{"id":113188,"date":"2024-12-19T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=113188"},"modified":"2024-12-19T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T16:32:00","slug":"raptors-injury-scottie-barnes-nearing-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/19\/raptors-injury-scottie-barnes-nearing-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury-Plagued Raptors Playmaker Nearing His Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Raptors haven\u2019t had much luck with injuries in the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>However, the most recent update on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barnesc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scottie Barnes<\/a>\u2019s sprained right ankle is as fortunate as it could be. While initially <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/11\/scottie-barnes-avoids-the-worst\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">ruled out for multiple weeks<\/a>, he\u2019s \u201cbeen cleared for contact and was a full participant in practice (Wednesday), per Toronto Sun reporter Josh Lewenberg. The 23-year-old may even have his status upgraded from <em>out<\/em> to <em>questionable<\/em> (bypassing <em>doubtful<\/em>) for Thursday\u2019s game against the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n<h2>Injury-Plagued Raptors Playmaker Scottie Barnes Nearing His Return<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so happy that (the injury) wasn\u2019t as serious as I thought it was going to be,\u201d the All-Star says.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Barnes has been cleared for contact and was a full participant in practice today. He\u2019ll be back soon, if not tomorrow. He said the ankle is feeling solid after the initial scare last week. \u201cI\u2019m so happy that it wasn\u2019t as serious as I thought it was going to be.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FXc0BcccVN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/FXc0BcccVN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JLew1050\/status\/1869454705077952543?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Barnes has played in just 14 of the team\u2019s 27 games this season. This is primarily due to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/05\/scottie-barnes-injury-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a fractured orbital bone<\/a> that he sustained in October, which caused him to miss 11 games. Since then, he\u2019s been wearing a pair of gnarly red goggles that are almost as vibrant as his personality.<\/p>\n<p>Barnes\u2019s most recent injury likely won\u2019t lead to him changing his sportswear, as he\u2019s already wearing a brace. Nonetheless, he (and the Raptors) could still take extra precautions to ensure he makes it through 2024-25 healthy. To that point, after missing just 15 games in his first two seasons (playoffs included), Barnes has been sidelined for 35 games and counting the last seasons.<\/p>\n<h3>Tank Or Fight?<\/h3>\n<p>With a 7-20 record, Toronto may be bound for the lottery. Not only has Barnes missed about half of the season, projected starter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/q\/quickim01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Immanuel Quickley<\/a> has been out for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/13\/raptors-immanuel-quickley-injury\/\" target=\"_self\">all but three games<\/a> due to an elbow injury. This has led to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barrerj01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RJ Barrett<\/a> having to be the team\u2019s first <em>and<\/em> second option on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n<p>To his credit, Barrett has performed admirably. He\u2019s slashing and cashing, averaging 23.5 points and 6.1 assists per game on 45.5 percent shooting from the field. However, he doesn\u2019t have enough help without Barnes and Quickley, even with 2023 No. 13 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dickgr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gradey Dick<\/a> taking his play up a notch. If the Raptors want to turn their season around, they\u2019ll need at least two-thirds of their Big 3 healthy.<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, there\u2019s no guarantee that Toronto wants to fight for a playoff spot. They\u2019re still capable of clinching a postseason berth, especially with the advent of the Play-In Tournament. Yet, the top prospects in the 2025 NBA Draft class look stronger than last year\u2019s crop. The Raptors\u2019 need to add outside shooting could put several of those players in their crosshairs.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, head coach Darko Rajakovic has <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/06\/future-bright-darko-rajakovic-raptors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">instilled a tough-minded attitude<\/a> in his team. Similar to the most popular rapper to come out of Canada, Toronto doesn\u2019t back down from stiff competition. Though the odds are stacked against them, they\u2019re unlikely to throw in the towel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Raptors haven\u2019t had much luck with injuries in the past two seasons. However, the most recent update on Scottie Barnes\u2019s sprained right ankle is as fortunate as it could be. While initially ruled out for multiple weeks, he\u2019s \u201cbeen cleared for contact and was a full participant in practice (Wednesday), per Toronto Sun [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":113205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1608,6,62,556,3],"tags":[3178,98,4745,596,1964,3852],"class_list":["post-113188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raptors","category-basketball","category-nets","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","tag-immanuel-quickley","tag-nba-draft","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-rj-barrett","tag-scottie-barnes"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113206,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113188\/revisions\/113206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}