Raptors Make New Surprising Signing...

On the first game of the season, a 25-year-old got handed a championship ring. That's right, between three days. On a Tuesday, he ended up getting a ring. Three days later, he ended up getting cut by his team. And not because he did anything wrong. His name is Kevin McCuller Jr. And two weeks ago, I told you on one of these videos to keep out for him after he was cut by the New York Knicks. Nonetheless, the Toronto Raptors went out and signed him. So who the heck is this guy? And why did the NBA Championship New York Knicks Cut a dude that was on that roster that won them a title. And the most important thing is can this guy have any impact on this Raptors roster that right now has been struggling without Kawhi Leonard. So what's going on? Because a couple weeks ago we were talking about this final two-way spot and how the Raptors were going to wait to see what they needed as the season went along. But then life hit the Toronto Raptors very, very fast. But before we dive into the whole story and how the Toronto Raptors got into this position, if you're enjoying the daily, twice a day, multiple times a day content we have here on Raptors Die, just make sure you guys hit that subscribe button. We're currently at 45,153 subs. Next milestone is 46,000. So make sure you guys hit that sub button completely free down below. Let's take a look at the signing because it did not just happen in a vacuum. Toronto started the season 2-0 and there was a lot of talk about the Raptors maintaining their flexibility and seeing what they needed in terms of holes of this roster as the season went along. But since that hot start, Toronto is now 2-4 to begin this year and that's 4-4 overall so the team is playing at a 500 level. They beat Orlando by 30 points at home and then two days later they end up losing to that same team Then they had a six-point loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, which Realistically, it was a lot worse than that final score ended up showing, and then they barely beat a Los Angeles Clippers team that has been sorry this whole year. And then the cherry on top, at least last night for Bobby Webster, was the disastrous second half they had against the Denver Nuggets. Because that game was honestly the worst one yet. Toronto was up by 10, then in the third quarter, Denver outscored them 41-15. It ended up being a 19-point loss in a game where the Toronto Raptors were up by 10 at one point. Denver shot 48 for 78 from the field, and that's 62%, and they won the glass 36 to 28. Obviously, Denver is a city at altitude. They always have the home court advantage, so oftentimes you'll see teams in the second half end up losing their win, losing their way. And I guess Bobby Webster looked at this, a team without Kawhi Leonard. I know we had Jameson Battle step up. I know the wing spot is realistically the most filled position on this team, but Bobby Webster looked at that and said, hey, we need more guys at that role. So that's the direction, that's the move the front office wants to deal with, especially where they do have Malachi Smith, who's currently with the G League right now, Nate Biddle, who's still recovering from his foot injury. You have the guard position, you have the center position pretty solid out there at your two-way spots. Bobby Webster couldn't sit on his hands for much longer, ended up making a move for a wing. And of course, in order to bring someone in, the Raptors would have to use this final two-way spot, as they are hard capped right now at the first apron after the Kawhi Leonard trade. So this signing was... Very, very important for the Toronto Raptors depth moving forward. So the Raptors saw a 6'6 wing that has some championship experience, you know, not a ton of minutes over the course of his career, but a guy that's coming from a right system. He was cut and for two weeks, he was still made available. So the Toronto Raptors made their swing. But to understand why the New York Knicks ended up letting him go, we have to understand where he came from. Kevin McCullers from San Antonio. In high school, he broke his tibia in the playoffs. Instead of coming back for his senior year, he graduated early and went straight to Texas Tech. And he could already do a bit of everything. As a high school junior, he put up 17 points a game, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists a night. He also had the family connection with Texas Tech, as his dad was actually a linebacker for the college. He sat his first whole year in order to heal his injury, and then he spent three seasons out there as a role player, averaging about 10 points a game in his last two years. So in 2022, he ended up betting on himself and pulled his name out of the NBA draft and transferred to Kansas. And at Kansas, his defense is what got him noticed. His first year there, he made Big 12 all-defensive team with two steals a night. And he wasn't just a stopper, as a 6'6 wing he ended up