Raptors' Scottie Barnes named to NBA All-Star Game

Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes will be heading to the NBA All-Star Game after all.

Today, it was announced that Barnes will be named as an injury replacement for the annual game. Barnes and Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young will be replacing New York’s Julius Randle and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, respectively.

NBA All-Star weekend will be held in Indianapolis this year from February 16 to 18, with the game itself being held on Sunday, February 18 at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET.

The 2021-22 NBA Rookie of the Year, it is Barnes’ first appearance at the All-Star Game. Oddly, he’s actually now the second-longest tenured Raptor on the team, despite only being selected by the team less than three years ago, when he was picked fourth overall by Toronto out of Florida State.

Barnes has averaged 20.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 50 games for the Raptors this season. He’s taken on a new role in his third year in the league, being the team’s focal point on both the offensive and defensive ends following the trades of Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby earlier in the year.

“I don’t know if he is ready for that responsibility [as the leader of the franchise], but we have to put him in position,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said of Barnes last month. “That’s our jobs. We have to put him in [a] position to at least grow and start to see dividends of the work he is putting in, yeah, to become that kind of player.”

It is Toronto’s third consecutive year having an All-Star representative after Siakam was selected in 2022-23 and Fred VanVleet was picked in 2021-22. He’s the ninth player in franchise history to be named to the game at least once, also joining Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Vince Carter, Antonio Davis, Chris Bosh, and Kawhi Leonard.