November pain: Raps face brutal stretch without Barnes

The Toronto Raptors' season is only a week old, but with All-Star forward Scottie Barnes sidelined for at least three weeks with a right orbital fracture, fans should brace themselves for a long November.

Barnes' injury takes the wind out of the sails of a young team that's looked surprisingly competitive over its last three games - a home win over the equally banged-up 76ers, a hard-fought loss to the Timberwolves in Minnesota, and an overtime loss to Nikola Jokic's Nuggets. It also moves the Raptors' target date for finally reaching full strength to nearly the quarter-season mark.

While Barnes, sophomore swingman Gradey Dick, and starting center Jakob Poeltl suited up for the first four regular-season games, the Raps have been far from whole. RJ Barrett made his season debut in Monday's loss to Denver after missing time because of a sprained shoulder suffered in Toronto's preseason opener. Immanuel Quickley has yet to return from a pelvic bruise sustained in the second quarter of the season-opening loss to the Cavaliers. Injured rookie Ja'Kobe Walter and veterans Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown have watched every regular-season game in street clothes (and, in the latter case, a cowboy hat) from the sidelines.

More than half of head coach Darko Rajakovic's projected rotation has already missed time. Toronto's presumed starting lineup - Quickley, Dick, Barrett, Barnes, and Poeltl - hasn't shared the court at all this season. Dating back to last year, that quintet's logged a grand total of four minutes together.

As a big, athletic forward, Barnes is in the mold of a durable star. His recent injuries aren't the concerning, long-term type; they've resulted from freak occurrences like an elbow to the eye or an accidental kick to the hand. But between this season's orbital fracture and a broken finger last March, the 23-year-old will get to late November having missed 33 of his team's last 37 games. Even for a rebuilding Raptors squad with a season-long eye on the draft lottery, it's imperative to get Barnes as many minutes as possible in his new role as the franchise's go-to guy and lots of experience playing with other core members of the rebuild like Dick, Quickley, Barrett, and this season's rookies.

Perhaps one silver lining of the Raptors' latest injury setback is that those rookies - who have acclimated themselves surprisingly well - will continue getting development opportunities in meaningful situations rather than garbage time. Then again, most of Toronto's minutes over the next three Barnes-less weeks might constitute garbage time. One look at the Raptors' upcoming schedule tells you things are about to get ugly. Even with Barnes in the lineup, the Raptors might've been favored in just one of the 11 games before he's re-evaluated (hint: it's the one against the Pistons).

Though no one wants to see Barnes sidelined, some Raptors fans will find solace in the fact this development should boost the team's lottery odds. Perhaps it's possible to catch projected cellar dwellers like the Nets, Wizards, and Trailblazers in the season-long race to the bottom. However, it might be tough to keep that potential advantage in perspective as the short-term losses pile up.

It's going to be a brutal few weeks for the Raptors. They can only hope the development time - and the lottery payoff - will be worth it in the long run.

Joseph Casciaro is theScore's lead Raptors and NBA reporter.