👀 RJ Barrett’s Future with the Raptors: Stay or Go? 🏀
In this Basketball Rewind breakdown, we take a closer look at how the Toronto Raptors’ front office handled RJ Barrett last season — and whether he was truly given a fair shot.
We’ll discuss:
🔹 How the Raptors used RJ Barrett during the 2024-25 season
🔹 Front office decisions that shaped his role and confidence
🔹 The big question: should Toronto keep building around RJ, or consider moving on?
💬 Raptors fans: what’s your verdict — keep RJ or trade him? Drop your takes in the comments!
#TorontoRaptors #RJBarrett #BasketballRewind #NBA
16 Comments
In what way is RJ being disrespected? If anything, letting his reps know they are moving on, helps his camp. Giving a player an unwarranted extension is disrespecting the fans that want to win. For my part, I hope they either get decent value for RJ or just level with him and negotiate a reasonable 6th man type contract. (something like 3 x 20m)
No excuses. Scottie got paid $280 Million. IQ got paid $175 Million. Brandon Ingram got paid $125 Million. It's time for him to step up. No injury excuses. There is constant talk about trading RJ Barrett because of his contract? RJ's contract is nowhere near those other guys but he has been more productive than Scottie and all the rest. Before you Raps fans declare someone a "star" let that person show and prove he's a "star."
@basketballrewind i dont think RJ is gonna be traded. his value is too low. i think he used to the rumors also as he was in alot of them in new york. i dont think trade rumors is anything new to RJ because he was shopped alot in new york before being traded. I dont think he is gonna get a raise when his contract is over as well unless he improves his defence and free throw shooting.
The white guy there, excuse my patwa. This man is a genius. smart test opening statement statements on Canadian Olympian and Toronto Raptors, RJ Barrett. His mistreatment is biblical proportion because how much cheeks does RJ have to turn.
If Rogers do the norm and free this kid a promote their home grown. I see championship. If the keep overpaying Scottie I see people switching to Bell after overpaying defensive cant scorers
Plus that Afro dude was at his best when he said RJ is the only on that plays good withe kids.
He makes everyone better. He is the leader of this team in my books. I'm not a RJ fan I'm just telling the truth.
IQ and Scottie is on a free ride, this has to stop, time to lift up the Prodigal Son RJ to where he belongs our Team, Scottie dont own the. Roger
I want to know who started this RJ pandemic, I would like their job.
Coach is way above these guys in knowledge above Raps digest pens are amateur hour
Rogers hire coach
God Bless Canadians
It's an interesting situation for the Raps. I feel like IQ/Scottie/BI represent the core and RJ/Jak are expendable, RJ especially because Raps have so many SG. The FO traded and drafted these guys and created this bottleneck. I know there was talk of Scottie moving to the 1 and IQ the 2. My big problem is Raps don't really have an answer to size at the 4, so JJJ just kills us. Could you see the Raps making a big move again? Lets say RJ+Jak+picks for an Anthony Davis or JJJ? Could RJ sign and team-friendly extension, say 60/3 and does that even work if Dick/Walter are the future at SG. Its a puzzle and I hope Raps make a good move!
Great pod guys. This made me think of a bunch of issues. That IQ contract is probably going to be a big problem. The Raptors not drafting for need is an issue. RJ not being put in a situation to succeed is an issue. Even if they always wanted to move RJ, he's their top scorer. Why has no one from the FO tried to lift the man up and give him his flowers? They act like the man doesn't exist, then wonder why they can't trade him.
Tim loves basketball, lol. I get the comparison of the RJ situation to the Pascal situation, but in my mind it is not the same.
Siakam was a big part of the team for a long time, he gave the org so much more than RJ has. Siakam was being phased out of the team while he was still here, and put in situations to fail, which is inexcusable. The Raps have communicated to RJ that he is not part of their future plans, they did not do that for Siakam, and left him hanging for years. Siakam defended and fit the team, RJ does neither. And RJ has not been put in a situation to fail, no sabotage there.
RJ was not the target in the trade, he was cap filler. That is how trades in the NBA work with the cap. That is the same with all teams. RJ does not fit, and the Raps are trying to trade him, but nobody seems to want him, so what can they do? The difference is that Siakam was treated terribly by this org., and RJ is just in a bad situation being a tweener in the highly capped NBA.
This should be a wake-up call for RJ, if I was him I would of been very motivated to improve my defense, seeing how much that poor defending has ruined his value. That is on him, nobody else.
Masai left this team in a mess. Although this team has a few decent pieces, I don't really see anything to build around. Basically I see a capped out team that is built around mediocrity. We got BI cheap because nobody else really wanted him. Nobody wants IQ and his bad contract. We are trying hard to trade RJ but not much interest in him elsewhere. I can see why a quality president would not be interested in taking on this job.
