Official Scottie All Star Barnes Thread 8

[Scase]

This is exactly why he should shoot even more this year, because shooting in practice and in game action are 2 different animals. This year to get some reps and expand his game. Even his efficiency sux, he should keep shooting.

I disagree with that premise about 3s. He can practice catch-and-shoots and pull-ups all day in practice and by himself. And I'm not advocating for him never to take threes. I think 3-4 would be pretty reasonable, but he's near twice that and he still blows at it. I think his time would be better spent on stuff which does require live-game practice, like his middle game. That way, he's getting some balanced live-ball development.

The three is a very fickle shot; even the very best run hot and cold on it. But a good pull-up would be considerably higher-percentage and would help open up other doors. And the setup on those shots is much more challenging than the open 3s which Scottie takes.

He should take it whenever he is open, if he doesn’t his defender can just cheat on him. This is a different era, he needs the 3 if he wants to be a guard. His mindset isn’t a power forward like Giannis.

This for some reason keeps getting lost in translation here. I haven't seen a single person that is saying he needs to tone it down, complain about him taking an open 3. It's the quality of the shots he's been taking which has been drawing the criticism, easier 3's are what he should be doing, not no 3's at all.

[tsherkin]

This for some reason keeps getting lost in translation here. I haven't seen a single person that is saying he needs to tone it down, complain about him taking an open 3. It's the quality of the shots he's been taking which has been drawing the criticism, easier 3's are what he should be doing, not no 3's at all.

Yeah, I mean if it's wide open, it's wide open. But it's also that open frequently for a reason.

[Scase]

This for some reason keeps getting lost in translation here. I haven't seen a single person that is saying he needs to tone it down, complain about him taking an open 3. It's the quality of the shots he's been taking which has been drawing the criticism, easier 3's are what he should be doing, not no 3's at all.

Yeah, I mean if it's wide open, it's wide open. But it's also that open frequently for a reason.

The problem is that any shot can be open, if you take it far enough down the court

[tsherkin]

The problem is that any shot can be open, if you take it far enough down the court

Yes.

Barnes takes 4.3 shots per game from 25-29 feet. At 26.9%.

And in general from 3, he's shot 25% in the 1st, 36.8% in the 2nd, 23.1% in the 3rd and 30.8% in the 4th. 32.3% at home, 26.3% on the road.

[Tripod]

I'm a little surprised to see Scottie so emotional in the pacers win. Yelling and screaming while Pascal didn't shake hands.

Then in this game against okc...looking kinda checked out while RJ seemed to be the one who cared the most.

Was all that Scottie emotion against the pacers something to do with Pascal?

Naw.

What you saw from OKC game is how demoralizing it can be to an entire team when you strip too many pieces away.

No Brown, no problem
No KO, no problem
No IQ, tougher...but no problem
No Yak and none of the above, big problem

It's about advantages. OKC can defend 1 on 1 because they have great 1 on 1 defenders including 1 off the bench. Then add in that they are smart and know when to help and when not to.

Barnes was double teamed most often when touching the ball inside the arc. So he had to give up the ball and the other 4 guys could not take advantage. And not hard to tell why....

Bruno...no offense
Davion...no offense
Shead...no offense
Mogbo...limited offense
Walter...limited offense
RJ...inside scorer
Boucher...hit nothing from outside

When you have 7 guys who shoot 2 for 24 from 3, that's an issue. And yeah. Yak can't either but he is a great screen setter, good rebounder, great passer, and finisher inside.

So what was there for Barnes to be excited about? We could never get anything going TO get the excitement up. And he'll, Barnes had more assist than the other starters combined. He tried getting guys going but just so many missed shots. And he himself his shot was not there.

So yeah, hard to get excited when it was bad right from the start

[brownbobcat]

The problem is that any shot can be open, if you take it far enough down the court

Yes.

Barnes takes 4.3 shots per game from 25-29 feet. At 26.9%.

And in general from 3, he's shot 25% in the 1st, 36.8% in the 2nd, 23.1% in the 3rd and 30.8% in the 4th. 32.3% at home, 26.3% on the road.

That's kind of how the 3 is defended and used now, though. Nobody is going to let you shoot right at 24ft away above the break.

I still think he's playing the game the right way. If Barnes were displaying Jordan Poole-tendencies, then it might be a different conversation, but I think the issue with him has mostly been getting him to look for his own shot more. Hell, let him shoot more midrange jumpers AND more 3s, get that FGA up into the 20s. Full LaMelo mode.

[Vampirate]

I disagree with that premise about 3s. He can practice catch-and-shoots and pull-ups all day in practice and by himself. And I'm not advocating for him never to take threes. I think 3-4 would be pretty reasonable, but he's near twice that and he still blows at it. I think his time would be better spent on stuff which does require live-game practice, like his middle game. That way, he's getting some balanced live-ball development.

