Will Barton’s job was to try and help the sparse guard depth at the Raptors. He managed 13.2 minutes per game from the bench, acting as someone who would make the right play and try to revive a bench that was already dead. He’s been a career 35.5% 3-point shooter, so, of course, he performed worse for the Raptors. Heck, he even averaged 37.7% from deep earlier in the season with the Washington Wizards. In short, Barton’s signing didn’t help anything, but instead created more fury when it was announced that Jeff Dowtin Jr.’s two-way contract wouldn’t be converted. It felt like a ‘Will Barton over me’ moment (Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, wink wink) and Barton ended up featuring a whopping two minutes in the Play-In game against the Chicago Bulls. Whether that was a Nick Nurse thing, resenting all the ‘help’ he’d been received, no one will know. But Barton wasn’t the relief that the Raptors pursued, and it didn’t work.
Jennifer Barton: A Warning that Shouldn???t Have Been Ignored with Nearly 50 Years of Mystery | Case 21
On Sunday, May 16, 1976, in Austin, Texas, 20-year old Jennifer Barton had left home to hang out with a friend to go to…