Raptors adding Will Barton for stretch run

After an offseason trade from the Denver Nuggets, Will Barton had a rough time in his first season in Washington. He averaged 7.7 points per game, his lowest since his second season in 2013-14. He fell out of the Wizards rotation at midseason, in part because of a perplexing inability to hit two-pointers — a career-low 39.5 percent.

Barton brings two important things to the Raptors. First, his three-point stroke hasn't left him, as he made 38 percent of his shot behind the arc this year. He also has 22 games of playoff experience since 2019 with the Nuggets, which is valuable for head coach Nick Nurse, who hasn't been able to trust a lot of his bench players this season.

There's a reason Pascal Siakam is leading the league in minutes per game, Fred VanVleet is fourth and OG Anunoby is 13th. A fourth starter, Scottie Barnes, is 23rd. Aside from the recently acquired Jakob Poeltl, Toronto has struggled to get positive or even neutral minutes from their bench players. With four starters averaging more than 35 minutes per game, the team is in danger of getting exhausted before the playoffs even start.

Barton gives Toronto a wing option that should, if nothing else, be competent. He'll make open threes, he won't make blatant mistakes, and he can talk with Thaddeus Young about being alive in the mid-'90s.

To make room for Barton, Toronto waived actor/forward Juancho Hernangomez, whose role as basketball phenom Bo Cruz in the Netflix hit "Hustle" didn't translate to phenomenal play off-screen.