The three is a very fickle shot; even the very best run hot and cold on it. But a good pull-up would be considerably higher-percentage and would help open up other doors. And the setup on those shots is much more challenging than the open 3s which Scottie takes.

He should take it whenever he is open, if he doesn’t his defender can just cheat on him. This is a different era, he needs the 3 if he wants to be a guard. His mindset isn’t a power forward like Giannis.

This for some reason keeps getting lost in translation here. I haven't seen a single person that is saying he needs to tone it down, complain about him taking an open 3. It's the quality of the shots he's been taking which has been drawing the criticism, easier 3's are what he should be doing, not no 3's at all.

I think what's getting lost here is yes he needs a pull up 3, but he also needs to make a moves on the perimeter to get quality pull up 3s.

He's currently the guy that needs to make things happen, OKC isn't going to give him easy catch and shoot 3s like the Pacers did.

Against this type of defence, he straight up needs to improve his ball handling on the perimeter to actually create offense.

And if you say 'that's not his game, that's unrealistic' these types of games are the exact result.

No, he needs to beat his man on the perimeter period, or camp out at the FT line for the middy pull up.

In other words, he needs to truly evolve, telling him to not take risks and he'll beat the Pacers of the world, but get crushed by the likes of the Cavs etc.

As It's danger says, 'short term pain, for long term gain'

He's at 17% on pull up 3s. (awful, just not god awful as 7% was ) I wish he faced the OKC thunder more often to trully get him out of his comfort zone, even if the percentages look ugly, he'd be better off in the long term than getting easy buckets against the Pacers and it not really meaning anything.

[Vampirate]

The problem is that any shot can be open, if you take it far enough down the court

Yes.

Barnes takes 4.3 shots per game from 25-29 feet. At 26.9%.

And in general from 3, he's shot 25% in the 1st, 36.8% in the 2nd, 23.1% in the 3rd and 30.8% in the 4th. 32.3% at home, 26.3% on the road.

He's currently shooting 56.5% from 10-16 feet, maybe he should really test out if that's a new strength of his and take less shots from 3-10 feet and more around that range.

We already know he's good at 3-10 feet, and opponents are likely going to try to take away his floater zone. He really needs another dimension to his game.

I'd like to see Barnes take 15% of his shots now from 10-16 feet and see if this is just a fluke of a small sample size.

There's actually no harm in testing it out.

[Scase]

The problem is that any shot can be open, if you take it far enough down the court

Yes.

Barnes takes 4.3 shots per game from 25-29 feet. At 26.9%.

And in general from 3, he's shot 25% in the 1st, 36.8% in the 2nd, 23.1% in the 3rd and 30.8% in the 4th. 32.3% at home, 26.3% on the road.

That's kind of how the 3 is defended and used now, though. Nobody is going to let you shoot right at 24ft away above the break.

I still think he's playing the game the right way. If Barnes were displaying Jordan Poole-tendencies, then it might be a different conversation, but I think the issue with him has mostly been getting him to look for his own shot more. Hell, let him shoot more midrange jumpers AND more 3s, get that FGA up into the 20s. Full LaMelo mode.

Lamelo came into the league shooting 35%, Scottie 30%. Lamelo also plays on the worst run team in the league for the last like 2 decades lol. I wouldn't use that as a recipe for success.

He should take it whenever he is open, if he doesn’t his defender can just cheat on him. This is a different era, he needs the 3 if he wants to be a guard. His mindset isn’t a power forward like Giannis.

This for some reason keeps getting lost in translation here. I haven't seen a single person that is saying he needs to tone it down, complain about him taking an open 3. It's the quality of the shots he's been taking which has been drawing the criticism, easier 3's are what he should be doing, not no 3's at all.

I think what's getting lost here is yes he needs a pull up 3, but he also needs to make a moves on the perimeter to get quality pull up 3s.

He's currently the guy that needs to make things happen, OKC isn't going to give him easy catch and shoot 3s like the Pacers did.

Against this type of defence, he straight up needs to improve his ball handling on the perimeter to actually create offense.

And if you say 'that's not his game, that's unrealistic' these types of games are the exact result.

No, he needs to beat his man on the perimeter period, or camp out at the FT line for the middy pull up.

In other words, he needs to truly evolve, telling him to not take risks and he'll beat the Pacers of the world, but get crushed by the likes of the Cavs etc.

As It's danger says, 'short term pain, for long term gain'

He's at 17% on pull up 3s. (awful, just not god awful as 7% was ) I wish he faced the OKC thunder more often to trully get him out of his comfort zone, even if the percentages look ugly, he'd be better off in the long term than getting easy buckets against the Pacers and it not really meaning anything.

