The Toronto Raptors may get meaningful contributions from a Brazilian this season, after all.
With Sunday’s news that Anderson Varejao has chosen the Golden State Warriors as his post-buyout landing spot, the floppy-haired center and formerly lifetime Cleveland Cavalier has bumped Jason Thompson from the defending champions’ roster. The Warriors will use the stretch provision to spread out the $2.65 million in guaranteed money owed to Thompson next season and will eat his salary for the remainder of this year, leaving the 29-year-old power forward free to sign anywhere he’d like.
The Raptors should place a call to Leon Rose.
While Thompson has played sparingly with the Warriors, that can hardly be seen as an indictment on his current level of play. Given where Golden State stood in the offseason and how much they value continuity, it’s a little surprising that he even remained on the roster after being acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers for Gerald Wallace’s heftier contract. Prior to that, the Sixers had been paid by the Sacramento Kings to take on the salary of Thompson and others, freeing them to make free agent runs at Kosta Koufos and Rajon Rondo. In Oakland, Thompson’s totaled just 179 minutes in 28 appearances, barely registering on the box score.
He’s essentially been unloaded three times in less than a calendar year now, and so someone thinking he won’t move the needle much would be understandable. But he would. His path over the last several months doesn’t have much to do with him as a player and has more to do with the financial realities of the NBA. He was a little overpaid, and the Kings wanted to go with other options in the frontcourt. The Sixers are a clearinghouse for such contracts, and flipping him to the Warriors was almost strictly a financial move to lower the champs’ luxury tax hit. Getting cut for Varejao, who has played nearly as little and has looked even worse in returning from a serious Achilles injury at age 33, is somewhat of a bad look but one predicated by the Warriors losing Festus Ezeli for six weeks (and the fun of Varejao getting to team with Leandro Barbosa).
Again, now that Thompson’s a free agent, the Raptors should kick the tires. They don’t have an open roster spot, but as discussed at length on Friday when going over other potential buyout season targets, there’s little cost to cutting Anthony Bennett in favor of making him an in-season D-League affiliate player.
By swapping Bennett out for Thompson, the Raptors wouldn’t be taking a home run swing by any means, but they’d put themselves in a position to get far more utility out of that roster spot than they’re currently getting. Bennett’s only played 78 minutes on the season, but head coach Dwane Casey would ostensibly trust Thompson, an experienced veteran with the perceived toughness he likes, more. There still wouldn’t be a ton of minutes for him, but with Luis Scola struggling – more on that tomorrow – and how thin the team is at the four-spot, at least until DeMarre Carroll returns to health, it would be a worthwhile addition.
Right now, Casey doesn’t have a third option he trusts at the four, and while that’s not a huge deal when everything’s going well, the team would be rendered woefully thin if injury struck Scola or Patrick Patterson. None of the three centers can play together, and James Johnson is the only other wing on the roster who could conceivably slide over. A short-term dip would be tolerable given how the Raptors have insulated themselves in the two-seed, but running thin is an entirely avoidable scenario.
And this is all without addressing that Thompson is actually pretty solid. He wouldn’t just represent an upgrade on what’s essentially a wasted 14th roster spot on Bennett, but he could factor in to some matchups and push for the 10th or 11th spot in Casey’s rotation, giving the team a different look against larger frontcourts.
At 6-foot-11 and 250 pounds, Thompson nearly has the size of a center but still moves well enough to cover ground defensively at the four. He’s not a lockdown guy, but similar to Patterson, he’s a smart team defender with good timing and help instincts. He’s also a plus-rebounder at the four, superior to Patterson and comparable to Scola, and is more of a threat to come with a weak-side block than the other two options. He’d offer more than Scola defensively, full stop, and he’s a little more matchup-proof despite being even larger, as he has better foot speed and lateral quickness. He could also probably man Scola’s occasional small-five role.
Offensively, Thompson doesn’t offer much over Scola or Patterson. He’s a solid screen-setter thanks to commitment and a strong lower half, and he can pop to the elbows, albeit maybe not enough for it to really matter (he shot 35 percent from beyond 10 feet last year). He’s a decent rim-runner but isn’t an elite finisher, and he’d cramp spacing alongside Jonas Valanciunas or Bismack Biyombo, even more than Scola does, because he’s no threat fading to the corners after setting a pick (he’s 1-of-27 from long-range in his career). He’s a strong offensive rebounder, again comparable with Scola, in part because he has good instincts and in part because he doesn’t venture far from the rim often. With the Raptors making a concerted effort over the last few months to crash less, that skill might be negated some, though he didn’t chase an inordinate amount in Sacramento last year, per data from Nylon Calculus.
So again, he’s not a panacea by any means, and any calls for him to take serious minutes from the incumbent power forwards would be reactionary. He’s barely played this year, and that’s in part due to being at the end of a loaded Golden State roster, but it’s worth keeping in mind. In the two seasons prior, he averaged 6.6 points and 6.5 rebounds in 24.5 minutes while shooting 48.9 percent from the floor, solid if unspectacular production. He’s still just 29, and so the time on the bench probably hasn’t taken too much off of his game, though he’s no longer the regular double-double threat he was earlier in his career.
Thompson would represent a solid depth piece, an appreciable upgrade on Bennett, and a defensive option in the matchups Scola struggles with, albeit one who could cramp spacing some. No buyout-season candidate is going to dramatically improve a team’s chances, but Thompson represents an opportunity to provide Casey with an additional matchup tool and improve the team’s depth at its weakest position.
Now it’s just a matter of convincing him to land in Toronto over other destinations.
