Scottie Barnes issues "promise" to Raptors fans after tough season
It might be just a simple social media post, but May 12, 2024, could be a day worth looking back on one day for Toronto Raptors star forward Scottie Barnes.
Shortly before representing the Raptors at yesterday’s NBA Draft Lottery, Barnes made a simple proclamation in an Instagram carousel after Toronto had one of their worst seasons in recent memory.
“I promise we will be better,” Barnes captioned the post while sharing a series of pictures from the 2023-24 season.
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Toronto went 25-57 on the year, finishing 12th in the Eastern Conference and well out of the postseason race. It was a transitional year for the franchise, which traded away team centrepieces like Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby shortly after losing Fred VanVleet in free agency to Houston the summer prior.
Barnes averaged 19.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 6.1 assists in 60 games this season and made the All-Star team for the first time in his career. The fourth overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Barnes is the only player from his draft class to have made an All-Star Game so far.
And it’s pretty clear that the organization feels that as far as Barnes goes, the team will go with him.
“I think the most difficult thing to do when you do things like this is finding the Scottie Barneses of the world, and we’re lucky to have a really good young player like this to build around,” Toronto president Masai Ujiri said at his end of season press availability.
In an impassioned speech on January 9, Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic snuck in a bit of praise for Barnes in his viral postgame rant criticizing the referees, where he called Barnes a player who is “going to be the face of this league.”
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