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Just under an hour before typoff for Game 4, the first reports of Scottie Barnes being named NBA rookie of the year started to roll out.
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Barnes and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley were considered neck-and-neck frontrunners for the award with No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham in behind those two.
If Barnes had an edge over Mobley it was that he had finished the season healthy.
Mobley missed five critical games down the stretch as the Cavaliers dropped in the standings eventually winding up in the play-in tournament.
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Mobley sprained his ankle March 28 in a win over Orlando.
Barnes was right in the thick of the race before that injury, but having that crucial time in games and helping the Raptors rise to No. 5 in the East while voters were in their final deliberations just might have been the final push Barnes needed.
Drafted fourth overall behind Cunningham, Jalen Green of Houston and Mobley, Barnes from the very beginning of the season established himself as a Rookie of the Year candidate.
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He had the kind of platform necessary to make that run with the Raptors starting him and playing him extended minutes right from Game 1.
Barnes missed just eight games this season, his final absence coming Jan. 25 when he sat out a game with a swollen wrist. He played the remainder of the schedule until spraining his right foot when he was stepped on by Joel Embiid in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal.
Barnes was fifth on the team in scoring, averaging 15.3 points, and second in rebounds where he pulled down 7.8 a night. His 3.5 assists per night were third on the team behind Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam.
It was this ability to do a little of everything on the court that made him such a valuable commodity for head coach Nick Nurse.
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“He’s a well-rounded player and he does everything, everything above average,” Nurse said of Barnes on the eve of his first playoff appearance. “Handle, pass, block out, block shots, some of the offensive skills are still trending (upwards) to get to above average or way above average, but he does kind of tick the box for like every little thing to do in the game . That’s just kind of what we saw in him as a player. So I guess that is who he is.”
Barnes received 48 first-place votes to the 43 Mobley received.
The 15-point difference between the first- and second-place finishers marks the smallest margin in NBA Rookie of the Year balloting under the current voting format, which began with the 2002-03 season.
Barnes learned of the award Friday at practice when none other than Vince Carter broke the news via a video chat with all of the Raptors expecting a film breakdown.
Damon Stoudamire, the only other Raptor to ever win the award, also had a video message for the newest member to Toronto’s Rookie of the Year club.
