The Raptors have placed point guards Fred VanVleet and Malachi Flynn in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Toronto now has five players in the protocols, including three starters.
In order to address the newly-created hole in their backcourt, the Raptors intend to sign G League guard Tremont Waters to a 10-day contract via the hardship exception, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Toronto also reportedly lined up hardship deals with Brandon Goodwin, Juwan Morgan, and Nik Stauskas on Monday, so Waters will be their fourth 10-day addition. None of those deals are official yet.
Waters, who will turn 24 next month, was selected by the Celtics with the 51st overall pick in the 2019 draft and spent his first two professional seasons as a two-way player in Boston. After the C’s opted not to bring him back for the 2021/22 season, he joined the Wisconsin Herd – Milwaukee’s G League affiliate – and has averaged 17.2 PPG, 6.0 APG, and 2.7 SPG on .421/.364/.714 shooting in 13 NBAGL games (31.5 MPG) this season.
Due to the NBA’s new temporary roster rules, Waters’ deal won’t count against Toronto’s team salary for cap or tax purposes.
Just expand the rosters to 20 guys for this season already…