averaging 7 rebounds a night. So he was a pest, defensively, hunting on boards, looking for all those loose balls. Then as a senior, he became a guy that had some NBA potential. He came out and averaged 18.3 points per game and was first team all Big 12. So after all of this development and all of this growth, he ended up having another injury. Probably the worst possible time. His knee gave out, he had a bone bruise, and Kansas shut him down right before March Madness. He played 26 games that year, his best season cut short at the worst possible time. And on draft night, a first-team All-Big 12 wing sat there until pick 56, second-last pick in the whole NBA draft, where he ended up getting selected by the Phoenix Suns. Now, Phoenix basically traded him right away to the New York Knicks, as New York gave up the rights to Oso and a future second-round pick, which is, you know, Fairly bold, because he also became a pretty good basketball player out there for the Suns. So the Knicks wanted him, and they never really found him any minutes. He ended up signing a two-way deal out there in August, and the man waited. His NBA debut didn't come until March 2025, almost a full season later. And this is where it gets really frustrating for McCuller. In two seasons with the Knicks, McCuller played 25 NBA games and only scored 56 points total. Last season in the games he did get in, he only averaged 7 minutes a night, and most of those were at the end of games where the game was already over. Interestingly enough, one of those games was against the Toronto Raptors where he played just 1 minute and ended up hitting a 3 point shot. When they actually gave him real minutes, he showed you something decent. He had 23 minutes against the Atlanta Hawks and put in 13 points, 8 rebounds on 3 of 6 from behind the 3 point line. Then the Knicks ended up winning an NBA title, and even though two-way players can't get actual action in the playoffs, he did end up getting his championship ring. And the Knicks still believed in him. In September, the Knicks brought him back on a two-way contract for the third straight season. However, things changed when basically New York found someone that they wanted more, as Dalton Knecht, the former Los Angeles Lakers first-round pick, ended up getting waived, and the Knicks needed a two-way spot for him, and the spot that they opened up was McCullers. And as we covered on the channel, the Toronto Raptors wanted Dalton Connect as well. They were in on him for the same two-way spot. And even Mike Brown, head coach of the New York Knicks, came out and said directly that it wasn't anything that Kevin didn't do. He was great for the Knicks. So what are the Raptors actually getting in Kevin McCuller Jr.? And we have to be honest with this. The Toronto Raptors are a complete mess right now. And McCuller isn't a guy that I expect to come around and be changing this whole situation. He still needs significant work as an NBA-level scorer. Last season, he made 8 of 24 three-point shots, that's about 33%, and that's a question every scout had about him since he was at Kansas. That's not why you sign him if you're Bobby Webster. The reason you sign him is because he's a 6'6 elite defender, and he fits well within an offense. He moves the ball, he's been in winning situations. In college, he was a semi-finalist for National Defensive Player of the Year for two years in a row. A lot of scouts gave him comparisons to Josh Hart. And those types of players can have lots of value. Think about how Josh Hart plays for the New York Knicks, the team that won the NBA championship last year. He's not out there to be your central scorer. He's a wing that rebounds like a big, he passes very well, and he's just a glue guy that's really effective and needed on a lot of winning teams. And that's the version of McCuller that Toronto is betting on right now. As a senior at Kansas, he averaged 4.1 assists a game, and for a wing, that's a lot of assists. And even though the Raptors have a much Much bigger need at the point guard spot, the center spot. All these positions that Raptors fans have been talking about for a super long time. If those guys aren't on the market and a two-way player is not really going to change that, you know, the biggest needs of the Raptors, which we're going to be talking about, I'm sure, a ton over the next couple of days. But if Darko Rajaković looks at this team, you know, against the Denver Nuggets, and you just see people struggling to stay in front of defenders, like the Nuggets had a 41.3rd quarter in last outing. Kevin McCuller Jr., especially if you're dealing with some injuries, can go out there and at least defend and play within the flow of your offense. And that's, I guess, what the Toronto Raptors were looking for out of this two-way spot. And that's going to be his role for this team. Not getting a call up and expecting him to drop 20 points per game, looking for extremely high upside the way a Malachi Smith or a