Cutoff/status: 2026-07-18; verified standard-contract Raptor and franchise cornerstone. The unresolved Kawhi Leonard trade changes his scoring ceiling more than his minutes. Official NBA profile, accessed 2026-07-18 · Toronto Raptors
Baseline and projection
Barnes played 80 games in 2025-26 and averaged 33.5 minutes, 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.4 steals, 1.5 blocks and 2.6 turnovers while shooting .507/.815 with 0.9 threes. Toronto's official draft profile calls Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles franchise cornerstones. Basketball-Reference team stats, accessed 2026-07-18 · NBA Toronto draft profile, 2026
| GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 74 | 34.0 | .501 | .795 | 1.0 | 20.0 | 8.0 | 6.4 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 2.8 |
Fantasy value
- Nine-category: projected rank 15-25. Assists from a forward plus 2.7 combined stocks form the foundation; modest threes and turnovers keep him below the true first-round engines.
- Points: 44.5 simple fantasy points per game under the encyclopedia formula; projected top 20-30.
- Dynasty: top 12-20 overall at age 25, with durable category breadth and a stable organizational role.
- Ceiling: 22/8/7 with three stocks if Toronto plays smaller and Barnes owns more center/point-forward possessions; top 10-15 per game.
- Floor: an incoming Leonard and healthier creators hold him near 18 points, while turnovers and mediocre three volume leave him in the 25-35 range.
The Leonard deal would likely improve Barnes's efficiency and assist quality but reduce late-clock shots. A failed deal preserves maximum usage with Brandon Ingram. Neither branch threatens 33-35 minutes. Toronto's aggressive, top-five defense and third-ranked assist volume are ideal for his category shape. NBA.com fit analysis, 2026-07-01
Career record
Pre-NBA: Florida State, one season (2020-21). Barnes came off the bench for most of it, playing 24 games with 7 starts and averaging 10.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.5 blocks on .503/.275/.621 shooting. He won ACC Freshman of the Year and ACC Sixth Man of the Year in the same season and made third-team All-ACC — an unusual combination that reflects how the assist and defensive profile, not the scoring, was already the calling card. The .275 from three and .621 from the line were the flagged weaknesses. Draft: 2021, first round, 4th overall, Toronto Raptors; no draft-night trade.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 20 | TOR | 74 | 35.4 | 15.3 | 7.5 | 3.5 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.8 | .492 | .735 | 1.8 |
| 2022-23 | 21 | TOR | 77 | 34.8 | 15.3 | 6.6 | 4.8 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.8 | .456 | .772 | 2.0 |
| 2023-24 | 22 | TOR | 60 | 34.9 | 19.9 | 8.2 | 6.1 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.7 | .475 | .781 | 2.8 |
| 2024-25 | 23 | TOR | 65 | 32.8 | 19.3 | 7.7 | 5.8 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 1.2 | .446 | .755 | 2.8 |
| 2025-26 | 24 | TOR | 80 | 33.5 | 18.1 | 7.5 | 5.9 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 0.9 | .507 | .815 | 2.6 |
| Career | TOR | 356 | 34.3 | 17.4 | 7.5 | 5.2 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.0 | .475 | .773 | 2.4 |
Awards: Rookie of the Year (2022), All-Rookie First Team (2022), All-Star (2024, 2026), All-Defensive Second Team (2026). Five NBA seasons, all with Toronto — no traded seasons, so no split rows are needed.
Fantasy history: Season-end 9-category ranks are not verifiable from the sources reachable here; published aggregator tiers put him in the 11-20 band for 2025-26 but that is a tier, not a finish, and I am not converting it into a number. What the raw lines support without estimating: 2021-22 and 2022-23 were outside standard-league relevance in categories (sub-1.0 blocks, sub-5 assists, no threes, and a .735-.772 free-throw mark on low volume); 2023-24 was the first clearly top-40-shaped season once assists reached 6.1 and blocks 1.5; 2024-25 regressed on efficiency, with .446 from the field actively costing a category; 2025-26 is his best category season, because the .507/.815 pair flipped both percentage columns from liabilities to assets while the stocks held. Points-league shape is materially worse than the category shape — the low three-point volume and 2.6 turnovers do less damage in categories, where his 2.9 combined stocks are scarce, than they do in points formats, where nothing rewards a steal-and-block forward.
Durability: 74, 77, 60, 65, 80. The two down years have specific, non-recurring causes rather than a chronic condition. In 2023-24 he broke a metacarpal in his left hand on March 1, 2024, which ended his regular season. In 2024-25 he fractured an orbital bone on October 28, 2024 and later sprained his right ankle on December 9, 2024 — two separate absences in one year. In 2025-26 he was essentially always available, with one of his few missed games down to personal reasons rather than injury. He was kneed in the quadriceps by Thomas Bryant in Game 5 of the first-round series against Cleveland and was managing that quad into the rest of the playoffs, but it was an in-series contusion, not a structural injury.
Trajectory: The arc has one genuine leap and one efficiency correction, and they are separate events. The leap was 2023-24, when Toronto traded away its veteran wings and handed Barnes the offense: assists jumped 4.8 to 6.1, blocks doubled to 1.5, three-point makes went 0.8 to 1.7. That was role, not skill — his minutes barely moved, so the per-36 gain was real. The 2024-25 dip to .446 was a shot-diet problem, not a decline, and 2025-26 fixed it by subtraction: he cut three-point volume back to 0.9 makes and lived inside, and field-goal percentage went .446 to .507 while free-throw percentage hit a career-best .815. Note that his per-36 scoring actually fell slightly across that same span (21.2 in 2024-25 to 19.5 in 2025-26) — he did not become a bigger scorer, he became a more efficient and much healthier one, and the 80 games are worth more to a fantasy roster than the two points he gave back. At 24 he is at the front of the aging curve with no decline risk to price in, so the 2026-27 question is entirely about role. The thing to watch is that the efficiency gain and the three-point volume are in tension: if Toronto pushes him back out to the arc to space for Leonard or Ingram, the .507 is unlikely to survive, and the extra three per game may not pay for it.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · Wikipedia — Scottie Barnes · NBA.com player page · NBA.com — Raptors injuries, Barnes and Ingram
Open questions
- Does the three-point attempt rate finally rise enough to add a full three per game?
- Is he the primary closer, or does Leonard/Ingram continue to take the late-clock usage?
- How often does Toronto deploy Barnes as a small-ball center alongside Murray-Boyles?