{"id":612267,"date":"2026-04-17T05:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612267\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:21:15","slug":"toronto-raptors-scottie-barnes-has-a-chance-to-turn-breakout-season-into-playoff-coming-out-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612267\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Raptors’ Scottie Barnes has a chance to turn breakout season into playoff coming out party"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 There\u2019s a cautionary tale that Serge Ibaka<\/a> used to tell his former Toronto Raptors<\/a> teammates.<\/p>\n

Ibaka was 22 and in his third NBA season when he made it all the way to the NBA Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. That team was loaded with young talent and led by Kevin Durant<\/a>, Russell Westbrook<\/a>, and James Harden<\/a> \u2013 all of them under the age of 24. They would ultimately lose to LeBron James<\/a> and the Miami Heat<\/a>, but no matter, the Congolese big man figured that group was only just getting started. Surely, they would make it back, he thought, but they never did.<\/p>\n

He was older and wiser when he finally returned to basketball\u2019s biggest stage, seven years later with Toronto, and by that point he had learned a valuable lesson: appreciate every moment and take nothing for granted because you never know when \u2013 or even if \u2013 you\u2019ll get to experience it again.<\/p>\n

Scottie Barnes<\/a> can attest.<\/p>\n

Barnes got his first taste of playoff basketball as a 20-year-old rookie \u2013 a rarity in and of itself, as most top-five picks are drafted to losing teams. Similarly, the future looked bright for a Raptors team that included Barnes, Pascal Siakam<\/a>, Fred VanVleet<\/a>, and OG Anunoby<\/a>. Instead, it was the beginning of the end for that core in Toronto. They came up short in the play-in tournament the following season and was dismantled the next, with the organization opting to rebuild around Barnes.<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t made it back to playoffs since, until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m forever grateful,\u201d Barnes said ahead of his team\u2019s first-round series against the Cavaliers, which kicks off in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to win basketball games in the NBA, so you can\u2019t take none of that for granted. Every win, we work super hard for. Just gotta appreciate it. We\u2019re blessed to be in this position. So, I\u2019m just super happy we\u2019re here. Now, we\u2019ve gotta go out there and win.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least a few things needed to go right for a team to improve its win total by 16 games and earn the fifth seed in its conference. Brandon Ingram<\/a> stayed healthy and reestablished himself as an All-Star. Collin Murray-Boyles<\/a> flashed elite defensive potential as a rookie. Ja\u2019Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead<\/a> made meaningful strides as sophomores, and Sandro Mamukelashvili<\/a> turned out to be a great find in free agency. But none of this would be possible without Barnes going from very good player to great player, and maybe All-NBA player (depending on how the votes shake out).<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old is coming off of a brilliant fifth campaign. He was one of only two players in the league to average at least 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block (the other was the Houston Rockets<\/a>\u2019 Alperen Sengun<\/a>). He did it while shooting 51 per cent from the field and playing 80 games, both career bests. <\/p>\n

When it comes to his impact, particularly on the defensive end, those numbers barely scratch the surface. He finished third in the league in defensive win shares behind Victor Wembanyama<\/a> of the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> and the Thunder\u2019s Chet Holmgren<\/a> and ranked 10th in value over replacement player (VORP). The Raptors were 300 points better with him on the floor than they were with him off of it. It would be shocking, inexplicable even, if he wasn\u2019t among the 10 players selected to an NBA All-Defensive Team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been great defensively but, for sure, I think I\u2019ve taken it to another level [this season],\u201d Barnes said. \u201cWe\u2019re winning, and, like I said at the beginning of the season, once we\u2019re winning, I feel like my name is going to be in the [mix for those awards], and it is. I feel like I\u2019m great defensively, I help our team a lot, and I\u2019m one of the best defenders in the NBA. I take pride in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes has levelled up, no doubt, but now he\u2019ll need to do it again. Playoff basketball isn\u2019t for the faint of heart. It has a way of making or breaking the game\u2019s most talented players. Some stars shine even brighter. Others can\u2019t overcome the physicality, scrutiny, and pressure of the moment.<\/p>\n

How will Barnes fare? It\u2019s hard to glean much from his initial experience, when he was the team\u2019s fourth option, at best, and limited by an ankle injury he suffered in the first game of that series against the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way Scottie\u2019s competing, the way Scottie is contributing to the team at so many levels, it\u2019s built for a playoff series,\u201d head coach Darko Rajakovic said. \u201cIt\u2019s a stage he\u2019s going to be shining [on]. He just needs to be himself and do what he does, and I think that\u2019s more than enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes wears many hats for this team. It\u2019s one of the things that\u2019s made his season so impressive, and there\u2019s going to be a lot on his plate in this series. <\/p>\n

In the three regular season meetings with Cleveland, Barnes was the primary defender on Evan Mobley<\/a> \u2013 his former roommate with the USA Basketball junior team and a player he\u2019ll forever be linked to after being selected back-to-back in the 2021 NBA Draft. However, all three of those games came before the Cavs acquired Harden and paired the future Hall of Famer with Donovan Mitchell<\/a> in one of the league\u2019s most lethal backcourts. The expectation is that Barnes will draw one of those guards, probably Harden, but will likely see time on both. With their elite ability to score the ball and draw fouls, he\u2019ll have his hands full defensively.<\/p>\n

The job doesn\u2019t get any easier on offence. The status of Immanuel Quickley<\/a> remains up in the air, with hamstring and foot injuries keeping him out of practice this week. If he\u2019s unable to play on Saturday, one option would be to start Shead in his place. The other option, which Rajakovic seemed to prefer when Quickley missed time late in the season, is to start Walter for floor spacing and use Barnes as the de facto point guard. Even if Quickley is out there, he\u2019ll undoubtedly be limited and likely cede some of the playmaking duties to Barnes, regardless.<\/p>\n

Barnes is a gifted passer, who plays at the pace the Raptors want to play at and can initiate the offence. But what the past month or so has shown is that the added responsibilities can come at the expense of the other things they need him to do, namely scoring. In the eight games that Quickley missed with plantar fasciitis, Barnes averaged 10.6 assists, but his point production (14.3 points) dropped and he struggled with his efficiency. Like another Raptors great, Kyle Lowry<\/a>, he\u2019s able to put his stamp on a game without scoring 20 points or even shooting the ball well; it\u2019s what makes him a special player. But it\u2019s still a work in progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not an easy balance to find,\u201d Rajakovic said. \u201cHe\u2019s capable of doing multiple things. It\u2019s just finding the right measure of that in every game. Each game is going to be different. There are going to be moments that he will need to be more aggressive and look to score more. There are going to be moments when the defence will be focusing on him and he needs to [make plays]. I think it\u2019s going to be game to game. It\u2019s going to be quarter to quarter. It\u2019s going to depend on the matchups and who we have on the court with him. Scottie is doing everything that is affecting winning. He does a good job of finding that balance in games.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an opportunity to elevate his game even further and prove that he is, in fact, one of the sport\u2019s marquee stars. It\u2019s his chance to showcase himself and turn heads around the league, to turn his breakout season into a playoff coming-out party. It\u2019s hard to imagine the Raptors having a real shot in this series without Barnes taking another leap forward.<\/p>\n

Is he ready for it?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to wait and see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 There\u2019s a cautionary tale that Serge Ibaka used to tell his former Toronto Raptors teammates. Ibaka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[16159,64,63,590,297371,85,297370],"class_list":{"0":"post-612267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-scottie-barnes-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1251666","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-toronto-raptors-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-28"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}