The Jeff Dowtin Jr. Situation is an Awkward Look For the Raptors

The Toronto Raptors are failing to make the most of their roster this season by not adding Jeff Dowtin Jr. to the active roster

Aaron Rose | Apr 6, 2023

The Jeff Dowtin Jr. Situation is an Awkward Look For the Raptors /

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Toronto Raptors

Jeff Dowtin Jr.'s tenure with the Toronto Raptors this season appears to have come to an end.

Barring an unforeseen change in the coming hours, the expectation is Dowtin will not have his two-way contract converted and will therefore be ineligible to play again for the Raptors this season, according to Sportsnet's Michael Grange.

So barring some last-minute reversal the sense I’m getting is Jeff Dowtin Jr. will not be getting his two-way contract converted, or at least there’s been no momentum towards that happening at this point.
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) April 6, 2023

Toronto exhausted Dowtin's 50-game maximum as an active player Tuesday. He was therefore ineligible to play Wednesday against the Boston Celtics, a game in which the Raptors lost by four and were outscored by eight points in 11 minutes without Fred VanVleet on the court.

Dowtin is not some game-changing type of player, but the 25-year-old is a reliable two-way player who'd clearly earned the trust of Raptors coach Nick Nurse down the stretch of the season. He'd played in four straight games in mid-February before being shut down to avoid hitting his 50-game cut-off too early in the year. He then returned to the rotation in late March, playing in six straight games as Toronto's first point guard off the bench.

"I think he’s played for us well just about every time he’s gone out there," Nurse said late last month. "We’re always talking about solid play, which is guarding your position as well as you can and executing at both ends of the floor. He’s got us running stuff and is capable of scoring a little bit as well on his own but doesn’t overdo it. He just fits in nicely there on both ends.”

And yet, that option and insurance policy should VanVleet be forced to miss time in the postseason appear to be gone for Toronto. The Raptors have been reluctant to waive Joe Wieskamp, the 6-foot-6 forward the team signed mid-season and has been out of the rotation since January, or Thad Young, who hasn't seen any playing time since March 10.

Now there may be a good reason for the decision. Young's contract is only partially guaranteed next season making it a useful trade tool for salary-matching purposes in the summer. Maybe Wieskamp has shown something in practice that has intrigued the front office and the fact that he signed a two-year non-guaranteed deal suggests the organization wants to take a closer look at him next year.

But opting to go into the postseason with a self-imposed handicap seems incongruent with everything this front office has said so far this year. Everyone in the organization has preached the value of postseason experience. The front office said it wanted to build around this group at the trade deadline, opting to add Jakob Poeltl, rather than take a step in the opposite direction. And now, when faced with the opportunity to slightly improve the roster for this season or maintain some sort of long-term agenda by keeping the 14th man around, the Raptors appear to be opting for the latter option.

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