SCOTTIE NAMED AN ALL STAR

[Grandia]

I wish the captains still drafted the NBA All-Star Reserves. It would have been crazy good if he would have been drafted FIRST. I know it's possible because a lot of players think highly of Scottie.

[HiJiNX]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

I was so happy we didn’t draft Suggs. Putting the injuries aside, but he’s exactly the player I thought he would be. Good, especially on defence and hustle, but not strong enough at self creation to be a true difference maker.

[Potential]

[C_Money]

What does "alot better" mean?
Giannis was 22 years old in his third season in the NBA... Same as Barnes now...
And how did you conclude that Giannis was "alot better" than Barnes? He was worse in everything!

viewtopic.php?p=111247369#p111247369

It's not much different with Tatum either, who at the same point of his career (22 y. old, and 3rd NBA season) was better than Barnes in points and steals, but worse in rebounds, assists and blocks... This can't be "alot better".

For some reason you deleted my first line that mentioned scoring. If our goal is to get back to contender status we absolutely need a legit #1 scoring option on this team. Not somebody who passes it off to Gary Trent in the dying seconds of the game.

So we should trade for Jordan Poole and call it a day. He'll keep the ball and shoot it. Or trade Barnes for Cam Thomas. At least he can put the ball in the hoop. Legit #1! That's a guy who is not just a fantasy player.

Yeah Jordan Poole and his 16 PPG should do it, smh.

[mdenny]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

I was so happy we didn’t draft Suggs. Putting the injuries aside, but he’s exactly the player I thought he would be. Good, especially on defence and hustle, but not strong enough at self creation to be a true difference maker.

It remains a mystery in how complaining posters can endlessly complainant masai when the best and by far, the most important move he's made the past 3 years was drafting Barnes with the #4. A move that less than 1% of his critics wanted him to do.

You can spend hours and hours whining about moving down in the draft to get Thad. But imagine if we drafted Suggs (what all the critics wanted) and didn't make the Thad trade (highly criticized move).

Anyone want to trade barnes, thad and koloko for Suggs and Malachi Branham? I mean...choosing Barnes over Suggs was like 1000× more important than losing Malachi Branham for Thad and koloko.

Yet How many hand-wringing posts fixated on the Thad trade? Do the masai critics EVER give him credit for the gutsy, controversial move to pick Barnes over Suggs? The relative amount of scrutiny/praise for these two decisions is so bizarrely out of proportion.

[Chandan]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

wait, are you telling me you have a friend that's FEMALE? like, one with real lady parts? high five!

[djsunyc]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

you kids and your lingo. can't believe mom is now referred to as lady friend!

[Drakeem]

This board has turned depressing to read. Even in the peak TWO days, at least there was some humour and funny debates about what direction to take the team. We have our best propsect, hell, one of the best prospects we've had in our franchise if we're just evaluating the first 3 years of everyone so far, making the all-star game and instead of being happy for our guy, it's just more weird FVV/Siakam/lack of effort/doesn't deserve it talk.

I get being down on the team but ffs this is something worth being even a little excited over. It's great that despite being in Toronto and despite the reshuffle of the team, that Scottie can get some recognition for the work he's put in.

LETS GO SCOTTIE.

The issue is his scoring. If he’s not a #1 option then we need somebody who is.

Both Tatum and Giannis were alot better in their age 22 seasons btw.

Even if they were, I don't think this is the thread to crap on the kids accomplishment by saying, "well he's good but he's not THAT good". Lets be excited for our young guy and wait to see what he develops into.

[Chandan]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

you kids and your lingo. can't believe mom is now referred to as lady friend!

What a special little guy we have. I can't imagine how the story would have went without knowing the friend is a lady. Would a normal (non lady) friend be like "Wake up mdenny, you are imagining things again, this scenario never happened. I dont even exist!"

[Duffman100]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

you kids and your lingo. can't believe mom is now referred to as lady friend!

"Dorothy mantooth is a saint"

[Vampirate]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

I was so happy we didn’t draft Suggs. Putting the injuries aside, but he’s exactly the player I thought he would be. Good, especially on defence and hustle, but not strong enough at self creation to be a true difference maker.

I've said this a lot of times but at the time of the draft Suggs and Barnes were very similar, basically players with a bad shot, were good on defence that excelled in the full court, but were weak in the half court.

Given the same strengths and weaknesses, you take the guy that has the Kawhi body over the 6"5 guard.

