FA at the end of the season. Well done, sir.
exactly. Plus I don’t see him getting too many minutes with the Raptors. It will be interesting to see how they use him.
Word so he goes to Toronto like a 2 hour drive away , ok bud
Also pretty sure he still has UFA but stay salty!
Where do you get your information? The article you are commenting on reads:
“The signing will end an eventful two-week odyssey for McCaw that will eventually leave him right where he started. Because he is set to sign a one-year contract, he will become a restricted free agent again at the end of the season if the Raptors submit a qualifying offer, and the team will be able to match any offer he receives.”
Guess I’m wrong then sorry
I was pretty sure that since the Cavs gave mccaw an offer sheet and then released him , that he would become a UFA .
That does sound reasonable… I wonder if Mccaw made the same mistake. Everyone’s actions make sense to me except McCaw’s.
He was an unrestricted free agent this week because he was waived. He’d be restricted again once more in the offseason though, because his contract will simply be ending (ie. he wouldn’t be cut) and he’ll still only have 3 years of NBA experience.
The only team that could POSSIBLY give the raptors any smoke in the playoffs is the bucks , end of discussion. All the philly and Boston fans on this site are so ridiculous lol.
Interesting. Not sure what his goal was. Would he not have been an UFA after this year if the Warriors released him after the first part of the 2 year/$5.2 million deal? I can’t see any way this was a good idea
The Warriors 5.2 mm deal, and the qualifying offer, were both off the table by the time he did this with the Cavs. It was likely a combination of his not wanting to return to the Warriors at least as of last summer and (with his agents) misjudging the market for his services. It happens. It’s called a mistake. Those who go through life without a crystal ball often make them. Doesn’t indicate any mental or moral defect in the kid. Many, many players (and other people) have made far worse and more inexplicable mistakes. Even with NBA players, it’s not in the top 10 of the last 5 years. N.Noel was offered how much by Dallas, and is making what in OKC-?
Don’t eliminate the possibility that Toronto was his destination because with their tax situation they almost certainly will not match any significant offer sheet with any substance, and may not even make a qualifying offer. If he ends up an UFA next year and gets a longer term deal at more money, then maybe he did have a crystal ball.
If this was a plan, then to tank in Toronto too, while yet showing potential to other teams.