He’ll bop around the offices at the Raptors training centre bouncing a basketball down the corridors and into the offices, checking in with his bosses.
He’s a regular visitor to the facility: getting in workouts, connecting with visiting teammates and front-office higher-ups charged with improving the roster.
He showed up at the NBA draft lottery in Chicago to sit on the stage and mask his disappointment after the team missed out on a chance for a top-six draft pick.
And he dropped a line on his Instagram feed right after the lottery that made a vow: “I promise we will be better.”
If there’s one thing Scottie Barnes has done this summer it’s showing, in words and actions, that he’s taking ownership of his role with the Raptors, and team officials welcome the development.
Team insiders insist that last season’s disaster — the worst year for the franchise in a decade that included Barnes’ first significant injury, which knocked him out for the last quarter of the season — has created in Barnes a resolve to never go through anything like that again.
Those same insiders speak of a new maturity and willingness to take responsibility for the position he’s been put in as the face of the team.
It may not be a big deal, but there are those connected with the Raptors who insist there’s something different and intangible about the 22-year-old Barnes.
There better be. The Raptors unequivocally bestowed the “face of the franchise” tag on him when they let Fred VanVleet walk and traded away Pascal Siakam, and are almost assuredly going to give Barnes a contract worth about $260 million (U.S.) as soon as the first week of July.
They were betting that Barnes would grow into his position in the hierarchy, though — not assured of it. They had a smidgen of concern during Barnes’ pedestrian second season — the Raptors didn’t want to move Siakam in the summer of 2023 until they saw how Barnes was in his third season. But once he played well and grew, their concerns abated and it was Full Bore Barnes.
This summer, he’s done more than ever: more involved, more around, more of what they need him to be.
Privately they’ll say: “Watch, all he wants is to win. He’ll do whatever it takes.”
Barnes has taken the steps off the court and in the off-season. Those are big, important steps.
About the cap
One NBA executive told me in Chicago at the draft combine that the Raptors could probably find a way to create about $28 million in salary-cap space.
In the next breath, the same exec said something along the lines of “but really, what’s that get? Nothing of substance.”
Bang on.
The cost to create that amount would be both Gary Trent Jr. and Bruce Brown. And in this day and age, $28 million certainly doesn’t get a star.
I’m assured if the Raptors were 100 per cent guaranteed to get the exact player they want for $28 million they would do it, but that’s not likely.
The best route is to protect the Trent and Brown assets — in personnel and dollar value — and act as an over-the-cap team that has the full mid-level exception of somewhere near $13 million.
That leaves Brown’s $23-million expiring contract in play, lets them see what the years and money on a new Trent deal will be, and leaves them with a nice chunk of money to tinker on the edges of the roster.
Paydays coming
Don’t for a second think that the trades the Raptors made last season weren’t done with futures in mind.
All of the principals — the Raptors with Immanuel Quickley, the Pacers with Siakam, and the Knicks primarily with OG Anunoby but also Precious Achiuwa in the picture — knew what it was going to cost them to keep the impending free agents they acquired.
The new contracts aren’t signed, but they’re basically done: Quickley likely starts north of $25 million a year here, Siakam’s going to be around at least $45 million in Indiana, and Anunoby’s going to get something near $35 million a year in New York.
No one should be surprised. Those trades were consummated in December and January with the full knowledge that summer deals had already (wink, nod) been worked out.
from doug
