3 best things new addition Will Barton brings to the Toronto Raptors

1. Shooting

This is the obvious one. As fun as it can be to wax poetic about all the intricacies of Toronto’s scheme, the main reason for their poor performance this season is as easy to diagnose as possible. The team can’t shoot, and Barton has been an above-average shooter for most of his career.

Barton was ineffective inside the arc, but the fact that he shot 38% from 3-point range in his age-32 season shows that his game could age gracefully. When he gets hot, Barton can still be the effective catch-and-shoot threat that Toronto has been missing all year long.

Will Barton will help the Toronto Raptors make more 3-pointers.

Barton getting rotation time over a seldom-used two-way guard in Jeff Dowtin Jr. or yet another poor-shooting forward in Thad Young makes more sense for the modern game. Even if Barton isn’t the scorer he was in Denver, he can still play a very important role for this team.

At his best, Barton has enough athleticism left in his aching bones to be a threat slashing to the rim. At the same time, the main reason he is in Toronto is his ability to fill it up from 3-point range. Getting off to a hot start from deep in his Raptors tenure will be pivotal to ensuring his success.