5 Breakout players for next season, and why the Raptors’ fate is tied to one

No. 1: RJ Barrett, Toronto Raptors

This will likely come as no surprise to those loyal fans who watched all of the Toronto Raptors' season last year, nor from those who tuned into the Summer Olympics. RJ Barrett arrived in his hometown of Toronto last year as a part of the OG Anunoby trade and proceeded to step up as the second-leading scorer on the team, putting up career numbers across the board.

In New York, Barrett was failing to deliver on the promise he held as the No. 3 overall pick, going off the board just behind Zion Williamson and Ja Morant. While those two players ascended into stardom, he stayed behind, a really good player but one without that defining skill to elevate him to the next level.

In Toronto, however, Barrett took off. It wasn't merely hot shooting, either; he did hit 39.2 percent of his 3-pointers, a step up from the 33.1 percent he hit in New York, but he also improved across the board despite playing fewer minutes. He scored a career-high 21.8 points per game and put up what would be career-best marks in rebounds, assists, blocks and confidence (that last one is a bit harder to track).

Then with Team Canada, Barrett was the team's most consistent player, and was the fourth-leader scorer in the entire 12-nation Olympic field. He was cutting, rebounding, and attacking the basket when he got the ball on the perimeter. He has never looked more comfortable with the ball in his hands.

Barrett is playing for his hometown team, for a front office that specifically targeted him via trade, and on a team that doesn't have a lot of shot creation outside of Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley. His passing has always been an untapped part of his game, and if he can continue to growth as a scorer and add the playmaking his value on the wing will be sky-high. It's not out of the question that it's Barrett, not Quickley, who is the team's second-best player moving forward; not because Quickley didn't develop, but because Barrett finally ascends to an All-Star level.

If that is the case, if the Raptors truly have three offensive stars, it opens up the ceiling for this team. They will need one of them, almost certainly Barnes, to become a Top-10 player. If he does, however, and the two co-stars are already in place in Quickley and Barrett, then filling in the rest of a championship-level roster, while not easy, is very attainable.

That's the upside of Barrett truly taking that next step forward. Was last season a mirage? Can he merely maintain that level of play? Or is there an opportunity for him to improve even more significantly and get discussed in the same breath as other fringe All-Stars around the league?

His breakout may be coming, which is an exciting idea for both the Raptors and their fans.