[Vampirate]

This board has turned depressing to read. Even in the peak TWO days, at least there was some humour and funny debates about what direction to take the team. We have our best propsect, hell, one of the best prospects we've had in our franchise if we're just evaluating the first 3 years of everyone so far, making the all-star game and instead of being happy for our guy, it's just more weird FVV/Siakam/lack of effort/doesn't deserve it talk.

I get being down on the team but ffs this is something worth being even a little excited over. It's great that despite being in Toronto and despite the reshuffle of the team, that Scottie can get some recognition for the work he's put in.

LETS GO SCOTTIE.

The issue is his scoring. If he’s not a #1 option then we need somebody who is.

Both Tatum and Giannis were alot better in their age 22 seasons btw.

Well 2 things.

1. None of us know how good of a scorer he can become, I never thought he'd add a three point shot this early but here were are. You are talking like you know the future of him. He could stagnate or he could develop into one, who knows.

Compare Barnes is college to now, it's night and day.


2. If he doesn't become one than we need to draft one. It's that simple, if Barnes scoring progresses slowly through the years from here on out, then it'll mean more losses thus better odds.

Obviously if Barnes takes another step as a scorer sooner rather than later, adding talent through the draft will become increasingly more difficult. He's basically an All NBA player then.

[HiJiNX]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

I was so happy we didn’t draft Suggs. Putting the injuries aside, but he’s exactly the player I thought he would be. Good, especially on defence and hustle, but not strong enough at self creation to be a true difference maker.

I've said this a lot of times but at the time of the draft Suggs and Barnes were very similar, basically players with a bad shot, were good on defence that excelled in the full court, but were weak in the half court.

Given the same strengths and weaknesses, you take the guy that has the Kawhi body over the 6"5 guard.

I can’t say I watched a lot of Barnes in college cuz I didn’t. But I watched pretty much all of his tape available on YouTube and by the end I was very excited at the prospect of drafting him…but I didn’t express it publicly. He struck me as a guy with big athleticism and takeover capacity. There was one YouTube video in particular where if you look at the score and the clock, Barnes is making play after play to bring his team back in the game after being down big. That really stood out to me. I didn’t know he had such incredible spatial awareness and processing, though. It was in preseason where I started to get really excited about him. And then in his first ten games I was like, “man this dude might be an MVP one day.”

As for Suggs, watching him in college I realized that when the game slowed down and became tight toward the end that he wasn’t very effective and didn’t impose his will on the game. Same thing I noticed about Mobley (who has all the tools but not the mentality). Anyway, Suggs never struck me as being a good enough offensive player to build around. Rifling layups off the backboard and missing jumpers badly, couldn’t beat his man off the dribble. Not natural in the pnr. Just didn’t see it. Defensively though, he’s a beast.

The guy I was really wrong on was Jalen Green who I thought would be a superstar haha. He has crazy athleticism and was a good shooter so I thought he was inevitable, but maturity, smarts, and work ethic just aren’t there for him.

[links135]

Good for him.

I won't forget draft night. My lady friend didn't understand why I was so excited. I kept telling her "because we are probably getting thus guy named Jalen Suggs" and showed her his buzzer beater on youtube.

Then the big moment came "Scottie barnes". My jaw dropped. My lady friend said "what happened to that Suggs guy?" I said "I have no idea what just happened".

My favorite video encapsulation of it is this footage of that outdoor patio near ACC:

https://youtube.com/shorts/i8NILzvIMXY?si=bqyPK0mw1uvFgoJX

I was so happy we didn’t draft Suggs. Putting the injuries aside, but he’s exactly the player I thought he would be. Good, especially on defence and hustle, but not strong enough at self creation to be a true difference maker.

I've said this a lot of times but at the time of the draft Suggs and Barnes were very similar, basically players with a bad shot, were good on defence that excelled in the full court, but were weak in the half court.

Given the same strengths and weaknesses, you take the guy that has the Kawhi body over the 6"5 guard.

No one had Barnes in the top 4 really. So much so I had to look him up because I was only really watching Mobley and Suggs footage.

Even shortly afterwards there was a tonne of videos of about how will Toronto regret passing on Suggs.

[Chalky_White]

Both Tatum and Giannis were alot better in their age 22 seasons btw.

What does "alot better" mean?
Giannis was 22 years old in his third season in the NBA... Same as Barnes now...
And how did you conclude that Giannis was "alot better" than Barnes? He was worse in everything!

viewtopic.php?p=111247369#p111247369

It's not much different with Tatum either, who at the same point of his career (22 y. old, and 3rd NBA season) was better than Barnes in points and steals, but worse in rebounds, assists and blocks... This can't be "alot better".

