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I live in Canada so I watch a lot of Raptors ball since it is pretty much forcefed to us Canadians. So I usually hope for them to do well. How good of a player would you expect for him to be for them as the sixth man? How good is the defense, offense, etc and describe the type of game he plays. He will probably get a lot of minutes as a Raptor since they have jack and calderon who aren't that great and Derozan starting at the shooting guard spot. So any input on the guy?

He's great on offense, but defense.....eh.....not so much. My biggest problem with Barbosa is when he cuts to the basket, he leaves his head down. So from there he either misses the lay-up or bulldozes over the defender and gets the charge call. Head down = out of control. But he is quick as hell and can hit the open 3.

Not bad when he's playing next to a ball-dominant pass-first PG like Steve Nash and given 6th man minutes (tight parameters, I know). Tends to try and do too much offensively when he plays next to PG's who likes to give the ball up to other ball handlers like Dragic. Pretty much he needs to be strictly controlled offensively because when he has the ball in his hands and is forced to create, you just want to close your eyes and hope for the best. He's a pretty good ball-handling even under pressure but he does lack advanced moves to create separation in the perimeter so he is limited to spot up shooting or driving to the hoop. Even though he's a 6th man, he plays his best with the starting unit so he has offensive outlets he can pass to.

Defensively, he's as he's always been, terrible. Very long arms and pretty good lateral quickness, but just not good enough basketball IQ to put his physical tools to work on that end. He' a better defender against smaller players so he can use his length but is often overwhelmed by players even a little bit bigger than him.

As a Sun fan I really had high hopes for LB. He's a great locker room guy and a good person and gave the Suns many good years. It's really a shame he had a down year and couldn't get it together after his injuries. It should be noted that despite having a down year, the season before when he played 24mpg in 70 games, he was still shooting 48%/37% while putting up 14.4ppg. That's 19ppg per36.

lilfishi22 wrote:Not bad when he's playing next to a ball-dominant pass-first PG like Steve Nash and given 6th man minutes (tight parameters, I know). Tends to try and do too much offensively when he plays next to PG's who likes to give the ball up to other ball handlers like Dragic. Pretty much he needs to be strictly controlled offensively because when he has the ball in his hands and is forced to create, you just want to close your eyes and hope for the best. He's a pretty good ball-handling even under pressure but he does lack advanced moves to create separation in the perimeter so he is limited to spot up shooting or driving to the hoop. Even though he's a 6th man, he plays his best with the starting unit so he has offensive outlets he can pass to.

Defensively, he's as he's always been, terrible. Very long arms and pretty good lateral quickness, but just not good enough basketball IQ to put his physical tools to work on that end. He' a better defender against smaller players so he can use his length but is often overwhelmed by players even a little bit bigger than him.

As a Sun fan I really had high hopes for LB. He's a great locker room guy and a good person and gave the Suns many good years. It's really a shame he had a down year and couldn't get it together after his injuries. It should be noted that despite having a down year, the season before when he played 24mpg in 70 games, he was still shooting 48%/37% while putting up 14.4ppg. That's 19ppg per36.

lilfishi has put it together nicely. Barbosa as a player in the right situation for him can be special. It's once he gets thrown into areas of the game where he isn't so strong that his game breaks down a little. I highlighted some of the bigger points lilfishi pointed out. Offensively, especially before last season, he has no problems. I always found his ball handling a little worrying, but I mean, anything less than Nash handling the ball always looked awkward for a Suns team. Sometimes, he picks the wrong time to assert himself, which can be infuriating.

But apart from that, he is a special kind of player that can light it up and play out of his mind. Have a read through some of the older threads on him here. We've gone over this topic quite a few times actually.

Barbosa can be frusterating to Suns fans, as he often times floundered against the Suns biggest hurdles:

-38% lifetime FG% against the Spurs (regular season only, although I can't imagine that figure being any better during the post season).
-I'd also like to point out Barbosa's 1.3:1 assist/to ratio against San Antonio, IMO a troubling figure for a guard who has the ball as much as Barbosa did during his peak years in Phoenix.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... i?id=OfmJ8

That being said, Barbosa was largely successful during his time in Phoenix, and actually thrived in a larger role, something he continued to get further from in Phoenix. The death of his mother, injuries and the emergence of Dragic as a legitimate NBA point guard all contributed to this, IMO. I'll re-post some sentiments I posted a while back:

Barbosa's efficiency is solid as a starter, even going up in some instances. I didn't fact check last season specifically because he only played 44 games, but I did look at the 11 games Barbosa started in 2008/2009 under Porter/Gentry. During those 11 games, Leandro Barbosa recorded the following:

20.1 points, 4.5rebounds, 4.2 assists

Field goals: 86/171 (50.3%)
Free throw throws: 29/37 (78%)
Three point field goals: 20/53 (38%)
Steals: 35 (3.1 per game) <---Wow

Of course we all remember the February 20th game against OKC in which Leandro started the game and exploded for 41/7/7, while also chipping in 6 steals, shot 5/7 from beyond the arc and recorded only 1 turnover.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/box ... 00PHO.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... elog/2009/

I'd also like to point out that prior to last season, Leandro Barbosa was among the top 15 all time regarding 3 point field goal percentage. I guess my 'prediction' regarding Leandro in Toronto is that he'll play well overall, and you'll see some pretty explosive performances from him occasionally. He's seemingly a great guy and teammate, I hope to see him return to peak form again next season.

While his man-to-man defense is lacking...he gets pushed around, doesn't cover screens well, he is very good in passing lanes and a decent weak-side defender. His steals numbers have been decent over the years, and as evidenced by the figures from the notes above, he can ball. I think there is too much focus on his negatives. Most teams would wet themselves for a player that can average what Barbosa did as a starter in PHX. I think Barbosa will be allowed to start in TOR and will split his duties with Calderon handling. For the Brazilian national team until this years World's Barbosa was the primary ball-handler and he has always been fantastic for them. He is an emotional player, which can help when things are good, but his confidence can get lowif others begin to lose faith in his abilities.

I think he will do great for TOR, BC is there and will know what feedback to give the coaching staff about where he is good, and where he isn't.