Los_29 wrote:Maybe we just got spoiled with seeing Kyle, Pascal, OG and Norm learn how to shoot. Kawhi is another guy that was labeled as a poor shooter in college and developed into a very good shooter.
Kyle had shooting ability as a foundation, though. Siakam was showing his perimeter two as a rookie, and made visible strides year to year. He was a good example of it happening. Scottie hasn't shown anything like that. Kawhi was nearly a 38% 3pt shooter as a ROOKIE, and by his second season was a much better shooter from basically everywhere than Scottie has ever been, and was a better shooter in college, too (albeit not from 3). The rookie year, there are so many adjustments to make as a guy adapts to the NBA, you can't really judge a player's shooting too well. Remember KD's rookie season from 3? But the year after? The third year? The fourth? You generally have a pretty clear idea of if they have potential. Lowry's 3 wasn't quite there yet, but he showed immediate improvement basically everywhere else come his second season, if inconsistent. And by his 4th year, he was showing it from 3. And remember, he had less opportunity on an NBA court to that point than Scottie. Less freedom, less minutes, all of it. Different developmental cycle and arc. And given the proportions he was using certain ranges in and his total volume, we're talking about some pretty volatile samples over his first couple seasons. And he was still a 37%+ 3pt shooter for two consecutive seasons before ever becoming a Raptor.
OG
isn't a particularly good shooter from anywhere except the corners, where even Bruce Bowen figured out how to smash.
It wasn’t crazy to think a 20 year old Scottie could develop into a passable shooter.
Kind of was. He'd need to turn into an ELITE shooter in order to overcome the other deficiencies he has, and that was never really on the table. Like, we can see him hitting his short middie reasonably well so far and he's far better at the line in the NBA than he was in college. But he isn't any better from the corners than when he started and he isn't any better on the ATB 3pt shooting which is holding him back so much.
There were some things you could reasonably project out of Barnes as a rookie specifically, but inside the context of a focal scorer, the nature of those shots is very different from the way guys usually develop. Even Kawhi, who is now a much better overall shooter, started out more as a C+S movement shooter inside San Antonio's offense. And then yeah, as the seasons have stacked, Barnes has shown almost nothing to us as far as actual development.
But again, you focused narrowly on only one part of what I said. Such development does happen sometimes. It's usually not on-ball, though; it's typically C+S shoot stuff. And then when you consider role, the total development becomes much harder, because off-dribble shooting is far more difficult than set C+S action created by someone else. And so now, if you're looking at him in context, it's taken him four years to go nowhere, so the projected arc of his development is, at best, remarkably slow.
There is no sense waiting and praying for him to develop into that role at this time.
