The Raptors are having their best season in years. After not making the playoffs since 2022, Toronto is finally back in the postseason picture. The team has also already exceeded its total win numbers of each of the last two seasons.
Scottie Barnes is a big reason for that success. He is the team’s second-leading scorer and leads the Raptors in rebounds, steals, and blocks per game as he anchors the best defense Toronto has seen in several seasons.
An All-Defensive First Team selection should be well within reach for Barnes this season. His case is pretty much bulletproof.
Scottie Barnes is one of the best defenders in the NBA
There is literally no reason to question Barnes’s defensive talent. He can guard multiple positions, defends star players well, and racks up steals and blocks with 1.4 and 1.6 per game, respectively.
Barnes is one of only a handful of players who average at least one block and one steal per game. Out of that group, Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Davis (although he has only played 20 games so far) average more blocks than Barnes with 2.9 and 1.7, respectively, but no player averages more blocks AND steals than the Raptors star.
The numbers don’t lie and neither does the eye test. Barnes can guard anyone in the league if he has to, no matter if they are a big, a guard, or a wing.
Moreover, his defensive impact has led to team success—something that tends to matter a lot when it comes to end-of-season honors. The Raptors are currently sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and are ready to return to the playoffs after several seasons.
Toronto is middling when it comes to offensive rating, ranking 16th across the league. Defensively, the team ranks seventh—better than in years. Last season, the Raptors finished fifteenth in defensive rating. The three years prior, they finished twenty-sixth, eleventh, and ninth, respectively.
All-Defensive honors are just the beginning for Barnes
Barnes has been in the NBA for a while now, but he is still only 24 years old. This is just the beginning for the young star.
So far, Barnes has a Rookie of the Year award and two All-Star nods in 2024 and 2026 on his resume. Soon enough, his name shouldn’t just be in the All-Star and All-Defensive team conversation, but also in the All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year race—especially if the Raptors’ team success continues to grow along with him.