Change is inevitable. But change is also hard. Whether it’s changing your diet, your car, your house, your job, or the city you live in — it’s a grueling, uncomfortable, and oftentimes emotional process.

The Raptors have endured a lot of change this past year. They said goodbye to their All-Star point guard Fred VanVleet in July. Six months later they traded their all-defensive wing and fan-favorite OG Anunoby to the Knicks and three weeks after that, said goodbye to their franchise cornerstone of the last five seasons, Pascal Siakam. The trading of Siakam, one of the best stories in NBA history, and the example of the Raptors development program over the last decade, marked the end of the most successful era in franchise history for Toronto.

You could feel that conclusion, weighing on long-time Raptors President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri as he entered the media room at OVO Athletic Centre.

“Pascal’s success is my success. None of you know Pascal as much as I knew him,” said Ujiri a day after trading Siakam, who he had seen grow into a man through his eight years with the Raptors.

In that hour-long press conference, Ujiri cried, he laughed, he joked, he clawed at his face contemplating the decisions he’s made over the last few years, and in a sort of confessional type of way, was the most honest and transparent he’s ever been when it comes to the missteps the Raptors organization had taken post-2019 championship to lead them to this point.

At the same time, he was excited.

His smile showed the relief he felt to be rid of the drama and uncertainty that loomed over this Raptors organization for the last two seasons and his enthusiasm showed when talking about building a new future, one that centers around a younger face-of-the-franchise in Scottie Barnes.

The tug-and-pull of change is like an emotional seesaw that you keep battling internally — hoping to find a sort of balance between closure and excitement. Ujiri was teetering on that seesaw in real-time yesterday, swaying from sad to happy and every emotion in between.

But the NBA world moves too quickly to ever stay in one emotional state. Or to ever be too down or too high. There’s still work to be done, especially on Ujiri’s part to return this Raptors franchise to the winning ways it grew accustomed to over the last 10 years — and that starts with building around their 22-year-old phenom Barnes — who is having a break-out season of sorts as the team has shifted their on-court focus to further develop his skillset.

“Scottie had a level year last year,” said Ujiri when I asked him about the way he wants to build around Barnes. “I wish I could have predicted this jump. I’ve always believed in him. And his jump has been a good learning experience for me. Because I feel there are many things that you can put around around him. But some of those things are sometimes difficult to project in our business, and we try our best to project them the best way we can.”

The opportunities that lie ahead for Barnes and Ujiri are endless. Scottie’s skill set as this long, rangy forward with an incredible basketball intellect, cerebral playmaking, defensive acumen, and an improving scoring and shooting ability makes for a wholly unique player to build around.

“Shooting. Athletic players. Players with basketball IQ. Young players,” Ujiri told the media when asked about the ideal types of players to surround Barnes with. “We have to start building spacing. Those kinds of things are going to be important but overall, we have to surround talent. We have to go and find those fits.”

Even with all the moving parts and the fit being less than ideal, Barnes, in his 3rd season, is averaging career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, and maybe most astonishingly, 3-point percentage where he’s knocking down 37% of his nearly six attempts a game with half of the season in the books. He’s become one of the most efficient and prolific fourth-quarter scorers in the league this season, willing the Raptors to comebacks or providing the final daggers in wins. His off-ball defense has been astonishing at times and his on-ball tenacity always shines when taking on the challenge of guarding the best players on the opposing team, which shows in the numbers too, averaging a career-high in steals and blocks this season. Because of all of this, Barnes has thrust himself into the most-improved conversation and the All-Star conversation — and that seems to be only the beginning.

You see as the Raptors have been going through their changes, so has Barnes, morphing and metastasizing into something new — a potential 2-way superstar.

“Scottie is a dawg,” said newly acquired Raptor Bruce Brown after his first game playing alongside Barnes. “He’s a top tier superstar in this league. He can get anywhere he wants and guard one-through-five, so he’s a top-tier superstar for sure.”

“Since some changes have been made, guarding those best players takes a lot of energy,” Barnes told me after Thursday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls — a game where he put up a whopping 31 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. “Just trying to find the energy to play both sides. I feel like I’m ready for it and I’m taking on the challenge every single game.”

While Barnes might think he’s ready and up for the task, there’s more to becoming the face of the franchise than putting up dominant numbers. And both Ujiri and Head Coach Darko Rajakovic have preached patience in the last few days when it comes to Barnes assuming Siakam’s mantle.

“I don’t know if he’s ready for that responsibility,” Ujiri told the media about Barnes in his press conference. “But we have to put him in position. That’s our job. We have to put him in a position to at least grow and start to see dividends of the work he’s putting in to become that kind of player.”

“I think he’s the face of the franchise,” said Rajakovic after Barnes’s stellar outing against the Bulls. “But at the same time, he’s 22. And the learning curve is never going to be just uphill. There’s going to be ups and downs. There are going be moments that you’re looking at him and thinking that he’s a prodigy and there’s going to be nights where it’s like ‘what are you doing’ although that is a part of learning and getting better.”

Ironically, that isn’t too far off from the evolutionary process Siakam had to go through once he became the ‘face of the franchise’ post-2019 title and there’s a lot that goes into it. Being the face of anything requires a level of responsibility. You have to become a leader, both on and off the court. You have to be able to face the music when the team struggles and you will probably receive a chunk of the credit when the team thrives. You have to be comfortable speaking to the media, directing your teammates and leading by example. All areas that Barnes, as a younger player, surely has to grow in.

“I think Scottie has a lot of leadership traits, that most times a 22 year old doesn’t have,” said Rajakovic. “I think all of those are going to slowly start coming out.”

Siakam’s absence leaves a void on the team that Barnes will have to grow to fill. It won’t happen overnight. But all the things are in place for it to eventually happen, both from an on-court perspective and off of it.

“He talks to me about winning, which makes my job easier,” said Ujiri. “That’s his mindset. You see the approach in the fourth quarter, you see the approach in the game. You see how he plays with his teammates and makes winning plays. It makes life easier on us.”

And it makes dealing with change easier too. It’s always more comforting to know that there’s something good waiting for you on the other side of any major decision. And that good is Barnes for the Raptors.

And while that is an immense amount of pressure — to be the beacon of light to guide a franchise following its most successful era — it hasn’t gotten to Barnes.

“I don’t feel any pressure,” Barnes told the media on Wednesday after hearing of the Siakam trade. “I think we already knew that. We already discussed that and it was already out there. So yeah, no pressure, no nothing. Come every day to try to win and play the best basketball we can play.”

Barnes remaining even-keeled is impressive given how much turmoil the Raptors have gone through over the last year. Roster turnover isn’t easy — especially when you’ve grown attached to the personalities that made up the foundation for which that culture was represented.

And that’s why change is so hard. Because we become comfortable with what is established.

It’s as if there’s an unease and level of uncertainty that lies underneath the surface of our excitement and yearning for change. Even if we’re confident in what lies ahead for us, like the Raptors are with Barnes, in the backs of our brains, a tiny little voice whispers “Are you sure this is the right call?” and you have no way of possibly knowing the answer.