Scottie isn't going to be a #1 option superstar in this league

[Tha Cynic]

Regardless of what you think Barnes will be, this team needs another star at minimum, ideally a guy who can score and do more than score. Barnes is a guy who can dominate the game in multiple ways, but go to scoring is typically handled by other type of players. Even LeBron James needed Wade, Kyrie and Davis. Shaq needed Kobe and Wade and Kobe needed Shaq and Gasol. For someone of Barnes' skillset the match is with a dynamic guard.

In the NBA you simply need multiple great players. The Celtics just won a championship with no superstar. There are multiple ways you can win.

[refshateRaps]

Dude is playing thru the Wemby & Edwards era. Shai/Chet will be a serious superstar duo for years to come and Ill even keep Doncic in this group as he's still relatively young. All these players will be attractive to other stars to join. Scottie, I don't see in this category.

Outsiders, like Maxey, Haliburton, Morant, Banchero even are more on the level of Barnes and are not superstars IMO and they will all also need a ton of help to be competitive.

Wemby will soon recruit and if we are ever going to be serious with Barnes we need to build star talent around him or what is the point? Might as well re-hire Colangelo if fans are OK with a low ceiling 'superstar' leading a team again.

[kalel123]

He doesn't need to. The Celtics best player Jaylen Brown had by far the best help in the nba and they won it all. Scottie will be in the same situation soon once we find our Tatum

Will Scottie ever be as good as Brown or Tatum?

In short, yes he can. He's got the talent and Brown and Tatum are both a notch below those top-tier players. Celtics did not win on the strength of those two being better than anyone else.

[Indeed]

What about PG13? Jimmy Butler? Even Jayson Tatum? They've got the rizz of superstars but aren't/weren't top 3 at any of the components of being a #1 option that you mention. I guess the point is, though, that no, PG13, Jimmy, and Tatum aren't on the levels of true MVP offensive options... and that building a contender around them is more difficult than building one around a Kawhi, a Lebron, a KD, or a Curry.

Anyway, to answer your question, I don't think Scottie will ever be a #1 option superstar, but he can be a superstar in the mold of someone like Jimmy Butler or PG13. They need a running-mate at their own level rather than making due with a supporting cast that does it by committee (as the Raptors did in 2019, or the Mavs did in 2011).

Butler can get to the rim, he is more a guard.
Meanwhile, I am surprised Tatum isn't close to MVP level, and his shooting is pretty good.
Both of them are two-way player, they can defend multiple positions, not so much with Barnes.

One thing Barnes can do is defend multiple positions.

Sadly he cannot, and our head coach puts him as a free roam help defender. He cannot turn his hip to defender quicker players.

[WaltFrazier]

He doesn't need to. The Celtics best player Jaylen Brown had by far the best help in the nba and they won it all. Scottie will be in the same situation soon once we find our Tatum

Will Scottie ever be as good as Brown or Tatum?

In short, yes he can. He's got the talent and Brown and Tatum are both a notch below those top-tier players. Celtics did not win on the strength of those two being better than anyone else.

I can't see him ever being the fluid scorer those two are.

[Tacoma]

What an absolutely stupid and backwards way to view a team sport.

What year is it that we're still thinking in terms of #1 options as anything worth worrying about? Any contending team in this current era will have multiple stars and a great supporting cast. Putting this all on Scottie is stupid. Even a Jokic isn't doing anything without a Murray/MPJ/Gordon. A Tatum/Brown had Holiday/White/KP. Giannis had Middleton/Holiday/Lopez.

Kawhi had Lowry/Siakam/etc.

We'll only really get anywhere when we pair Scottie with other great players on his level and that's true for most any championship team in NBA history. Jordan only won with Pip, LeBron with Wade/Bosh and then Kyrie/KLove. Magic had Kareem/Worthy/Cooper/etc. Bird had McHale/Parish/Johnson

Who's the best guard that Scottie has ever played with? Fred? IQ? Best player overall is probably Pascal and they play the same position. Like what are we even talking about here?

And all this would be true EVEN IF HE WAS A NUMBER ONE SCORING OPTION.

That being said, the unique traits that Scottie does possess in terms of playmaking and two-way versatility do matter and do help elevate a team, even if he isn't a Luka level scorer.

It's not stupid.

My point is we still need that player in the Jokic/Tatum/Kawhi bracket that you mentioned. I don't think Scottie is capable of reaching that tier, so the point is we need to operate as if we don't have a superstar instead of "building around" Barnes who isn't one. If not we'll be making the exact same mistake we did in the Bosh era where we "built around" a guy who turned out to be a #3 guy on a championship tier team.

Tatum isn't that guy and Celtics still won. Your argument is absolutely stupid because to "build around" Barnes or anybody still requires top tier talents because no one person can do it alone. Even if he is that guy doesn't suddenly make it less important to get best players you can especially in this day and age. The mistake with Bosh era was more building around Bosh with subpar talents.

Tatum avg 27pts during the season and led BOS in pts, rebs and assists in the playoffs. He was the one drawing double teams allowing Brown to do this thing. He was 4th and 6th in MVP voting the past 2 seasons. Tatum was/is that guy.

It appears to me that both you and the OP are saying we need top tier talent, can't do it alone, etc., but the OP just added the criteria that top tier talent should also be a #1 option. This isn't false, at least not yet. Maybe it's stating the obvious but that doesn't make his opinion "absolutely stupid" as you claim.

[CPT]

I don’t think he can be, and I think this era will likely pass by fairly uneventfully.

