The Toronto Raptors are betting big on Kawhi Leonard, but the real ripple effect may be what he does for Scottie Barnes.
Toronto’s decision to bring Leonard back and then lock him in with a two-year, $115 million extension signals a clear win-now push. Leonard is 35 and has already said he is “four or five years away” from walking away from basketball, so the front office is making its move with the final stretch of his career in mind.
Still, the message around the roster has been just as much about Barnes as it has been about Leonard. Leonard told head coach Darko Rajakovic, “I’m not here to take over anything, I want to help your vision…help Scottie. If it’s Scottie’s team, it’s his team and I want to do whatever to help you guys.”
That fits the direction Toronto has been building toward since the rebuild in the 2023/2024 season. The path has pointed toward Barnes as the centerpiece, and Leonard’s return doesn’t change that.
If anything, it strengthens it. The Raptors are trying to chase a championship now while also giving Barnes a better runway for the years ahead.
Barnes is already at a high level. He earned his second All-Star nod last season and was named to the All-Defensive Second Team.
His postseason run, though, ended in a seven-game first-round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. At 25, he still hasn’t reached his prime, and the fit with Leonard gives him something unusual: a mentor who understands how to impact a game on both ends.
The pairing makes sense because both players bring that rare forward skill set. Barnes has settled into the point-forward role, averaging around six assists per game over the last three seasons. Leonard remains a polished scorer from everywhere on the floor and is coming off his fourteenth season, when he posted a career-high 27.9 points per game while shooting a 57.3 eFG%.
That kind of presence should help Barnes in obvious ways. When Leonard draws double teams on the perimeter, the floor opens up for Barnes to attack the lane or make the extra pass. It gives Toronto another layer of playmaking and puts Barnes in more favorable spots.
The defensive impact matters just as much. Leonard’s 7-foot-3 wingspan gives the Raptors another elite stopper, and it should ease some of the burden on Barnes, who won’t have to chase the opponent’s top scorer every possession. That makes Toronto’s switching and closeouts on the perimeter more effective within its rotations.
There is, of course, the injury concern that comes with Leonard. Toronto has to be ready for the stretches when he is unavailable.
Even so, the value he brings as Barnes’ running mate should still help Barnes grow. The Raptors are putting two high-IQ, forward-sized stars together in a way the league doesn’t see often, and the benefit for Barnes should extend well beyond Leonard’s time in Toronto.
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For Toronto, the opener was especially useful as a chance to sort through the young talent behind the headline names, with several rookies logging meaningful minutes and recording their first pro stats. The Raptors did not have their first-round pick Allen Graves available, which only pushed more attention onto the rest of the new faces, and one undrafted newcomer in particular made the kind of efficient debut that gets people talking long after a preseason game is over. [Read more 🡒]