The Toronto Raptors used a first-round pick on San Diego State point guard Malachi Flynn with the expectation that he would immediately assume a starting role in Toronto given his status as the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year. An experienced player who has been in college for a while, Flynn was expected to hit the ground running.
Unfortunately, Flynn’s poor offensive production has put a major cap on how productive he has been with Toronto. Flynn has averaged just 2.2 points per game this season, shooting an awful 28 percent from the field and 22 percent from 3-point range, In an attempt to fix his jumper, Nick Nurse is sending him to Disney World.
Flynn will join Raptors 905 in the G League bubble as he looks to iron out the kinks in his game. While this is likely the best move for Flynn in the short term and the Raptors in the long term, this move has left them with a vacancy at point guard that Masai Ujiri needs to fill. There are plenty of alternatives who could see their names end up in the Raptors rumors mill.
Malachi Flynn is off to the G Bubble with Raptors 905!
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) February 3, 2021
These 3 point guards could give the Toronto Raptors more depth
Rather than roll the dice on an unproven young player, Toronto might look to add a point guard with a bit of experience into the fold. These three veterans are all out of the NBA right now, but they could head down to Tampa and help the Raptors chase a playoff spot.
Toronto Raptors point guard target No. 3: Emmanuel Mudiay
Mudiay was picked 7th overall in the 2015 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets. While he started to emerge as a solid slasher point guard that filled up the stat sheet to the tune of 12 points per game in his first two seasons, his poor shooting percentage doomed him. He soon fell out of the rotation, which led to him getting traded to the New York Knicks.
Mudiay has spent the last two seasons either putting up hollow stats on a bad Knicks team or playing as a reserve for a playoff-bound Jazz team that didn’t want him back. Still, Mudiay is just 24 years old, and there is reason to believe that Nick Nurse, a masterful developer of talent, could help him improve on offense.
While replacing a poor shooter in Flynn with another poor shooter in Mudiay might seem redundant to some. but Mudiay is a much bigger guard that can add a whole new dimension to the offense, as he can fly downhill and attack the rim while serving as a tougher physical challenge for opposing guards than the wiry Flynn.
Mudiay is too young and much too athletically gifted to wash out of the NBA at this early age. While Nurse wouldn’t guarantee him a second of playing time, he could look to get his career back on track while helping a team in need of some point guard depth fight back into the playoff picture, and that combination could entice Mudiay to become a Raptor.
Toronto Raptors point guard target No. 2: Jeremy Lin
Now that the Linsanity craze has died down and his status as a star in the NBA has eroded, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume that Lin’s NBA career was over after he won a ring with the Raptors and left the NBA for China. However, because Lin doesn’t want his final moments in the NBA to be images of him riding the bench, he’s trying to make one final go of it in the league.
After spending a year in China, where he was a dominant scorer with the Beijing Ducks, Lin signed with the G League Santa Cruz Warriors in an attempt to make one last run at the NBA. While Lin was by no means a star in Toronto, as he was on the bench for most of the Raptors’ championship run, his skillet could help a Raptors team that has been decimated by injuries.
Lin, who averaged 7.0 points and 2.2 assists per game with the Raptors, is most valued for what he brings on the offensive end, as he is a 43 percent career shooter that connects on 34 percent of his 3-point attempts. When he’s in a groove, Lin remains a quality distributor, averaging 4.3 assists per contest over the course of his career.
Lin has the hunger to make it back to the pros, the willingness to accept a reserve role, and knowledge of Nurse’s offensive and defensive concepts that can help make the learning curve less steep. If the Raptors can pry him away from the Warriors, look for Lin to end up back in Toronto and make a run at his second championship as a backup behind Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet.
Toronto Raptors point guard target No. 1: Isaiah Thomas
Watching Thomas go from the last pick in the draft as a 5-9 point guard to one of the best players in the NBA to unable to get any team to take a chance on him has been downright heartbreaking. After being drafted by and becoming a stud in Sacramento, Thomas almost won a scoring title with the Boston Celtics before injuries and the trade to Cleveland derailed his career.
Thomas averaged 24.7 points per game in three seasons with the Celtics, including 28.9 in 2016-17, but it’s been rough-sledding since. Ever since the start of the 2017 season, Thomas has played in just 84 games, averaging just 12.8 points per game. Given his injury history and minimal defensive production, Thomas has been out of work all year long.
He’d be the riskiest potential addition of the three, but he would have the highest ceiling. Even when he was playing on a bad Wizards team last year, where he averaged 12.2 points and 3.7 assists per game, there were glimpses of the old IT showing up.
While he won’t be a great defender, Nurse is always on the lookout for more shooters, and Thomas can still get to the rim and stroke it from deep. Thomas signing with Toronto, one of Boston’s biggest rivals, and helping lead them to the playoffs at the expense of his old team is a fairytale story that sounds like it came straight out of Hollywood.