After the news of Jamal Shead being nominated for Rookie of the Month, two more Raptors joined him in being nominated for an award in their field. Scottie Barnes was nominated for the Defensive Player of the Month, and Darko Rajakovic was nominated for Coach of the Month.
Dyson Daniels (Atlanta) brought home the Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month. He was tailed by OG Anunoby (New York), Evan Mobley (Cleveland) and of course, Scottie Barnes.
As for Coach of the Month, Boston’s 14-1 stretch was more than enough to earn Joe Mazzulla the honours, and he was chased by Kenny Atkinson (Cleveland), Rick Carlisle (Indiana), Billy Donovan (Chicago), Quin Snyder (Atlanta)and Darko Rajakovic.
Barnes has had an up-and-down season on the offensive end, and March was no different, but what has been consistent is his effort on defence. He averaged 1.6 steals per game along with 0.8 blocks per game while reeling in 7.6 rebounds. None of those are season highs by any means, but what’s apparent is his willingness to take on a challenge of guarding opposing teams’ best players, and the increase in effort on defence has been noticeable over the games in March.
As for Darko Rajakovic, it’s no surprise he’s been nominated for Coach of the Month. Two of his players were just nominated for an award this month, and Toronto enjoyed their best stretch of basketball by going 10-5 in March. That’s only their second winning month in the 2024/25 season as they also posted an 8-7 month back in January. It has been a stretch of much easier opponents for the Raptors in March, but they’ve tried their hand at limiting wins with resting key players. It’s also fitting that Barnes received a nomination for Defensive Player of the Month, as that is a big part of the team’s turnaround after being one of the worst defences in the league before the turn of the new calendar year.
Two more Raptors join Shead in nominations for awards.
