Toronto Raptors Peaking with Resurgence of RJ Barrett

RJ Barrett and the Toronto Raptors defeated the Eastern Conference’s top team, the Detroit Pistons, 119-108 Sunday night in Scotiabank Arena. The former Duke Blue Devil contributed 27 points and six rebounds on 11-for-17 shooting in the Raptors’ second straight win, but first against a top-10 team in the NBA since Jan. 25th. 

After a rough stretch of 3-6 for Toronto, Barrett has helped turn it around in back-to-back important wins against the Phoenix Suns and Pistons. The Raptors dropped out of the top six seeds due to this stretch, but were able to get back to just half a game behind the Orlando Magic for the fifth seed, clear of the Play-In Tournament. 

The former No. 3 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft played just six games in two months due to separate knee and ankle injuries, and he vastly struggled when he returned to the floor. In his first 10 games after the injuries, he averaged 14.4 points on 39.8% shooting and 27.5% from three, while recording 20+ points just twice (via StatMuse). 

Over the last 10 games, Barrett has completely flipped the script on his season post-injuries. The 6-foot-6, 214-pound forward averaged 22.0 points on 55.8% shooting and 38.0% from three, while recording 20+ points eight times (via StatMuse). While his offensive output hasn’t necessarily translated directly to wins, his contribution has been the level of consistency that the Raptors need, especially against the top teams in the NBA. 

Offense is something that Barrett is known for, especially considering his recent achievement of reaching 8,000 career points, the first to do so in his draft class. However, his defense has actually shone to a similar level as his offensive output in recent games. The team has needed offensive consistency from a multitude of players to help Brandon Ingram, but in Collin Murray-Boyles’ absence, Barrett’s defense has been a key contributor to the Raptors’ success. 

Ingram, who claimed he thought Barrett was “just a gunner” at the beginning of the season, commented after the win against the Pistons about his relentless defensive efforts. 

“He’s taken the challenge, especially these last two games,” said Ingram. “His effort, his intensity, he really wants to guard, and you know that energy is going over to the offensive end, and it’s helping him out a lot. We’re all proud of RJ [Barrett] and his turnaround on the defense.”

Head coach Darko Rajakovic took it a step further and made a bold claim about Barrett’s defensive ability. 

“There’s absolutely nothing that’s preventing him to be [an] elite 2-way player,” said Rajakovic. “That’s from day 1, when he came over here, we were preaching that to him. There’s no physical attribute that he does not have that he’s not capable of guard[ing]  1 through 4 anybody in the league. He’s just having that grit and that mindset of doing it over and over and over again. And he showed us in moments that he’s capable of doing it, but lately he’s doing it in much longer periods of time, and that’s really helping the team to win.”

Being able to have three consistent high-level defenders in Barrett, Murray-Boyles, and Scottie Barnes, who’s making a case for Defensive Player of the Year, is something that can separate the Raptors from their opponents in the playoffs. They will look to build on their back-to-back wins in the final 15 games of the regular season, and position themselves to avoid the Play-In Tournament altogether.