Top Raptors Stories of 2024: RJ Barrett beat the Knicks scout and outran OG Anunoby

Welcome to Raptors Republic’s new New Year tradition. As decided by you, the readers, it’s time to dive into the 10 most-most read editorials of the year at Raptors Republic. You can find the full top-10 list of released articles for 2024 (as each one is released) here.

I limited the list to editorials because news items and other pieces can often have more reads than columns. But these pieces — and I’m including post-game pieces — are the ones that take the most work, and in my eyes have the most value. So they’re the ones included in this list.

The year of 2024 has been one defined maybe most by change for the Toronto Raptors. Toronto traded OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa for Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett only two days before the year began. Then less than three weeks later, the Raptors traded Pascal Siakam away. A few weeks after that, the Raptors traded for Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk at the trade deadline. So 2024 began with major player movement, and much of Raptors Republic’s coverage to end the 2023-24 season reflected that. You’ll see a number of pieces covering those deals, or the impacts of them, on this list.

Then 2024-25 has largely been defined by an inability for Toronto to put all its new pieces on the floor at the same time. The presumptive starting lineup of Quickley – Gradey Dick – RJ Barrett – Scottie Barnes – Jakob Poeltl has played zero minutes together. Despite that, optimism has infused virtually every minute on the floor. Far more than would be expected for a team that is so far below .500. Stories of success and development abound — which also is reflected in our coverage, as well as on this list. It turns out, readers like the positive stories.

Without further ado, the No. 9 most-read story at Raptors Republic of 2024: “RJ Barrett beat the Knicks scout and outran OG Anunoby” by Samson Folk

Sit back and imagine OG Anunoby and all of his defensive talents. He’s one of the best defensive players in the league, and with the New York media bump he might actually get some significant hardware for his efforts. It’s a lot to think about, and if you’re playing across from him, a lot to contend with. Not only was RJ Barrett facing Anunoby as his primary defender, but a version of Anunoby that was equipped with the ultimate scout on Barrett, gifted to him by his former team and his former coaching staff. All that, and Barrett still found a way to drive the Raptors offense forward.

If you can recall Tyrese Haliburton’s 5-18 shooting performance against the Raptors, you should be able to remember how high Davion Mitchell pressed him, and how he consistently weaked him in screen coverage. Weaking, basically, is to deny the player any access to their strong hand, and to force them towards their weak one. Pretty simple. Pretty effective. Considering Barrett’s reputation to only be able to go one way (although, I believe that is overstated) one would think weaking would be an uber-effective strategy. So far this season, Barrett is still shooting better on his drives going right, for what it’s worth (1.031 ppp going right, .955 ppp going left, per synergy).

You can read the rest of the piece here. And tune in tomorrow for number eight!

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