Raptors star RJ Barrett wants to stay with his hometown team but dollars could trump desire - Toronto Star

'Nothing will compare to playing here,” Barrett says of his first three years in Toronto.

RJ Barrett has averaged 20.5 points per game in 147 regular-season games with the Raptors, and 24.1 in seven playoff games.

QUEBEC—Just a couple of weeks before he realized his life’s dream of being a first-round NBA draft pick, RJ Barrett was mesmerized by Kawhi Leonard’s four-bounce, series-winning 2019 basket that has become the seminal shot in three decades of Raptors history.

“I was watching and jumping up and down,” he recalled this week.

All those years when the teenaged Barrett was building to that draft, forming a career that has earned him accolades and unimaginable riches and fame, he was a diehard fan of his local team, living and dying with its successes and failures, able to rattle off the lineup at the drop of a hat.

“I’ve been a Raptors fan my whole life,” he said.

One of the memorable statements in franchise history was when the iconic DeMar DeRozan vowed “I am Toronto.” But even that can’t match Barrett’s reality.

And that’s not going to change despite what could turn into a season-long conversation over the lack of a contract extension, what it means about being a free agent in July 2027, and concern about the 26-year-old’s future in Toronto.

Barnes and Leonard are like-minded in their vision: They ground their game on defence.