Raptors, Barnes get lots of praise from rival GMs in NBA survey

Rival NBA general managers are big fans of the Toronto Raptors heading into the 2026-27 season.

In NBA.com’s annual survey of league bosses, conducting by John Schuhmann, Toronto seemingly got more respect than at any point in the 25-year history of the survey. Rising star Scottie Barnes and youngsters Collin Murray-Boyles and rookie Allen Graves are clearly highly regarded by executives league-wide. Obviously Kawhi Leonard remains in that category too.

Barnes received the third-most votes for most versatile defender in the NBA behind San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama (the French phenom ran away with the survey, dominating many categories including player to build around) and Houston’s Amen Thompson. Wembanyama got 30% of the votes, Thompson 17%, Barnes 13% (ex-Raptor OG Anunoby got 10%, along with Bam Adebayo.

More impressively, while Wembanyama was the pick of 57% of the GMs for most versatile overall player, Barnes was next at 17%, ahead of Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who have a full handful of MVP award wins between them.

Coming off his best season yet, Barnes also got honourable mention treatment for best small forward in the NBA and player most likely to have a breakout season.

The Klaw still rates

Leonard got 17% of the votes as best small forward, behind Luka Doncic (37%), who is rarely considered a small forward given he mostly plays guard, and Jayson Tatum (33%). The Leonard trade tied for third with LeBron James joining the Philadelphia 76ers as most impactful off-season move, behind Antetokounmpo to Miami (53% of the votes) and Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia. The Leonard pickup also earned honourable mention votes as most underrated acquisition (Tobias Harris to San Antonio and Mitchell Robinson to Boston were surprisingly the top picks).

Young Raptors get praise

One of the most surprising results of the survey, which was 48 questions long, was Graves getting 10% of the vote for biggest draft steal. That tied the 19th overall selection with Labaron Philon (22nd overall and a player this scribe thought the Raptors would consider) and 34th pick Maleek Thomas of Cleveland. Milwaukee’s Brayden Burries, taken 10th, got 30% of the vote.

Big man Collin Murray-Boyles trailed only Spurs star in waiting Dylan Harper (27% of the vote) as most likely breakout player. Murray-Boyles actually tied with more established players Cason Wallace and Amen Thompson, and last year’s top pick, Cooper Flagg, in the category.

What else

Canadian superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander earned 67% of the votes for best point guard and was near the top in several other parts of the survey.

Wembanyama was the pick of 77% of the GMs to win MVP, and whereas Jokic got 97% of the votes as best centre last year, he was down to 37% with Wembanyama getting 63%.

Memphis big man Cameron Boozer got 50% of the votes for rookie of the year, a mild surprise considering he went behind Washington’s AJ Dybantsa and Utah’s Darryn Peterson (Chicago’s Caleb Wilson, the fourth pick, was also ahead of those two).

The Spurs were the choice of 50% to win the title, with 2024-25 champions Oklahoma City at 43% (they were picked yb 80% to repeat last year). Only New York and Philadelphia got any other votes as potential champions.

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