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It’s unimaginable to take your eyes off Scottie Barnes proper now.
In any given Toronto Raptors recreation, he’s irrepressible, a gale-force wind sweeping throughout each basketball motion on each ends. That is, after all, a welcome palate cleanser after hitting a second season plateau final yr that threw some doubt on the preliminary promise he displayed because the 2021-22 Rookie of the 12 months.
Via seven video games, Barnes is averaging career-highs in factors, rebounds, assists, blocks, threes made, area purpose proportion and three-point proportion. He’s beginning to make the 20-10-5-1-1 stat strains really feel acquainted. The primary two weeks of the season are too small a pattern measurement to anoint a brand new star within the league, nevertheless it’s actually sufficient time to sage a room. Simply within the final week, Barnes hit step-back threes over Giannis Antetokounmpo and within the clutch in opposition to the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, I believe Scottie Barnes is again.
It appears one of many best vibe shifts on this yr’s locker room is the presence of first-year head coach Darko Rajakovic, who has espoused the tenets of ball motion and participant motion versus the crew’s mismatch-hunting, isolation-heavy system beneath Nick Nurse final season. (Nurse’s Philadelphia 76ers have been superior, however there have been indicators he was beginning to lose the room by the point he was out in Toronto.) This new system hasn’t been an ideal answer to what ails the Raptors, who’re nonetheless simply 3-4 with a bottom-five offense within the NBA. Pascal Siakam, for instance, has been relegated to a much less focal and doubtless much less optimum floor-spacing function. Off-ball movement seems like a pleasant and egalitarian precept to have in your offense, however that movement hasn’t constantly generated halfcourt benefits nor does it remedy for roster building points similar to a near-total lack of level guards and three-point shooters.
However and by far, essentially the most important choice that Rajakovic has made is to empower Barnes with the ball in his arms. That’s why some of these items, not less than when it comes to pure quantity, seems to be sustainable. He has the very best utilization on the crew, which might even be the very best of his profession. If Barnes can proceed to play this nicely — if that is simply who he’s now — that glosses over each different concern within the short-term. Going into the season, there was most likely some cheap doubt available about whether or not he may shoulder the burdens of main creation over, say, a middle-of-the-floor connector function. Was his deal with tight sufficient? Might he constantly create separation? Will he make sufficient pictures to maintain the protection trustworthy?
To this point, Barnes is hitting jumpers from each space of the ground — 13 of 19 (68.4 p.c) on pull-up twos, 4 of 10 (40.0 p.c) on pull-up threes and 16 of 36 (42.1 p.c) of threes general — and attacking the paint with sufficient power to bully the league’s preeminent bully-baller. He’s been assertive with out changing into overaggressive within the stream of Rajakovic’s drive-kick-swing offense, which requires ‘0.5 second’ choices with the ball. This method, in addition to a sizzling begin to the season from Dennis Schröder, eases a few of these questions on whether or not or not Barnes can operate as a real level guard, whereas nonetheless permitting him to faucet into his ebullient artistic energies as a passer. It’s most likely sensible to anticipate some regression to these numbers, and he nonetheless has to get these turnovers beneath management, but when he continues to make off-the-bounce threes with any type of consistency — and he’s taking them confidently — then that redefines the chances for Barnes as a lead playmaker.
The remaining is there. Perhaps it simply feels good to see the shot entering into, nevertheless it simply looks like Barnes is enjoying with a lot vitality proper now — and for a participant like him, that makes all of the distinction, as a result of the concept is that he is usually a participant that does a bit little bit of every thing. Actually, that’s what we’re seeing.
Even when he doesn’t have the ball in his arms, he’s giving full go in different points of the sport, crashing the glass and flying throughout the open court docket. At his greatest, it looks like he’s making it up as he goes. We’re seeing newfound promise from Barnes as a weak-side shot-blocker, and his size has all the time lent itself to defensive playmaking. His capability to protect in opposition to smaller and quicker gamers, who can reap the benefits of his sluggish lateral motion and stiff hips, is a priority. However he can swap one via 5 and appears higher outdoors of Nurse’s hyper-aggressive perimeter scheme. As issues stand, Rajakovic is already giving the promote on Barnes as a future Defensive Participant of the 12 months.
Actually, this goes again to the principle factor with Rajakovic: The temper simply feels lighter. The on-court product hasn’t been good, actually, nevertheless it feels just like the gamers are working arduous and making an attempt to play for one another. That seems like fluff, nevertheless it’s important that Siakam hasn’t groused about having fewer shot makes an attempt or any notions of hierarchy, regardless that he’s an All-NBA season away from super-max eligibility. Hell, with that a lot cash on the road, I might discover it arduous to carry it in opposition to him even when he had been hijacking the offense to power his personal pictures up. The perfect model of the Raptors offense most likely includes Siakam taking a number of extra pictures than this anyway, nevertheless it goes a good distance in direction of making this Barnes ascent doable that Siakam is down for the trigger.
Within the grand scheme, a Barnes ascent adjustments every thing. It validates the entrance workplace’s stance that he’s “untouchable” in trades for multi-time All-NBAers, and it offers you a viable team-building path ahead.
The Raptors have been maybe mismanaged since their 2019 championship, watching most of their crew go away for nothing. Kawhi Leonard left as a free agent that summer time, Kyle Lowry in a sign-and-trade two years later, and Fred VanVleet as a free agent this previous summer time, whereas the Raptors have as an alternative despatched property out for gamers similar to Jakob Poeltl and Thaddeus Younger. There’s intensifying scrutiny on what occurs with Siakam, OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr., every of whom can turn out to be free brokers after this season.
Hitting on Barnes, the No. 4 choose in 2021, isn’t going to replenish the asset inventory by itself, however it could wash away a few of the aftertaste. It’s a worthwhile train to make every thing about him this yr, to see if he will be this man for actual and The Man of their future. Up to now, the early returns have been blessed.
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