PG: Franchise Player Scottie Barnes

[Raps in 4]

Fans are liking the new rules. Players will need to adjust.

Shorten the season to 60 games to compensate for the increased physicality.

[Raps in 4]

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Wow, didn't expect to hear that from him. Glad he sees it too. Scottie is our best and most consistent player on offence.

[gbball]

I just slapped myself 2 times for jeering the Raptors selection of Scottie Barnes with the 4th overall pick in the NBA draft.

SMH

I think in fairness to everyone, there was a lot that they could see in private workouts that this board and even a lot of draft pundits couldn’t see. He’s clearly put in some work since last year in college. His shot looks so much smoother and his handle is definitely better than it was a year ago.

He’s just not the same player right now that he was on tape last year. Some of that is the congestion of the college game, and you could see moments in his tape where he showed some of this stuff, but he’s improved a ton over the last year. I mean, he scored over 20 points like once last year. It’s not like he did this, no one watched it, and then we’re all shocked by how good he has been - he just wasn’t doing this last year.

I mean if you look at guys like Chad Ford (say what you want. He was high on Scottie) even they are surprised with how good he has been.

While Scottie's shooting has been a revelation...if you watched his high school footage, you'd know that he's able to score when he focuses on it. I think at FSU, he was legitimately trying to play the point guard position as he sees it...getting others going first, and scoring opportunistically when he could...at the expense of focusing on what he's already good at...like he didn't want to do what he was already good at and showcase that ability, he wanted to try something he hadn't done before to add new skills to his bag. Scottie so far seems like the type who wants challenges. He's confident and seems to like challenges being thrown his way. Nurse will have to show restraint because he could burn him out and then he won't be the same player. We'll see how he handles the grind of the NBA when the novelty of things starts to wear off. If he can sustain/maintain motivation during the dog days of the season and avoid injury, the sky is the limit. Nurse can play a big part in keeping things fresh, while having him reach higher and higher.

I'm so excited about Barnes. Seeing his emergence reminds me of Vince Carter's ascension..which immediately leads me to think of the descent. I think for Raps fans from that time period we always had those what-if thoughts...what if our organization had better leadership...what if Butch Carter didn't lose his mind and stayed on as coach...What if McGrady stayed, what if Vince never lost his fire and kept pushing to be the best in the NBA. What if we as fans knew what real accomplishments were (i.e. winning championships and building culture vs. having a star player, winning dunk competitions & getting on American television)

It feels like things are lining up for this to be our chance to do it all properly a 2nd time around. I'm sure I'm overthinking it, but Barnes legitimately has MVP/FMVP potential (keyword being potential). And guys like Banton, OG, Precious, and Trent bring a lot of potential to the table too...we have a great hand and if we play our cards right we have a chance to do something special in the next few years.

Scottie has a lot more dimensions to his game that we haven't even seen yet and we'll probably see more and more as he starts to establish himself further and when Siakam comes back. If he can get his feet a bit quicker, get lower, and push off better with his back foot at times he can start blowing by his man in ISO situations. I don't think he's needed to be that athletic to be successful yet, but he'll need it in the NBA and I think he has it in him.

The sky is the team and I hope there continue to be challenged to keep him motivated. I just don't want to see a repeat of what went wrong last time during the Vince years.

Sorry for the essay. I've got baggage from those years.

[Raps in 4]

Barnes' finishing around the rim wasn't great in summer league - he rushed a lot of his finishes. He already seems much more composed down there, taking his time to gather, knowing he can get his shot off over most players.

He literally gets better every month. Stuff that we thought would take him 2-3 years to develop, he's added to his game in 2-3 months.

[WaltFrazier]

Fans are liking the new rules. Players will need to adjust.

I think fans do like the cutting down on unnatural moves like Harden, Trae and others do.

But I don't think that's what Fred means. We're seeing overall more physical play not being called, not just the jumping sideways and sticking a leg out stuff.

[Scott Hall]

Read on Twitter

[Scott Hall]

Read on Twitter

[PhilBlackson]

If Barnes evolves into top 10-15 NBA player, you want to have a proven, quality core around him. Guys like Siakam, VV, OG have already proven they can be key players on a title team and they complement Barnes well.

I agree that they could all be key pieces on a championship team (obviously) but I'd still like to see us have a go to scorer that can shoot/spread the floor that can make life easier. Although I will say both FVV + Pascal struggled badly (to put it kindly) for a couple series and OG didn't even play in the Finals. I think our bigs (Marc & Serge) were more important and of course Kawhi was THE difference maker, we need another go to something like that and it's a wrap.

[Boogie!]

