TORONTO – Cleveland Cavaliers forward Cedi Osman took a dribble hand off at the left wing and started making his way around the screen his Cleveland Cavaliers teammate Tristan Thompson set for him.
His defender, Toronto Raptors guard Patrick McCaw, got caught up in a switch onto him and, thus, was playing a step behind chasing him around the Thompson screen.
Osman thought he was home free coming around and was about to enter the heart of Toronto’s defence when, out of nowhere, McCaw poked the ball loose from him, sending it flying into the waiting arms of Marc Gasol who immediately found McCaw all alone on the other end of the floor for a layup.
Or at least it could’ve been an easy lay-in for McCaw had he not, instead, opted to drop the ball off behind his back to the trailing locomotive that was Norman Powell, who finished with a vicious slam dunk, extending the Raptors’ lead to 16 midway through the second quarter of Toronto’s eventual 20-point smashing of the sad-sack Cavaliers.
“I love seeing my teammates score and helping them score and seeing them happy,” said McCaw of the behind-the-back dish to Powell. “That gets me going more than scoring the basketball. Like I said, I’ve always been a team player. So if I can feed it to the open man, I’m going to do that first before I try to score.”
A very telling quote from McCaw – particularly that “before I try to score” part.
Returning from a knee injury, that kept him sidelined for 18 games prior, last Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers, McCaw is trying to find a groove he’s never really had with the Raptors before.
He joined Toronto last season, nearly right at the beginning of this 2019 calendar year when he signed with the club on Jan. 10. He got into 26 regular season games last season, averaging only 2.7 points in 13.2 minutes per game, and in the post-season, he managed to get into 11 games, but only played 48 minutes total during Toronto’s championship run.
And now flash-forward to this season where, because of the knee issue, McCaw’s only played five games with a scoring average of 3.2 points.
All of this is to say that, coming back from injury or not, McCaw hasn’t really been all that effective during his time with the Raptors, and yet, gets a opportunity when it’s there such as the nearly 29 minutes he played last Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets, when he was also included as part of the Raptors’ closing lineup with about five minutes left to play.
He finished that game with two points on 1-for-7 shooting, including a 0-for-5 clip from outside, but Nurse still liked what he saw from him that game.
“I just liked Pat’s energy on defence,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse Saturday of why decided to close with McCaw. “[Spencer] Dinwiddie and [Joe] Harris, give him a chance to guard one of those two, probably their biggest threats out there in the game and he was doing a really good job of fitting in on the offensive end.”
Shooting 14.3 per cent from the field doesn’t exactly sound like “fitting in” offensively, but Nurse has always maintained that he’s liked what he’s seen from McCaw, even flirting with having him start back in training camp.
“Really like Pat as a player, he’s just such a high-level IQ guy,” Nurse said of McCaw earlier this season. “He’s always making the right play on defence, he brings a little bit of juice on offence because of his cutting and his passing on offence. And he’s really got great feet… Again, I think the IQ level for him is super high.”
Nurse was very adamant about this in regards to McCaw and maintained his feelings about the 24-year-old, but he was always speaking from the perspective of a true basketball savant, someone who notices things that most simply don’t. For the rest of us laymen, it was rather difficult to see just what Nurse was getting at with McCaw, especially after his outing against the Nets.
And then Monday’s game came around, and a few light switches started to turn on illuminating – just a little bit – what Nurse was talking about.
McCaw exploded, by the standards we’ve seen of him so far, for six points on a couple made three-pointers Monday, had that gorgeous drop-off assist to Powell – one of his two on the evening – and played just under 22 minutes of what might have been his best game as a Raptor.
Understandably, given the small numbers being pointed out there, it doesn’t seem like much, but it was an encouraging sign, especially given the injury woes he’s had to fight through this season.
“Just getting in a rhythm again, getting confident in my game and the things that I work on,” said McCaw. “It’s huge just being back on the floor and having a successful surgery and being back with the team.”
Added Nurse: “It’s nice to see him knock down a couple [Monday] because he really, really put in a lot of work this summer on his shooting.
“With the in and out with the injuries he hasn’t had a chance to get into some rhythm, so it was nice to see him knock some down.”
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But even if the ball wasn’t falling through the hoop on Monday, it’s likely that Nurse still would’ve been pleased with McCaw’s performance, because he’s a player whom the Raptors coach believes can impact a game even if it isn’t showing up in the boxscore.
“He’s always an impactful player defensively and even though he’s maybe not the greatest offensive player in the world he’s still a smart offensive player,” Nurse said. “He’ll cut, he’ll make the right pass. He’s a good passer.
“He just goes out there and plays well. Even the other night when he was 1-for-7 that is one of my favourite nights. He goes 1-for-7 and I say he had a great game. He did. He is impactful.”
It’s a point well made by Nurse. Impact doesn’t necessarily mean gaudy numbers on a sheet of paper.
“Just making the right basketball play,” said McCaw of what goes into being a smart player. “If you’re open, shoot the ball. If not, swing it to the open man. That’s just how I’ve played my entire life. Being a team player, making the best basketball play possible and just trying to lead.”
In an age where data is king, McCaw is the kind of player to get overlooked, but not by Nurse. But, if stats really are everything, then just remember that McCaw is a leader in the category that matters the most.
“He’s got three rings,” said Nurse. “He’s on his way to catching Bill Russell!”
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