RJ Barrett’s role and future with the Raptors have been a much-discussed topic this offseason. Barrett has made it clear that he would like to play for his hometown team long-term.
However, the Raptors’ financial situation makes it difficult to extend him, while also having expensive contracts for Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and Jakob Poeltl on the books. Moreover, Barrett’s expiring salary makes him a valuable trade piece, and, considering the Raptors’ lack of quality center and point guard depth, he is also the easiest to replace out of the three expendable starters.
In fact, a suitable replacement may already be on the Raptors’ roster. Zach Lowe floated the question of whether the Raptors would ever consider replacing Barrett or Quickley in the starting lineup with Ja’Kobe Walter on his podcast earlier this week. CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn took that idea a bit farther on the Third Apron podcast. He noted that the Raptors are one of the most interesting teams to watch in terms of trades now that they have Leonard and are trying to build a contender and outlined how Barrett could quickly become the odd one out.
“I also think they’re going to find over time that Ja’Kobe Walter probably makes more sense with the core starters than RJ Barrett does,” Quinn said. “Taking away RJ Barrett’s ability to create his own shot isn’t going to hurt them that much, but adding Ja’Kobe Walter as a point-of-attack defender, and obviously the 3-point shot really came around for him last year. I think they might find that that’s the version of their closing lineup that makes the most sense, and if that’s the case and you’ve got RJ on an expiring deal, could you turn around and say, ‘Okay, can we take that RJ Barrett salary and do something interesting with it?’ Maybe combine it with Poeltl and take somebody back.”
So, Barrett’s future with the Raptors may, at least in part, come down to whether the coaches and front office think Walter is ready for a bigger role.
Ja’Kobe Walter’s skill set makes a lot of sense next to the other starters
The biggest issue with Barrett’s fit on this current iteration of the Raptors’ roster is that he’s not a great 3-point shooter. He can knock down big shots, as he proved in the playoffs, but he shot just 33.9% on 5 attempts per game last season, which is very much in line with his 34.5% career average.
The Raptors’ starting lineup already features one non-shooter in Jakob Poeltl and another below-average shooter in Scottie Barnes. The latter obviously isn’t going anywhere, and Poeltl’s primary backup at the moment is Collin Murray-Boyles, who is undersized at the five and also not a great 3-point shooter yet. So, replacing Barrett with Walter, who shot 40.9% on 3.7 3-point attempts per game off the bench last season, would make a big difference in terms of spacing.
Moreover, Walter is a better perimeter defender than Barrett and could take on tough guard assignments, easing the defensive load on Barnes.
Replacing Barrett with Walter before trading him would be a bold move, given the former’s pedigree, but the Raptors may very well opt to close games with Walter and look for Barrett trades if the 22-year-old plays well.
The biggest thing Walter can do for the Raptors is knock down 3-pointers, and he did that pretty reliably last season. He struggled in his first few playoff games but eventually found his footing at that level, too, shooting at least 42.9% from deep in all of the last three games of the series. He was huge in the Raptors’ Game 6 victory, knocking down four 3-pointers on his way to 24 points.
Add us as a preferred source on Google