Raptors Fans Finally Get Some Good News As Scottie Barnes Narrowly Wins The 2021-22 Rookie Of The Year

Mark Blinch. Getty Images.

Lord knows Raptors fans could use some good news right now as they stare down an 0-3 hole with Game 4 this afternoon. Try and ignore the fact that Scott Foster and Ed Malloy will be working that game and focus on the positives right now. The ROY race was fascinating to watch all year long because of how close it managed to be from October until April. There was no unanimous consensus like we sometimes see, there were 3-4 guys that had legit cases. Evan Mobley got off to a great start early, he was a main piece on a surprise Cavs team that spent much of the year as a top 4 seed. Slowly but surely there was Scottie Barnes, another guy who was a Day 1 impact player for a Raptors team that came on strong after a slow start. Then let's not forget about Cade Cunningham who had a brutal start to his season and also had to fight the reality of his team being mostly dogshit, but even they were pretty good over the last half of the year in large part because of how Cade played. 

In my opinion you really couldn't go wrong with any of the top 3 guys (Mobley/Barnes/Cade), they all had awesome years and look like players that are going to be really really good for a very long time. In the end, this is how the voting shook out

The 3 man race turned out to be more of a 2 guy race but that's OK. Remember, all this stuff was voted on before the playoffs, so it's not like the Cavs choking hurt Mobley the same way the Raptors getting dog walked by the Sixers had no impact on Barnes' case. With a final tally of 378 to 363, it's hard to get much closer than that

and while I know there are probably Cavs fans that feel a little robbed today given how their guy was talked about being the favorite all year, let's not pretend like Barnes isn't wildly deserving

I'd even go so far to say that Barnes is the Raptors' best player, even if they haven't fully realized it yet. My guess is by this time next year, that will be the general consensus. Siakam is fine, FVV had gigantic balls who seems to be made for the big moments, but Barnes is their best all around player for my money.

and if you needed even more good news today as a Raptors fan, it looks like he's good to go for Game 4

What makes Barnes so devastating isn't just his size or his length, but it's also his motor. He's listed at 6'9 but when you see him play he looks gigantic, and when the Raptors play him as a small ball five, if you have a traditional big on the floor Barnes is going to run him to the ground. He has the versatility to play on the wing in certain lineups, and just imagine what things look like once he develops his outside shot. Barnes shot just 30% this year on 2.6 3PA, but you have to think that's going to drastically improve. He's only 20 years old! 

Who knows, maybe this award and his return today mixed with some Scott Foster and Ed Malloy magic can extend this series to a Game 5. It sucks we were robbed of a healthy Scottie Barnes to start this series, but here's to hoping the ROY is able to make an immediate impact and we can have ourselves a competitive series.