Now that Allen Crabbe has agreed to a buyout with the Minnesota Timberwolves, is he an option for the Toronto Raptors?
One by one, the pieces fall into place in the NBA. Disgruntled veterans and players with expiring contracts begin to agree to buyouts with their parent teams in the hopes of landing with a playoff contender down the stretch. It’s the buyout market as we know and love it. It’ll never change. For the Toronto Raptors, the market has been especially quiet.
They’ve missed out on guys like Markieff Morris, Marvin Williams, and Reggie Jackson, only to watch them sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, and LA Clippers respectively. Any of those three guys would surely help the Raptors down the stretch, but each chose a different path.
That’s okay, though. There are still options in the market, even if it is beginning to thin out. On Saturday afternoon, another name presented itself onto the market: Allen Crabbe.
The Atheltic’s Shams Charania first reported the news that the Minnesota Timberwolves and Crabbe were agreeing to a buyout and that he would be available to join a playoff team once he had cleared waivers.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have waived guard Allen Crabbe, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Crabbe will now be playoff-eligible for another team.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 29, 2020
The deadline for players to be released into the buyout market to join playoff-eligible teams was March 1, so Crabbe cut it close but is now free to pursue his options whatever they may be.
That, my friends, is where the Toronto Raptors may step into the fold.
Crabbe was having a tough season with both the Atlanta Hawks and the Minnesota Timberwolves so far in the 2019-20 NBA season, averaging 4.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game, shooting 35-percent from the field and 30-percent from three.
He was traded to the Timberwolves back in January as Jeff Teague and Treveon Graham were sent to the Hawks in exchange for his services. This trade was more about the Timberwolves saving themselves money and getting rid of Teague more than anything. Crabbe wasn’t long for Minnesota.
His time on the court in Minnesota was limited too, as he averaged just 14.6 minutes per game in nine contests, the lowest mark of his career since his sophomore season. In that span, he’s averaged just 3.2 points per game on 41-percent TS%. Those numbers, well, are not good.
Why, then, would it make sense for the Raptors to sign Crabbe, considering how bad he has been so far this season?
He ranks second 512th in PIPM at -4.37. For context, only Anfernee Simons has a worse PIPM in the whole of the NBA. Again, it’s not good.
Despite that, Crabbe still remains an interesting option for the Toronto Raptors. He’s a career 39-percent shooter from deep on 4.2 attempts per game and while this is, by far, the worst shooting season of his career, sometimes all that is needed is a change of scenery. Especially when you’re going from a 17-win team to a 42-win team. Walking into a team that’s winning can be the kick that a shooter like Crabbe needs.
For the Raptors, if Crabbe can be a decent three-point shooter, that should be all of the motivation they need to pick him up. Without him, they’re already the fourth-best three-point shooting team in the NBA by percentage, knocking down 37-percent of their triples this season. However, in the last four games, the Raptors have seen their percentage dwindle to just 33-percent but have been hoisting 44 threes per game.
Crabbe is by no means a better shooter than someone like Matt Thomas, though he, maybe, a little more passable on defense, though, which could come in handy for a strong defensive team like the Raptors.
If anything, this move could be more about depth than anything for the reigning champions. So far this season, the Raptors have suffered an abundance of injuries to their key players, and to the likes of Patrick McCaw and others. Norman Powell has had two separate spells on the sidelines while Fred VanVleet has battled other niggling injuries too.
Crabbe wouldn’t be a starter or even a key rotational player. However, he could certainly be an insurance policy for a team that just can’t seem to stay healthy this year. Maybe he could even break into the rotation ahead of McCaw, who has failed to impress many this year, despite still being a feature in Nick Nurse’s rotation.
When the playoffs roll around, having a player with the shooting prowess of Crabbe could be key. The Raptors are able to generate open looks for three-point shooters consistently and having another player to knock them down in limited minutes shouldn’t be sniffed at.
Crabbe might not be the player he once was, but that could change soon.