I don't think anyone is discounting the benefit of him having a reliable pull up 3 added to his game, that's objectively a good thing. But the discussion is how he goes about adding it, and the path to success.

OKC won't give him 3's like the Pacers for sure, but the league is filled with more "Pacers" than "Thunders". And if he can learn how to capitalize on those kinds of looks, he gets more comfortable taking 3's in general, gets better, and builds his confidence for the more difficult shots.

If I shoot pull ups at an abysmal rate like Scottie currently is, I can always think "It's alright, I can still hit other 3's at a good rate" and fall back on those. But if you can't even hit those, what do you fall back on?

You mentioned him developing counters etc before, sometimes counters aren't just "He's playing me tight, a jab step then a drive counters that" but rather "This guy is leaving me open for pull ups cause I can't hit them, maybe I work in some screens to get open for a cleaner shot", this still makes the defender adjust and can cause mismatches. It's not 1:1 but a team game, the latter has a higher success rate as it's an easier shot, just as valuable, and it creates potential mismatches for your teammates.

This is why I keep preaching the Walk -> Run concept. Scottie would have to shoot pull ups at a 35%+ rate for at MINIMUM half a season before it starts to bend the defences noticeably, realistically it will take him more than 1 season to manage that. So for a team that isn't likely going to be in the bottom of the league for more than a couple years, why spend the time focusing on something that is a much longer burn, than something easier and faster to develop like C&S 3's.

If this was year 1 or 2 of Scottie, and we were in a hard rebuild, I would be 100% on board. But this is year 4, and there is no way we are going to be a sub 25 win team next year, we don't have the time to let Scottie yeet everything he can. Our FO is not going to be investing in a long term rebuild, so we have to temper our expectations around it.

Our team is young, but it's not THAT young, so we have to be realistic about what we can/should do with the timeline we have.

[Vampirate]

The problem is that any shot can be open, if you take it far enough down the court

Yes.

Barnes takes 4.3 shots per game from 25-29 feet. At 26.9%.

And in general from 3, he's shot 25% in the 1st, 36.8% in the 2nd, 23.1% in the 3rd and 30.8% in the 4th. 32.3% at home, 26.3% on the road.

That's kind of how the 3 is defended and used now, though. Nobody is going to let you shoot right at 24ft away above the break.

I still think he's playing the game the right way. If Barnes were displaying Jordan Poole-tendencies, then it might be a different conversation, but I think the issue with him has mostly been getting him to look for his own shot more. Hell, let him shoot more midrange jumpers AND more 3s, get that FGA up into the 20s. Full LaMelo mode.

Legitimately, the actual best scorers are around 10% of their total shots at 0-3 feet, unless you are Giannis. And it seems as he's getting older, even Giannis is needing to expand his game now.


Honestly, I want to hear next year how Barnes and Gradey trained with each other in the off season. Both are high IQ players and both can learn from each other in improvement.

[Vampirate]

Yes.

Barnes takes 4.3 shots per game from 25-29 feet. At 26.9%.

And in general from 3, he's shot 25% in the 1st, 36.8% in the 2nd, 23.1% in the 3rd and 30.8% in the 4th. 32.3% at home, 26.3% on the road.

That's kind of how the 3 is defended and used now, though. Nobody is going to let you shoot right at 24ft away above the break.

I still think he's playing the game the right way. If Barnes were displaying Jordan Poole-tendencies, then it might be a different conversation, but I think the issue with him has mostly been getting him to look for his own shot more. Hell, let him shoot more midrange jumpers AND more 3s, get that FGA up into the 20s. Full LaMelo mode.

Lamelo came into the league shooting 35%, Scottie 30%. Lamelo also plays on the worst run team in the league for the last like 2 decades lol. I wouldn't use that as a recipe for success.

This for some reason keeps getting lost in translation here. I haven't seen a single person that is saying he needs to tone it down, complain about him taking an open 3. It's the quality of the shots he's been taking which has been drawing the criticism, easier 3's are what he should be doing, not no 3's at all.

I think what's getting lost here is yes he needs a pull up 3, but he also needs to make a moves on the perimeter to get quality pull up 3s.

He's currently the guy that needs to make things happen, OKC isn't going to give him easy catch and shoot 3s like the Pacers did.

Against this type of defence, he straight up needs to improve his ball handling on the perimeter to actually create offense.

And if you say 'that's not his game, that's unrealistic' these types of games are the exact result.

No, he needs to beat his man on the perimeter period, or camp out at the FT line for the middy pull up.

In other words, he needs to truly evolve, telling him to not take risks and he'll beat the Pacers of the world, but get crushed by the likes of the Cavs etc.