Read on Twitter

tbh, the physicality is the ONLY reason we're winning games so idk why fvv is complaining... our offense is so **** bad, if they start whistling all the ticky tacks, we're gonna be sending teams to the foul line at will and we're gonna be forcing up contested late clock jumpers...

[Boogie!]

Fans are liking the new rules. Players will need to adjust.

I think fans do like the cutting down on unnatural moves like Harden, Trae and others do.

But I don't think that's what Fred means. We're seeing overall more physical play not being called, not just the jumping sideways and sticking a leg out stuff.

i like it... it's the only reason we have a shot at winning... lord knows we don't have crafty guys that are able to generate foul calls...

[YelloC]

I think it's time for Khem to start. I threw my hands up so many times when Precious did some really dumb **** tonight...

It feels like Nurse was giving Precious the chance to earn the starting spot while Birch got his wind back after Covid.
Precious energy could be better going against second units while he develops his decision making and touch.

[tecumseh18]

If Barnes evolves into top 10-15 NBA player, you want to have a proven, quality core around him. Guys like Siakam, VV, OG have already proven they can be key players on a title team and they complement Barnes well.

I agree that they could all be key pieces on a championship team (obviously) but I'd still like to see us have a go to scorer that can shoot/spread the floor that can make life easier. Although I will say both FVV + Pascal struggled badly (to put it kindly) for a couple series and OG didn't even play in the Finals. I think our bigs (Marc & Serge) were more important and of course Kawhi was THE difference maker, we need another go to something like that and it's a wrap.

Pascal was great in the Orlando series, then hurt his ankle (his own fault - trying to trip Embiid) in the Sixers series and lost confidence in his shot. Defensively he was incredible in the Bucks series, and finally got his shot back in the Finals.

OG missed the entire playoff run, not just the Finals.

Obviously a LaVine-esque go to scorer would be nice. But that's not what Masai and Nurse are trying to build here. Trent's unpredictable scoring will have to do, because he's doing everything else we want our SG to do.

[plainballing]

For the x'th times, I apologize to Scottie that I was wrong about Sugg over him.

[navyblue]

precious with the impressive 4 points 3 rebounds game

Two straight seasons we’re gonna be short at C because Masai didn’t want to pay Ibaka.

Remind me how much ibaka has played since leaving the raptors.

[Boogie!]

precious with the impressive 4 points 3 rebounds game

Two straight seasons we’re gonna be short at C because Masai didn’t want to pay Ibaka.

Remind me how much ibaka has played since leaving the raptors.

why are people still on about ibaka... he fit our championship run timeline, but we're done with that... time to move on...

[bakafool]

In other news, dayum Zion looks fat. That is another injury waiting to happen.

[Boogie!]

If Barnes evolves into top 10-15 NBA player, you want to have a proven, quality core around him. Guys like Siakam, VV, OG have already proven they can be key players on a title team and they complement Barnes well.

I agree that they could all be key pieces on a championship team (obviously) but I'd still like to see us have a go to scorer that can shoot/spread the floor that can make life easier. Although I will say both FVV + Pascal struggled badly (to put it kindly) for a couple series and OG didn't even play in the Finals. I think our bigs (Marc & Serge) were more important and of course Kawhi was THE difference maker, we need another go to something like that and it's a wrap.

Pascal was great in the Orlando series, then hurt his ankle (his own fault - trying to trip Embiid) in the Sixers series and lost confidence in his shot. Defensively he was incredible in the Bucks series, and finally got his shot back in the Finals.

OG missed the entire playoff run, not just the Finals.

Obviously a LaVine-esque go to scorer would be nice. But that's not what Masai and Nurse are trying to build here. Trent's unpredictable scoring will have to do, because he's doing everything else we want our SG to do.

idk why everyone is so obsessed with trading siakam...

the guy is a GREAT complimentary piece... he can't do it as the man, but when he can play off ball a bit more and use his energy and hustle, next to a star hes amazing... people really dont understand how talented he is... hes a good playmaker, good finisher inside and can space the floor occasionally, although his shot has regressed a bit... his defense is also great when hes locked in... he just fatigues too much trying to carry the team...

i would much rather trade fvv before siakam... fvv has too many limitations that can be stifled by elite teams... og i dont mind as a 3+d as long as the team stops trying to force feed him the ball...

[Scott Hall]

Any love for Ukraine Kobe from the homies? this was pretty sick

Read on Twitter

[Boogie!]

honestly, it seems everyone is so out of control with the ball though... this is the chaos of nick nurse offense... everyone has free reign to go hammer... we need to pass more... emphasize passing because this 1 on 5 nonsense is embarassing.

[TravisScott55]

Scottie is a future superstar. Soak it in folks.