Barrett makes season debut for Raptors against Murray's Nuggets
Mississauga native missed most of pre-season, 3 regular season games due to shoulder injury
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RJ Barrett is back.
The 24-year-old Mississauga native was in the lineup for Monday’s Raptors home game against the Denver Nuggets after missing all but 14 minutes of the pre-season and the first three regular season games due to a shoulder injury.
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Barrett averaged a team-best 21.8 points along with 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists after being acquired from the New York Knicks last season. He had scored 14 quick points before running into a hard screen set by former Raptor Jonas Valanciunas in the exhibition opener in Montreal against the Washington Wizards.
Fellow starter Immanuel Quickley was not yet ready to return from his own injury. Barrett had travelled to Minnesota for Saturday’s game against the Timberwolves, but did not play. Quickley stayed in Toronto.
The next chance for Toronto to finally have all five of its regular starters will come on Wednesday in Charlotte, depending on how Quickley progresses. For Monday, Barrett pushed Ochai Agbaji back to the bench while Davion Mitchell again filled in for Quickley.
Toronto is also missing veterans Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown, while rookie Ja’Kobe Walter is just getting started with Raptors 905’s training camp after he missed Raptors camp due to the same injury as Barrett’s.
“He missed a lot of time, he missed all of those pre-season games, I think it’s very good for him to go through training camp with the 905,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic of Walter. “He is going to be obviously with us, but it’s also good for him to get connected with his teammates on the 905 team and for them to see how he practises, how his focus is, he is representing the Raptors on the team.
“905 and Raptors are one team, coaching staffs, they are interchangeable … We are one happy family and it’s very important for players to see that and feel that as well.”
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