There hasn’t been a free agency as bizarre as Patrick McCaw’s in quite some time. The third-year wing very clearly did not want to join the Golden State Warriors, but because he was a restricted free agent, the two-time defending champions had the right to match any deal he signed while on the market.
This led to McCaw agreeing to a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers that the Warriors decided was not worth matching, freeing him up to join Cleveland. The catch was that the Cavs immediately waived McCaw, leading to some bad blood from the Warriors and freeing him to hit the market as an unrestricted free agent.
The whole saga came to an end on Wednesday afternoon, as multiple media reports indicated that McCaw had cleared waivers and decided to sign a deal for the remainder of the year with the Toronto Raptors.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1083121287055228937?s=19
Patrick McCaw officially cleared waivers at 5 PM, league sources say. @ESPN reports that McCaw, now an unrestricted free agent, will sign with Toronto
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 9, 2019
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, it won’t cost the Raptors much to bring McCaw on board, as he’s joining the team on a veteran’s minimum deal.
Sources: Pat McCaw plans to sign one-year, $786K veteran's minimum deal with the Toronto Raptors. McCaw has cleared free agency waivers.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 9, 2019
It’s an interesting move by the Raptors, as McCaw gives them another athletic wing player and some more depth on their bench. While McCaw probably won’t single-handedly swing a title to Toronto, he does offer the Raptors some reinforcements as they gun for the first championship in franchise history.
