There may be no bigger fan of Scottie Barnes than Darko Rajakovic.
The Toronto Raptors head coach recently sat down for an interview in his native Serbia, during which he likened the franchise star to one of the all-time greats.
"I think there is no coach and there is no success for a coach without players," the bench boss — about to enter his fourth season holding the clipboard in Toronto — began explaining in Serbian. "You look at all our greatest coaches, who are fantastic ... they all became great coaches by taking care of the players, and I think that's on every level ... there's no Phil Jackson without Michael Jordan. My Michael Jordan is Scottie Barnes."
While it may seem like uber-high praise for the 24-year-old, it comes on the heels of a breakout playoff showing. Barnes averaged 24.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 1.1 steals, 1.7 blocks and 39 minutes through the Raptors' seven-game first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The two-time all-star ranked ninth in scoring, second in assists and fifth in blocks per game during the playoffs. He was also one of just eight players to average at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, and the lone post-season performer to do so while also averaging a steal and a block.
Rajakovic's comments continued a trend of the head coach publicly backing Barnes.
His recent praise for the Raptors cornerstone player was prompted by a question about his infamous rant after a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2024, when a furious Rajakovic criticized the referees while also sticking up for Barnes.
Between describing the officiating as "outrageous" and "complete B.S.," he made sure to mention that "Scottie Barnes is going to be (an) all-star. He's going to be the face of this league."
Barnes seems well on his way to living up to his coach's proclamation, after putting up regular-season averages of 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.4 steals, 1.5 blocks and 33.5 minutes through a career-high 80 appearances last year. Barnes wound up as the only player in the NBA to rack up at least 100 steals and 100 blocks en route to finishing fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting and earning his first all-defensive selection.
The former fourth overall pick then led the Raptors to their first 40-plus-win season (46-36) since 2023 and ended a four-year playoff drought in the process.
Now Barnes stands to form a terrorizing tandem with seven-time all-star Kawhi Leonard, should a proposed trade with the Los Angeles Clippers, in exchange for Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, go through by the time NBA action resumes in October. If the deal is completed, pending an ongoing investigation by the league into alleged salary cap circumvention, and Leonard rejoins the franchise he helped lead to a title in 2019, he and Barnes will immediately form one of the better two-way duos not just in the Eastern Conference but the league as a whole.
It's a prospect Rajakovic has surely thought plenty about.
But regardless of who ends up on the roster around Barnes, the Raptors head coach is confident the star forward will make the fit as seamless as possible because of his affable demeanour.
"That's one fantastic person. A young guy with a big heart. A great worker," Rajakovic said. "I am also very grateful for him ... He is one of the very rare players throughout the NBA ... a franchise player ... Who wants to, whose priority is defence ... and that makes my job much easier."
