NBA: Power ranking the 30 projected starting small forwards on each team

The wing position in the NBA is still deeply strong.
2024 NBA Finals - Game Five
2024 NBA Finals - Game Five / Elsa/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
17 of 30
Next

14. RJ Barrett, Toronto Raptors

After a polarizing start to his career, RJ Barrett was playing some of the best basketball of his career after being traded to the Toronto Raptors just before this past year's NBA Trade Deadline. Barrett was more efficient, more comfortable, and perhaps most importantly more confident during his time with the Raptors compared to the first few years of his career in New York. It was only a 32-game sample size but Barrett had a great start to his tenure with the Raptors. The big question revolves around whether he can continue to build off of that heading into next season.

Ideally, Barrett would be able to continue to make the star jump in his progression and emerge as just the player the Raptors need as they look to build around Scottie Barnes. Because of how good he looked down the stretch and due to his potential, I believe Barrett has an outside chance to emerge as a top-10 starting small forward this season.

For now, he settles in at No. 14. However, by the end of this season, Barrett could find himself much higher on this ranking.