TORONTO — Arguably for the first time since Scottie Barnes became a Toronto Raptor, he wasn’t the primary story as the team began training camp.
This is a good thing.
Barnes was predictably front-and-centre as a rookie, being the No. 4 pick in the 2021 draft (the Raptors’ reward for the “Tampa Tank”) and his development has been closely — almost too closely — monitored in the four years since, given that he was the NBA’s rookie-of-the-year and then anointed as the team’s franchise player of the future in Year 2, showed promise in earning an all-star nod in Year 3, and cemented his status when he signed a five-year contract for $224 million heading into Year 4.
But as the Raptors gathered for media day on Monday before flying out to Calgary for training camp for his fifth professional tr