One of the more bizarre stories this season has been Patrick McCaw‘s odyssey. The Warriors wanted to re-sign the reserve guard but McCaw played hardball with them. He eventually signed a non-guaranteed offer sheet with the Cavaliers. His stay in Cleveland was brief and he later signed for the remainder of the season with the Raptors.
With his current team set to play his former team in the Finals, McCaw spoke at length with Marc Spears of The Undefeated about why he chose that path.
Here are some of the highlights:
- McCaw wanted to have a bigger role. “I just wanted more. Not necessarily more playing time, but more opportunity for myself. I’m not discrediting the Warriors and what they chose to do. I just think being a young kid, you see all the younger guys competing and doing their thing and you feel like, ‘OK, I’m just that kid, or I could be doing exactly what he’s doing.’ ”
- His agents at the time, Marlon Harrison and Bill Duffy, urged him to accept Golden State’s two-year, $4MM offer but the restricted free agent but he wouldn’t budge. “Maybe I could just go back and finish, just go back for a year, see what happens, see where it took me,” McCaw said. “I just felt like once it got past preseason, I was just adamant about not going back. I was just stuck right there.”
- There was a perception that Cleveland did him a favor by signing him to the offer sheet that the Warriors didn’t match, only to release him shortly thereafter. But McCaw denies that. “I didn’t like how the media portrayed it, like we had something (else) lined up already,” he said. “Yeah, that wasn’t the case at all.”
- The personal reasons cited for McCaw’s absence during most of the Eastern Conference Finals was due to a family tragedy. His older brother, Jeffrey McCaw, died.
Soooooo you wanted more opportunity because you can do more yet you have 2 points in 36 minutes and averaged under 2 a game this season………
He would have had way more opportunities if he had stayed considering he was being groomed as the next Iguodala. It seems he didn’t like that the Warriors signed Young last season but everyone knew he would only be there for a year. McCaw was just immature and made a very bad decision.
He messed up. It happens. Hopefully it’s a warning to others, that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Fortunate for him, he still made over $1 million this season and he’s a 2X NBA Champion. Life could be worse
He made the finals regardless who cares if he made a bad decision or not his team is in the finals. Good on him taking a chance on himself
I’m even more confused about his reasons for leaving?!?!
He thought he wouldn’t get enough run staying with the Warriors and wouldn’t be able to show what kind of player he was.
He figured his next contract would be much the same as his rookie contract… one or two or three million. He thought if he joined a team that wasn’t so great perhaps he would play more and he would be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
Then his next contract could be more like 5 million or eight million per season.
Yeah hindsight looks bad for him. I can understand leaving for an opportunity to broaden your game rather than being a reserve, but Toronto has untilized him less than the dubs likely would’ve this year.
Uh, yea, Pasty, but you suck…..
How would you know if you don’t watch NBA games?… Hearsay maybe?
I had forgotten all about this and yeah I still don’t care
He really wants to play and show the type of player he knows he is, so next season he’ll go to Houston and sit behind Harden.
He is the reason why role players on the warriors don’t get paid. He looked like a completely different player this year than he did the previous years playing with 4 all stars.
He really wanted to sit on the bench in Toronto? Well played young man