If they believed in Bobby long term he would be the president, but they did not give that to him. My guess is that they want to keep Bobby to clean up some of Masai's mess, so both the org. and the new president will both know what they are getting into. We are only guessing on what were Bobby's decisions, and what were Masai's. I am pretty sure that Pelley knows that answer.
We will know pretty fast if Bobby is indecisive and slow as Masai. If Bobby can't reorganize the clutter really fast he will be gone after the season. It would be hard to sell a house that was left in a state of clutter by a hoarder. A good real estate agent knows he has to clean up the house before he can sell it. The Raps have to do some cleaning first to make this team more attractive in order to hire a top quality president.
When talking about the org. Pelley said we want to compete for championships, and don't want mediocrity. He said they are aware that a team can't always compete, but that they need to see that the team is being built so that they can see the potential to become a contender. In a diplomatic way he basically said Masai was not fired for losing, he was fired because they did not see the potential to get there in the future with the moves that were made.
I don't look at RJ, BI, IQ as being trade assets. I see them more as being trade liabilities. We will have to take on some other teams liabilities to unload them, and if we are lucky we may be able to get some draft picks. The new cap makes trading very hard, and those types of players are the hardest to trade. People have to stop looking at what is and what isn't a trade asset differently now. Sure you can still unload some mediocrity, but you will have to take on some mediocrity in return to do that, and then the cycle continues.
If the Raps end the season with 100 guards, and no centers it will be over for Bobby. If Bobby can't trade a few players such as RJ and we still are running with this mess of a roster, Bobby will be gone. If the Raps roster is the same as it is now 1/4 into the season Bobby will be gone. I don't think the org will tolerate indecisiveness and inaction anymore. That is obvious as the org clearly stated with the Leafs.
The danger with Bobby is ironically his cap strategy. He is a stats guy, and not a great "eye test" guy, which leads to bad contracts like IQ's. All the stats guys loved that contract when it was signed, but the eye test guys did not. I agree with you guys that Bobby seems stuck on the shorter term with player options contracts, for cap flexibility. Those contracts are hard to trade, and player options make it too hard to manage a roster. I can understand giving a player like Jokic a player option, but not average players like Poeltl, just not worth it for those guys.
For Bobby to succeed he will have to show us that he has a vision, direction, moves quickly and decisively. He needs to show us that all of the indecisiveness, indecision, etc … was Masai's doing and not his. If we see more of the same things we saw with Masai, Bobby will not last very long. I don't think they see Bobby as a long term solution, but if he surprises us which I doubt, he has an opportunity to change our minds.
What the Raps have to do is obvious to high IQ fans, he has to move lots of clutter and redundancy on this roster. The most important thing is that he is active, and making those moves and not standing still. There is absolutely no reason to have 500 guards, and none of them except mediocre Shead is a real pg. First we have to move those guys, the market will dictate the value we get in return, which will not be much. It is after those deals to get out of this mess, that we will know what our next moves need to be.
His on the ball defense is underrated IMO especially after the all star break
We got to see coach lush at the end of the show, hahaha.
I don't understand how people are SO committed to RJ and SO against Scottie. RJ gives you 20 ppg and really not much else. Scottie gives you BARELY less ppg than RJ but with elite defense and solid playmaking. I like RJ but he's the odd man out and an archetype the league as a whole is finding less appealing (see cam Thomas) a 3andD player would really round this team out nicely.
This coming season will be the real teller. No more tank no more development. That's the other frustrating part to the Scottie criticism cause if he went out last season and played like a franchise player people would be so upset about the tank being compromised. Instead he was loyal to his team and developed which meant he missed out on incentives and bonuses on his contract.
If he goes out next season and it goes to crap I'll admit this looks very VERY bad but I think Scottie is finally gonna show his all star promise!
RJ was the best player on the court last year. Mr. Consistency
I say let the team hoop.. let’s see where we at by trade deadline.
As someone THRILLED when we dumped RJ on you. I believe he has succeeded with you guys, fits as well as he would anywhere lol, unfortunately for you. He's a good 12-15 mil a year 6th man, but he's not anywhere near ready to accept that.
IQ was my favorite Knick, now far surpassed by OG from day one. That contract though- ridiculous. He's a good player, but point guards are born, not made.
Dude in blue is not grasping the cba and the current reality of salaries. Dude in green is. The RJ is only (insert age) thing was a yearly excuse until it became laughable. Funny to hear it now in a different city. btw- as a person- I like Rj.