Nate Biddle might potentially impact this team. He's going to get called up to play defense, to play within the Raptors offense, and just not make crazy mistakes. It also costs the Toronto Raptors nothing. A two-way deal does not count against the salary cap, and where I've said it a bunch, the Raptors are hard-capped right now, bringing them in does not affect anything out there on their cap sheet. But where it does matter is that these two-way spots are going to be very important for this Raptors team, given their current makeup and construction. With 14 players on NBA standard contracts, Toronto's two-way guys get to share an active 90 NBA games this whole season, and they're going to actually get some proper NBA run. Especially where Nate Biddle has been hurt, guys like McCuller and Malachi Smith might be called very early on into this season, especially if some of these Toronto Raptors guys go down with injury beyond Kawhi Leonard. And he might be in for some revenge games as well against the New York Knicks who come into town out there on November 15th as well as November 17th. The Raptors tend to play guys against their former teams as they have some extra motivation and want to show out, so wouldn't be surprised if that ends up being his debut for the Toronto Raptors. Realistically, this isn't going to be a game-changing signing for the Toronto Raptors. He's a guy that's very much a classic Bobby Webster move. While we all love the big names, the big swings, I know some people are going to be mad that Jamari Sharp didn't get this contract because he feels like a higher upside player given his ridiculous wingspan and being a G League multi-time defensive player of the year. With the two-way spots, especially if they're going to get actual NBA run, The Raptors need as many steady guys as possible. They need to improve their top-level talent, of course. You need to make some moves, make some adjustments, which we will be talking about out there in these videos. But for your two-way guys that are especially in your deep bench, you don't necessarily need them to be extremely high upside players. You just want them to be able to come in, spot you some minutes, the same way A.J. Lawson did for the Toronto Raptors last year, and not be bad. Toronto Raptors are a team that has lost four of their last six games. One of their best players, if not their best player in Kawhi Leonard, is currently hurt and he is going to be in and out of the lineup this entire season. The Raptors also have no money to really work with. They don't have really the option to wait around, sit around, and look for the best player available, especially after some guys in the market like Dalton Connect are now gone. A couple weeks ago, there was a lot of rumors about Rob Dillingham, who is definitely more high upside player in theory, but He's a smaller guard, and sure, he could show flashes of greatness, but the Toronto Raptors right now, given how they've lost some of these games, are probably looking for someone that can actually contribute guaranteed minutes. Like, it's not going to be high upside minutes with McCuller, but it's going to be steady. Rob Dillingham, there's no guarantees that he'd be playable for this Raptors squad. And you saw it in that game against Denver. The Toronto Raptors don't need a project right now. They need guys that can be steady and come in and be effective for this team. If the Raptors do make moves because they do have more wings and centers and all that over the course of the season, then it's good to have depth of just NBA level steady talent that you can rely on for spot minutes here and there. And this isn't to say he doesn't have any upside at all. Sure, he's 25 and he's been passed on in the NBA draft. He's been buried on a bench. He's been cut three days after getting his ring. But if that jump shot gets up to even average, you know, You know, a solid NBA three-point wing player. Toronto Raptors may have found a guy that could sneak his way into a rotation. So the biggest thing I'm really watching out for is how quickly he ends up getting called up because Malachi Smith has shown a lot for the Toronto Raptors. I think Nate Biddle is the player that Raptors fans and probably the front office are most excited about because they ended up keeping him even with his broken foot over the course of preseason and training camp. So I think those guys are going to get the higher jumps, the bigger opportunities, but I'm interested to see how Darko Rajak will try to utilize a talent that is more steady and just a more calming presence that plays defense and fits with the Toronto Raptors. Let me know what you guys think of this signing out there in the comments, are you happy with how the Toronto Raptors used their final two-way spot, do you think he'll get a run any time soon, let me know in the comments section down below, and if you want to stay up to date with all of the latest Toronto Raptors news, check out this video right here.