Mobley, Cade or Scottie Barnes, still hard to tell who’s best from 2021 NBA draft

The 2021 draft class has long been considered one of the most impressive to come along in years and time has only strengthened that argument.

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It was hard not to think about the group on Friday, when the Raptors hosted the Detroit Pistons, even though each team’s star player, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes and Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, didn’t suit up.

Cunningham, the first pick that year, has broken out in his healthiest season, leading the Pistons on their rise. He made his first all-star appearance along the way and is likely going to be named to an All-NBA team as well after averaging 25.7 points, 9.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds with the best shooting numbers of his career.

Evan Mobley, the Cleveland big man taken third overall could win defensive player of the year and at the least will make his second all-defensive team. He also made his first all-star appearance. Orlando’s Franz Wagner, who went eighth in the draft, has been a monster when healthy and would have made the all-star game had he not gone down. Jalen Green went second and has had some big-time scoring months for Houston, but clearly was taken too high, despite his immense talent.

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New Orleans wing Trey Murphy III (17th overall) also broke out and Houston’s Alperen Sengun, taken a pick earlier, has had another impressive season, with many touting him as the team’s best player. Chicago’s Josh Giddey (taken sixth) and Orlando’s Jalen Suggs (fifth) have also looked great at times, Suggs earlier on before he got hurt, Giddey down the stretch for the surging Bulls.

And then there’s Toronto’s Barnes. When Toronto moved up at the lottery from seventh to fourth, the team had to switch gears after being highly intrigued by Wagner, Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga (who went seventh to Golden State), in particular. They coveted Mobley, but when he went just before their pick, the Raptors were down to Barnes or Suggs. They made the right choice, with Barnes becoming the initial star of his class.

He won rookie of the year in a tight finish with Mobley and though he had a poor (by his standards) second season, he rebounded to become the first all-star from the class last season.

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Mobley and Barnes are clearly the best defenders from the class and if Barnes can improve his shooting, he could make a case for being head of the class once more one day, though Cunningham and Mobley won’t make that easy.

Cunningham leads the class in scoring and assists, Mobley in rebounds and blocks, Sengun is the advanced stats darling, and Murphy the best high-volume shooter. Barnes has played the most minutes, is third in rebounds and assists and fourth in scoring.

MORE RAPTORS-PISTONS TAKEAWAYS:

• It’s too bad it sounds like we won’t see Brandon Ingram on the court until training camp. Would have been nice to get a look — albeit a very brief one — at the team’s best offensive player alongside the rest of the core before a long summer. If the Raptors had locked in the team’s spots in the reverse standings a few weeks ago I suspect Ingram would have played a few games.

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The Raptors are banking on Ingram being able to avoid significant injuries moving forward and that his immense offensive talents will help unlock more from Barnes on that end of the floor.

• Maybe the maddest March Raptors stat: Since March 4 Jamison Battle leads the team in minutes played. Jamal Shead, Orlando Robinson and A.J. Lawson are 3, 4, 5. Barnes is second.

• The loss to Detroit was Toronto’s 50th of the season. It’s the 8th time in 30 seasons a Raptors team has reached that unfortunate number and the first time it’s happened in consecutive seasons since the first three years the franchise existed.

• Tim Hardaway Jr.’s last two games against the Raptors: 12-for-17 from three, 5-for-10 from two, resulting in two of his five highest-scoring games this season.

• Pistons giant Jalen Duren, who is somehow only 21, came two rebounds short of becoming the fifth player to get 20 rebounds in a game against the Raptors this season.

• San Antonio made a huge comeback against Cleveland, but fell by a point Friday. A Spurs win would have guaranteed the Raptors could not win more games than them this year. Still, Toronto would have to win its final four games and the Spurs would have to drop its final five for the teams to be tied with 32 wins, which would result in a coin flip to see who gets extra lottery balls. In other words, not happening. There’s still a small chance the Raptors will catch the Nets for the sixth-worst record, but don’t bet on it.

@WolstatSun

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