With only a New Year’s Eve afternoon tilt against the defending champs to play, it seems safe to say the Raptors are set to close out the calendar year having won just 20 basketball games in 83 attempts, and just nine since the start of March. It’s been a real stinker of a year! Bungled goodbyes, untimely injuries, non-NBA players playing many NBA minutes and more untimely injuries have left much to be desired from the on-court product over the last 12 months.
In fact, it’s pretty inarguable that the best week of hoop this team strung together all year came in the first week of 2024, as the short-lived Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes, Jakob Poeltl version of the team went 3-1 before Jak got hurt and it was all downhill from there.
But just because a year stunk, doesn’t mean you skip handing out awards. The Oscars still handed out Best Picture to Crash that one time, and so how could a similarly established institution — this two-month old newsletter — abstain from awarding hardware to the best in Raptors hoops since the start of 2024?
Building upon today’s podcast, in which Vivek Jacob and I handed out some superlatives for the year in Raptors hoops, I bring you the 1st Annual Seanies to commemorate the things that didn’t suck from the past 12 months.
Player of the Year — RJ Barrett
To be clear, this is not a “best player” award, but rather a nod to the Raptors player who most defined the year. Scottie Barnes remains the best and most important player on the team, but he missed a ton of time. Meanwhile, Barrett is emblematic of the Raptors’ on-the-fly roster makeover. Once a throw-in to the OG Anunoby deal, Barrett’s led the team in scoring since arriving, and has completely transformed himself as an offensive player, ditching the ugly ball-holding elements of his game that dragged him down in New York and becoming a killer play-finisher on a team that needs ‘em.
It’s been a heartwarming homecoming for a guy who looks like he really wants to be here, and while his efficiency has tanked when Barnes has sat this season, Barrett’s asserted himself as a guy who can be a helpful second or third cog in the Raptors’ offensive machine.
The big question going into 2025 is the defense. It’s really bad. Whether he can improve to something closer to his 2020-21 level, or if the team can find ways to cover for his deficiencies is one of the storylines to watch through 2025.
Honorable Mention — Scottie Barnes, Gradey Dick
Best Game — Raptors 131 vs. Kings 128, November 2nd
Not a ton to say here. Vince Carter retirement night, nostalgia, dunk montages, tears, memes, RJ Barrett going toe-to-toe with DeMar DeRozan down the stretch, and 5% of the team’s year-long win total all packed into one celebratory night. Though it’d be great if the Raptors could top it some time in the next few months, Vince Night probably goes down as the high-point of the 2024-25 season.
A quick shout to our honorable mention — the double OT loss to OKC in early February that very nearly nudged out our winner. Yeah, the Raptors lost, but if you’re someone hoping and dreaming on what the BBQ + Poeltl core of this team is capable of, nearly toppling the Thunder juggernaut is a game to cherish. It also featured arguably the low-point of the Scottie Barnes-at-the-wheel era as he deferred down the stretch and walked off the court early — a moment he seemed to use as fuel for a summer spent working on his communication and leadership. Let’s hope we see the main dudes back in action together some time before 2025 is out.
Honorable Mention — Raptors 127 @ Thunder 135 (2OT), February 4th
Best Dunk — Bruno Fernando on Giannis
Toronto’s contributions to NBA Cup lore through two years have been... minimal at best. But Bruno Fernando’s yam in the Cup opener in Milwaukee this year should stand as an all-time Cup cut.
Per the NBA’s very scientific dunk scoring system, this is the eigth-best dunk thrown down in the league so far this year. Guarantee Bruno’s contract on this basis alone, I say.
Honorable Mention — RJ Barrett vs. the Thunder; Ochai Agbaji vs. Jakob Poeltl
Happiest Goodbye — Jordan Nwora
And we wrap up The Seanies with the most important award: which Guy who we said goodbye to in the past year made us lose the least sleep upon his departure.
The Raptors offered us a great bounty of random ass dudes this year, with THIRTY different players suiting up in the 2023-24 season alone, 14 of whom are currently not in the NBA by my rough count, one of whom is about to go to prison.
The thing with being A Guy Worth Remembering for good or bad reasons is you need to be at least sort of notable for one reason or another. Your Kobi Simmons, Jahmi’us Ramsey, Markquis Nowell, Kira Lewis Jr., Mouhamadou Gueye, Malik Williams tier of players don’t have the juice to achieve Guydom. Jontay Porter’s crimes were kind of a huge bummer, so his candidacy for this award was not really considered.
Meanwhile, Jordan Nwora goes down as maybe the single-least enjoyable player I can recall watching play for the Raptors. He’s a former NBA champion, a returnee in the Pascal Siakam trade, got into the 11th-most games of anyone on the roster (34), and was a complete and utter disaster in like 31 of them.
May we never see his like again.
Honorable Mentions — Malachi Flynn in his pre-50 point game era, Otto Porter Jr., Javon Freeman-Liberty
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Today on the podcast, Vivek Jacob and I ran through our biggest takeaways from the year that was, as well as the best and worst things, and our biggest surprises and disappointments. Happy New Year!
