3 reasons Raptors’ Scottie Barnes deserved Rookie of the Year

1. His contributions to winning

Barnes was a starter on a team that earned the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference, and that has to mean something. While team performance isn’t always a big factor in this award voting, Barnes’ numbers need to be viewed within the prism of Toronto’s success.

Cunningham has some of the best individual numbers in this class, but both he and Jalen Green were not going to unseat Barnes by putting up their numbers on subpar Pistons and Rockets teams that might earn the No. 1 pick. Mobley’s case disintegrated late in the season.

Scottie Barnes helped the Toronto Raptors win.

Mobley and the Cavs completely went down the drain after Jarrett Allen went down. With even more defensive responsibility on his shoulders, Mobley faltered while Barnes played a major role in Toronto’s ride back to the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Barnes and the Raptors worked in tandem to turn last season’s Tampa failure into a building block that will be used to springboard off of next year. Without Barnes in the lineup, Toronto would have lacked an element of versatility and quality in their lineup that would have been extremely difficult to replicate.