I believe that anyone is innocent until proven guilty, but the Toronto Raptors should walk away from Terence Davis.
A few days ago, Toronto Raptors guard Terence Davis was charged in New York City after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this scenario in Toronto, but I hope it’s the last.
Rick Westwood released the criminal complaint against Davis that you can see in a tweet below:
New: Raptors G Terence Davis was released after his arraignment, the NY DA’s office says.
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) October 28, 2020
He faces 7 charges, inc. two counts of assault, harassment, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal mischief.
Davis’s next court date is Dec 11.
The criminal complaint against him: pic.twitter.com/zASAIHzWoa
Not only did Davis get charged with the horrendous crime of assaulting his girlfriend, but he was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Within the tweet, here is some of the horrific language that allegedly happened that evening:
“…She observed the defendant strike her about the face with a closed fist multiple times, causing swelling to her left eye and substantial pain.”
“Her son….was present and witnessed the defendant’s above-described conduct….while the defendant was striking her in the face with a closed fist, the defendant caused (her son), who was standing next to her, to fall to the ground.”
I know that Davis has entered a plea of “not guilty” but these are very serious allegations. As I mentioned before, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but these details are very specific and there seems to be a lot of truth to what happened.
Raptors should cut Davis
A few years ago, the Toronto Raptors found themselves in a similar situation with Kay Felder and cut him right away.
Felder was a guard for the Raptors 905 (G-League team) and was one of their best players, averaging 18.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per night. Despite his talent and upside to make the NBA team, the Raptors 905 cut him immediately and this was their statement:
"“On Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, Raptors 905 guard Kay Felder was charged by police in connection with an allegation of domestic violence. Raptors 905 have waived Felder, effective immediately. As this matter is before the courts, Raptors 905 will not comment further.”"
They cut Felder and issued a statement the same day that he was charged with a connection to domestic violence. However, in relation to Davis’ incident, I can’t even find one statement from the team and it’s been roughly one week since the alleged crime took place. The only thing the Raptors have to say about Davis on their website is an article detailing his nomination to the 2019-20 NBA All-Rookie Second Team.
Davis’ $1.517M contract is not guaranteed next season and the team has until the first day of Free Agency to determine whether or not they want to pick up his option. After averaging 7.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists last year, that dollar-figure for his production is an absolute steal, but it’s not worth it.
The 23-year-old had a great rookie campaign and was a huge bright spot on the team last year, but unfortunately, the NBA and the Raptors need to make an example out of him. I’m not saying that Davis should never be allowed to play basketball again, but I think the team needs to do the right thing and walk away from the situation.
Obviously, the justice system will determine whether or not Davis is guilty, but in the meantime, this type of action reflects terribly on the entire organization. If the team continues to keep him and eventually picks up his option, to me, this shows that the Raptors are okay with domestic violence.
Just walk away, Toronto. It doesn’t matter how talented the player is on the court, no team in the NBA should accept the alleged crimes that Davis committed off the court.