BI
Yesterday at 06:03 PM
HOUSTON, Texas — Who knows when they might take the floor together, but whenever it does happen, Scottie Barnes is already excited about playing with his newest teammate.
Barnes is the Raptors’ foundational piece, but no one player can win in the NBA on their own, so it's not surprising that the former All-Atar is looking forward to connecting with another former All-Star in Brandon Ingram, who the Raptors acquired Wednesday night in a trade for Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk and a top four protected first-round pick in 2026 that belongs to the Indiana Pacers.
"We knew something was going to happen," said Barnes in his first comments since the trade. "Sad for Kelly, Bruce, Davion. I know they did a lot of great things here. You know, they helped us build, I love those guys, but, you know, we got a great guy in Brandon Ingram just being around him so far. Great dude, chill dude. I can see I'm gonna get some love out of him. You know, I feel like there’s a lot of love in his heart. So I think, I think we’ll have a special connection. But, you know, just excited for him to be here and try to keep building."
The connection will have to be built off the court for now. Ingram has been out since Dec. 7th with a high-ankle sprain and isn't projected to be back for at least a month.
But there seems to be potential for bonds to be formed. Ingram has already said that he's identified Barnes as a bit of a “goofball” and promises that he's got that side to him as well. Meanwhile, Barnes recognizes Ingram's talent. He's seen it firsthand: Ingram put 41 on the Raptors while going 16-of-21 from the floor almost a year ago exactly.
"He's got a great game. Gets to the mid-range, plays the right way. He's an excellent player [and] he's going to take pressure off all of us … being able to score the ball, get downhill. Teams got to respect him. He’s a respected player in this league, and with all the things that he can do, he’s gonna take pressure off RJ [Barrett], gonna take pressure off me, gonna take pressure off [Immanuel Quickley]; allow Gradey [Dick] to get some easy looks. He’s gonna take pressure off everybody."
Grange for three:
1. A tough go for Mogbo
Perhaps no one is missing Jakob Poeltl (hip) being in the lineup more than rookie forward Jonathan Mogbo. He was a small-ball centre in college, but the Raptors want to develop him into a big wing. It's hard to do when the Raptors are missing the one experienced centre on the roster.
On one hand, he's getting more playing time — Mogbo got just the seventh starting assignment of his career on Friday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. On the other, he had to deal with the Thunder's twin towers of Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren.
Mogbo has tremendous reach, but he's still only six-foot-seven, so he was giving up a lot of size to the pair of seven-footers.
On Sunday against Houston, it won't get any easier as he'll be giving up size to Rockets newly minted All-Star centre Alperen Sengun.
"We see him as a wing, we would like him to play those wing minutes nonstop but right now we have only Orlando [Robinson] that can play that position," said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. "Defensively we were finding good matchups for him [but] offensively, it makes it hard but we're going to continue exploring [opportunities] and helping him."
2. Barrett back, but still out
Barrett arrived in Houston on Friday and was at Raptors practice at the University of Houston on Saturday, but he's still out for Sunday's game due to the concussion he suffered late in the win over the Los Angeles Clippers a week ago.
Barrett returned to the game against the Clippers and practiced on Monday, having cleared concussion checks each time. But he began feeling symptoms on Monday afternoon.
He said he began feeling mildly nauseous and had an overwhelming urge to lie down. He was placed in the concussion protocol, missed the Raptors’ last three games and was only cleared to travel on Friday. There is still no timetable for his return, but being cleared to travel is a good sign.
3.Rookies have a ways still to go
Darko Rajakovic is pleased with the progress the team's younger core is making, but he has a clear idea of what kind of work remains to be done as the team heads into the final 30 or so games of the season.
"There are small things we are striving for. It might be attacking more with the left hand for guys that are strong right-handed drivers, it might be the timing of cuts, it might be how are we pressuring the ball. There's a lot of small details that we are trying to work on, focusing on our improvement. And it comes from playing against really good teams because that's really going to help us play extremely hard and use those games [to improve.]"
