Strange and suspicious: Raptors opt not to keep useful Dowtin Jr. around

BOSTON — There’s something telling about the way the 'will-they-or-won’t-they' saga relating to Jeff Dowtin Jr. has captured Toronto Raptors fans the last few days.

Final word on his 2022-23 season came Thursday afternoon when sources confirmed what had been looking likely all along: The Raptors are not converting Dowtin Jr.’s two-way contract for the remainder of the regular season, play-in tournament and playoffs.

The broad reason why is the Raptors didn’t want to waive a player at this stage of the season to make room for someone who most likely would have a limited role in a play-in game or what is most realistically going to be a short playoff run, should it happen.

There are all kinds of reasons why they didn’t want to do that. From my point of view none of them add up to much, but here are some:

My understanding is that if someone was going to be waived, Will Barton was the most likely candidate and perhaps there were promises made when the veteran was picked up in the buyout market that sound organizations honour.

And hey, if he can make some threes in a hurry, maybe he can change the momentum of a play-in game or beyond. Regardless, there was no appetite to kick a respected veteran to the curb at this stage.

Among the other possibilities, Thad Young still has value to the Raptors as a contract they can use in a trade in the off-season; Malachi Flynn is owed $3.8 million next year, and Dalano Banton remains a six-foot-nine point guard with local roots that has supporters in the organization even after a decidedly uneven season both with the Raptors and Raptors 905.

After that, the next most likely candidate was Joe Wieskamp, and he’s not going anywhere for now.  With a guarantee of some form that kicks in on June 30, we’ll get a better idea then if he’ll be with the team in training camp next season.

The loyalty to Wieskamp is admirable, but perhaps misplaced given Toronto had to cut Juancho Hernangomez to sign Barton and earlier this season the Raptors waived Justin Champagnie to create the roster spot they eventually used on Wieskamp. And sure, it’s not like Wieskamp has been force-fed opportunities: he’s played a total of 13 minutes since he was signed on Feb. 11 after having a pair of 10-day contracts.

So, I guess there’s a world where cutting Wieskamp would seem like the wrong thing to do given he’s barely had a chance to show he can do what they signed him to do due to injury and circumstance.

But look at it the other way: what kind of message does not converting Dowtin Jr. send?

The 25-year-old from Rhode Island was invited to join the Raptors' Summer League team after a superb G League season the year (21.0 points, 6.0 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals with two teams) and earned a two-way spot after being Toronto’s best player in Las Vegas. He had a leadership role with Raptors 905 this season and eventually worked his way into Raptors head coach Nick Nurse’s rotation, averaging 14 minutes a game over his last seven games during the most critical stage of Toronto’s season, during which he didn’t make a turnover.

And let’s be clear: Dowtin Jr. had to earn his way into that trust. Had Nurse not had him on his bench and not played him for 25 games this year, he wouldn’t have had to limit the number of games he was available for down the stretch and then not have him at all Wednesday night in Boston on the second night of a back-to-back or either of the Raptors' remaining two games.

So maybe that’s on Nurse. And maybe the way Dowtin Jr. has gone from unplayable to essential is a reflection in some way of an organization that not’s not walking in step with its head coach. Who knows for sure, but there’s been plenty of smoke on that front. 

But in the big picture, not keeping Dowtin Jr. is a case of the Raptors prioritizing players who have arrived on the scene later and done less, over one who has advanced up the development ladder step by step based on his on-court performance.

Does that make sense to anyone? Does it seem consistent with the way the Raptors have traditionally prioritized development?

And before we go on here, let’s be clear: the Raptors have plenty of issues that Dowtin Jr. wasn’t going to solve in the 10, 12 or no minutes per game he would have played in the play-in tournament or beyond.

There are much bigger fish to fry.

When the tombstone is placed on this season next week or the week after that, it will read: “Here lie the 2022-23 Raptors. They couldn’t hit water from a boat.”

They shot terribly in pre-season, they shot terribly for most of the regular season and even since they added Jakob Poeltl at the trade deadline and have cobbled together a fairly respectable 12-9 record in their play-in tournament 'charge,' they have remained one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA from any distance, in any circumstance: drives, catch-and-shoot, pull-up, mid-range, long-range. They miss ‘em all.

But perhaps a reason a lot of people who really care about the team — as in, those who buy tickets, watch games, and follow the Raptors passionately through various media platforms — are flummoxed by the whole Dowtin Jr. thing is that he represented a connection to what has previously made the team great: unearthing players who have been overlooked and underrated and who — when given the chance — prove themselves better than anyone thought they could be.

This is a franchise led by a come-from-nothing scout with a non-descript playing pedigree who went from sleeping on friends' floors to running his own NBA team in the space of a decade.

Masai Ujiri’s first significant move when he took over the Raptors was to trade away a soft, entitled, and uninspiring former No. 1 pick — Andrea Bargnani. He built a championship roster without a single lottery pick on it but loaded with tough-minded guys who pushed. They found a good chunk of them during one of the most productive three-year periods a team could ever have in the draft from 2015-2017 with just one pick higher than 20th.

The Raptors will probably never have another Fred VanVleet, but that one move — one of the greatest undrafted players in the history of the NBA — means the fanbase is always hoping for the next one. They believe it’s possible. Most teams' fans are hoping to be saved by the lottery but in Toronto, their heroes bet on themselves.

But that touch for finding players in unlikely places seems to have gone cold. Flynn hasn't shown he can make an impact even now at the end of his third season; Banton regressed this year in his second and Christian Koloko may or may not turn out to be a useful NBA player but will be remembered in some quarters for not being Walker Kessler, a player the Raptors could have conceivably drafted. He has the look of a franchise cornerstone with the Utah Jazz.

Dowtin Jr. — in limited glimpses — showed hints of being an underdog success story that the Raptors used to churn out regularly.

But for no really good reason, they have decided to add another obstacle to his path rather than reward the slender six-foot-three guard for overcoming so many to this point.

It makes no sense.