That said, there’s always a ton of hindsight with these things. Aside from a select few generational superstars, everyone is a guy who can’t lead a team to a championship until he does. Hell, this is still being said about Tatum, but it’s not like people were talking about Brown as a “best player on a championship team” guy until recently.

Barnes can probably be the best player on a contender, and then it will be up to management/his teammates to get beyond that level.

These seem like contradictory statements

( the best player, on a contender .. would kinda HAVE to be a super star

That's fair. Part of it is poor communication on my part, and part of it is the confusion in the thread title vs. the poll.

I don't think he can be a "#1 option" superstar if that means 26+ PPG. I'm not sure he can be the best player on a championship team. I do think he can be the best player on a contender (which now usually means top 6-10 teams in the league).

The last two statements have a lot to do with what else is going on with the team. If it's BBQ Dick, no chance. If there's another all-star and solid depth, maybe.

I do think people going with the "it's a team sport, why do we still talk about this?" angle are wrong. Perhaps a little defensive when faced with the idea that our best player might not be good enough. Players' contributions are not equal. Yes, Tatum needs Brown, Holiday, Porzingis, and White, and Jokic needs Gordon, Murray, MPJ, and KCP, but there's no confusion when it comes to Denver that it's Jokic's team, and while Boston has more of a 1A/1B situation, we know they are the ones who got them there and a team with Derrick White as the #1 option wouldn't be very good. While the "best player wins the series" narrative is going away, you clearly need a guy who is at that level. As much hindsight is involved, I'd be curious to see the last team who won a championship without a player previously named to All-NBA first team. My guess would be that Pistons anomaly, and then you would have to go back decades to find another one, but maybe I'm forgetting someone.

So, while team success is obviously baked in to some extent, can Scottie Barnes be an All-NBA mainstay in his career, making (hopefully) multiple 1st team selections? That's probably a better question than these harder-to-define "#1 option superstar" or "best player on a champion/contender" ones.

And when you put it that way, my answer is probably no.

[CPT]

I would go as far as saying he'll be more accomplished than Wemby 3 years from now.

Thanks for reminding me why I have this particular poster blocked.

Wemby will be a top 3-5 player starting this year and every year going forward barring injury. He'll be getting "best player in the league?" buzz as soon as this year, and I don't see any reason he can't be better than the current top guys sooner than we think.

[Scase]

I would go as far as saying he'll be more accomplished than Wemby 3 years from now.

Thanks for reminding me why I have this particular poster blocked.

Wemby will be a top 3-5 player starting this year and every year going forward barring injury. He'll be getting "best player in the league?" buzz as soon as this year, and I don't see any reason he can't be better than the current top guys sooner than we think.

There's a reason why one of them is considered generational, and the other isn't

[PushDaRock]

He will be a top 5 player due to his build, trajectory, and what he's already accomplished. He's the most underrated ROY in recent memory. I would go as far as saying he'll be more accomplished than Wemby 3 years from now.

bruh

[PushDaRock]

I'm sure I wasn't the only one disappointed to see him not looking to score more after Siakam left. Even if he was less efficient doing it, you still expect the scoring numbers to go up instead of down with all those FGA's available.

[canada_dry]

Let's wait and see.

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[canada_dry]

I'm sure I wasn't the only one disappointed to see him not looking to score more after Siakam left. Even if he was less efficient doing it, you still expect the scoring numbers to go up instead of down with all those FGA's available.

That was an issue.

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[Senbonzakura]

I'm sure I wasn't the only one disappointed to see him not looking to score more after Siakam left. Even if he was less efficient doing it, you still expect the scoring numbers to go up instead of down with all those FGA's available.

That was an issue.

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Because he doesn't have the arsenal offensively to take that volume of shots in the NBA.

[ItsDanger]

People want Scottie to be something he may not be. His strengths are being an all around player that can facilitate the offense. Hence, you must put finishers on the floor with him. So far, that really hasn't happened.

[PushDaRock]

I'm sure I wasn't the only one disappointed to see him not looking to score more after Siakam left. Even if he was less efficient doing it, you still expect the scoring numbers to go up instead of down with all those FGA's available.

That was an issue.

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Because he doesn't have the arsenal offensively to take that volume of shots in the NBA.

That's where there is some concern for me. If he can't be a bad #1 option, can he be a good #2? Maybe he can but he's still yet to put together a league average efficiency scoring year so far in his career.

[Tha Cynic]

Will Scottie ever be as good as Brown or Tatum?

In short, yes he can. He's got the talent and Brown and Tatum are both a notch below those top-tier players. Celtics did not win on the strength of those two being better than anyone else.

I can't see him ever being the fluid scorer those two are.

Maybe not, but I can see him being an overall better player than both of them. I've seen him take over games without scoring in bunches. He's kind of like Kyle Lowry or Jrue Holiday on steroids, but with the size to be much more. It will depend a lot on that goto move that Darko was talking about helping him develop and being dominant in the midrange.

[Syd-TK3]

Literally just watched a team full of #2 and 3s win a title and somehow came to this conclusion of a thread

[NinjaBro]

People want Scottie to be something he may not be. His strengths are being an all around player that can facilitate the offense. Hence, you must put finishers on the floor with him. So far, that really hasn't happened.

Hopefully Dick gets better at finishing at the rim.

"We need to trade Siakam for AJ Griffin before it's too late!" - PhilBlackson

[Phezmo123]

Can he be on the level of a Jayson Tatum?

Because that means top-12 player in the league. I think he can reach that.

A top-5 player? That seems highly unlikely, but you don't need to be a top-5 to win a title.

Also, being the best player does not mean you have to be the go-to isolation scorer. See Giannis. See Jokic.