A lot better is laughable. Scottie compared to Tatum in his 3rd year was a better rebounder, a better shot blocker, a better defender, a much better playmaker, more versatile with higher IQ. Scottie came into the league a far less skilled player. Also Tatum was in a much better situation given the talent he played with his entire career. For the record I am still not convinced Tatum is a true #1 on a title team.

Ehh Tatum had a pretty special 3rd season. 3rd team all-nba and was the #1 scoring option for the 3rd seed, and eventual conference finalist.

Scottie's developing nicely but putting unrealistic expectations on him is just setting people up for disappointment.

[mdenny]

I was so happy we didn’t draft Suggs. Putting the injuries aside, but he’s exactly the player I thought he would be. Good, especially on defence and hustle, but not strong enough at self creation to be a true difference maker.

I've said this a lot of times but at the time of the draft Suggs and Barnes were very similar, basically players with a bad shot, were good on defence that excelled in the full court, but were weak in the half court.

Given the same strengths and weaknesses, you take the guy that has the Kawhi body over the 6"5 guard.

No one had Barnes in the top 4 really. So much so I had to look him up because I was only really watching Mobley and Suggs footage.

Even shortly afterwards there was a tonne of videos of about how will Toronto regret passing on Suggs.

Agreed. There seems to be some revisionist history as to how controversial that decision was which serves to take the credit away from the FO in having the guts to do it.

[links135]

What does "alot better" mean?
Giannis was 22 years old in his third season in the NBA... Same as Barnes now...
And how did you conclude that Giannis was "alot better" than Barnes? He was worse in everything!

viewtopic.php?p=111247369#p111247369

It's not much different with Tatum either, who at the same point of his career (22 y. old, and 3rd NBA season) was better than Barnes in points and steals, but worse in rebounds, assists and blocks... This can't be "alot better".

A lot better is laughable. Scottie compared to Tatum in his 3rd year was a better rebounder, a better shot blocker, a better defender, a much better playmaker, more versatile with higher IQ. Scottie came into the league a far less skilled player. Also Tatum was in a much better situation given the talent he played with his entire career. For the record I am still not convinced Tatum is a true #1 on a title team.

Ehh Tatum had a pretty special 3rd season. 3rd team all-nba and was the #1 scoring option for the 3rd seed, and eventual conference finalist.

Scottie's developing nicely but putting unrealistic expectations on him is just setting people up for disappointment.

Okay, imagine they kept Irving. Checkmate.

[WaltFrazier]

I wish the captains still drafted the NBA All-Star Reserves. It would have been crazy good if he would have been drafted FIRST. I know it's possible because a lot of players think highly of Scottie.

Forget that. Scottie should be one of the captains .

[links135]

This board has turned depressing to read. Even in the peak TWO days, at least there was some humour and funny debates about what direction to take the team. We have our best propsect, hell, one of the best prospects we've had in our franchise if we're just evaluating the first 3 years of everyone so far, making the all-star game and instead of being happy for our guy, it's just more weird FVV/Siakam/lack of effort/doesn't deserve it talk.

I get being down on the team but ffs this is something worth being even a little excited over. It's great that despite being in Toronto and despite the reshuffle of the team, that Scottie can get some recognition for the work he's put in.

LETS GO SCOTTIE.

The issue is his scoring. If he’s not a #1 option then we need somebody who is.

Both Tatum and Giannis were alot better in their age 22 seasons btw.

Well 2 things.

1. None of us know how good of a scorer he can become, I never thought he'd add a three point shot this early but here were are. You are talking like you know the future of him. He could stagnate or he could develop into one, who knows.

Compare Barnes is college to now, it's night and day.


2. If he doesn't become one than we need to draft one. It's that simple, if Barnes scoring progresses slowly through the years from here on out, then it'll mean more losses thus better odds.

Obviously if Barnes takes another step as a scorer sooner rather than later, adding talent through the draft will become increasingly more difficult. He's basically an All NBA player then.

Basically what he needs to add is a midrange game. Siakam has one now and a really good paint game, but we should remember after Kawhi left, only then did he start to develop one, and it was not great. It really wasn't till Barnes rookie season that it started to develop, 3 years into that. Remember how he struggled against Boston smallball in 2020?

His paint scoring has been pretty good post Siakam, rim finishing could be better, but he's really just missing that midrange game instead of forcing it at the rim.

Plus that's the one thing we lack right now, no one on the team is good from midrange post Siakam. But if he does and keeps a decent 3, that puts him in the 24ppg range.