On the surface, it may seem nonsensical to suggest that RJ Barrett deserves more playing time. He is entrenched in the starting lineup and averaged 33.5 minutes per game last season upon arriving in Toronto. What more could he possibly need?
This is more of a statement that RJ Barrett deserves to hold onto his place as a high-minute contributor and to keep the high-usage role he filled with the Raptors. In New York he looked like something of a disappointing draft pick, a good player who never took the step up into being great. Then he came to Toronto and had the best stretch of his career, playing confidently and knocking down shots with consistency.
Barrett followed that up with some extremely strong play for Team Canada in the run-up to the Paris Olympics, then was arguably their best player in the Olympics themselves and was the fourth-leading scorer in the entire competition. He may just have gone on a hot streak, and he will come back down to earth this year, playing more to his career levels of performance.
He may also have taken the next step up in his career, and that chance needs to be explored. It would have been reasonable to fully shift the ball into the hands of Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes and reduced Barrett’s role, even sacrificing some of his minutes to young wings like Gradey Dick and Ja’Kobe Walter. Barrett’s strong play the past 9 months have earned him a place in this team’s core, at least to start the year.
The Raptors have a lot of rotation questions to be worked out, and everyone who wants minutes will not get them. They need to prioritize time for the right players, and acknowledge some members of the roster have not earned guaranteed minutes. It’s a difficult task for head coach Darko Rajakovic, but it’s not an impossible one.