As It's danger says, 'short term pain, for long term gain'

He's at 17% on pull up 3s. (awful, just not god awful as 7% was ) I wish he faced the OKC thunder more often to trully get him out of his comfort zone, even if the percentages look ugly, he'd be better off in the long term than getting easy buckets against the Pacers and it not really meaning anything.

I don't think anyone is discounting the benefit of him having a reliable pull up 3 added to his game, that's objectively a good thing. But the discussion is how he goes about adding it, and the path to success.

OKC won't give him 3's like the Pacers for sure, but the league is filled with more "Pacers" than "Thunders". And if he can learn how to capitalize on those kinds of looks, he gets more comfortable taking 3's in general, gets better, and builds his confidence for the more difficult shots.

If I shoot pull ups at an abysmal rate like Scottie currently is, I can always think "It's alright, I can still hit other 3's at a good rate" and fall back on those. But if you can't even hit those, what do you fall back on?

You mentioned him developing counters etc before, sometimes counters aren't just "He's playing me tight, a jab step then a drive counters that" but rather "This guy is leaving me open for pull ups cause I can't hit them, maybe I work in some screens to get open for a cleaner shot", this still makes the defender adjust and can cause mismatches. It's not 1:1 but a team game, the latter has a higher success rate as it's an easier shot, just as valuable, and it creates potential mismatches for your teammates.

This is why I keep preaching the Walk -> Run concept. Scottie would have to shoot pull ups at a 35%+ rate for at MINIMUM half a season before it starts to bend the defences noticeably, realistically it will take him more than 1 season to manage that. So for a team that isn't likely going to be in the bottom of the league for more than a couple years, why spend the time focusing on something that is a much longer burn, than something easier and faster to develop like C&S 3's.

If this was year 1 or 2 of Scottie, and we were in a hard rebuild, I would be 100% on board. But this is year 4, and there is no way we are going to be a sub 25 win team next year, we don't have the time to let Scottie yeet everything he can. Our FO is not going to be investing in a long term rebuild, so we have to temper our expectations around it.

Our team is young, but it's not THAT young, so we have to be realistic about what we can/should do with the timeline we have.

I'll give you some positives about the pull up 3.

Last night he was 2/7, bad but not awful.

His catch and shoot numbers actually went down but his pull up 3s went up. The 2 3s he made last night were pull ups.

As for the bold, he's probably too reliant on that with Yak (our entire team is most likely).

He does need to work on his pull up 3s, and keep taking them, the difference with him though is I don't think he needs too many moves on the perimeter to get an open look for himself. He just needs 1 reliable 1. His sheer length and strides is his weapon if used correctly.

Earlier I showed a video of a simple and swift move towards the left to beat Bam on the perimeter, he beat Bam but was short on the pull up 3. It's that type of simplistic but deadly moves in which he needs to add.

[tsherkin]

That's kind of how the 3 is defended and used now, though. Nobody is going to let you shoot right at 24ft away above the break.

I agree. It's a problem, more because he's horrifically bad at it than anything else. And him bombing away at 26, 27% isn't actually opening things up. You can run a screen out and get beyond that without a ton of issue rather than popping from there all the time.

If he cleaned up a few of his early-clock pull-ups and looked more for screen entry beneath the arc, that would be better overall for his development, IMHO.

I still think he's playing the game the right way. If Barnes were displaying Jordan Poole-tendencies, then it might be a different conversation, but I think the issue with him has mostly been getting him to look for his own shot more. Hell, let him shoot more midrange jumpers AND more 3s, get that FGA up into the 20s. Full LaMelo mode.

Poole is an extreme reduction. I don't think anyone is saying that Scottie is chucking, just that we need to tweak his usage of the 3 a little to balance development with how bad he is from there right now. And how specifically he does much better on shots right at the line versus several feet away.

He's currently shooting 56.5% from 10-16 feet, maybe he should really test out if that's a new strength of his and take less shots from 3-10 feet and more around that range.

I think we all know he isn't going to continue shooting that percentage for very long. He's taken like 2 dozen shots from that range so far. Of course, what you're campaigning for here is more "let's see him use it more," and I am absolutely onboard with that. Even at a lower percentage, it's a critical counter for him to develop.

I'd like to see Barnes take 15% of his shots now from 10-16 feet and see if this is just a fluke of a small sample size.

There's actually no harm in testing it out.

Yes. He's at a little over 11% right now and could be taking it a little more often. Even literally 1 more FGA per game would be something. Get a pet move pulling up coming around a screen to the right, for example. Just hammer the right elbow and the nail, working the top of the circle and the elbow a little more.

[tsherkin]

Last night he was 2/7, bad but not awful.

That depends on perspective. That's actually a pretty trash percentage (28.6%). It's a single make away from a much better percentage, of course, but it's also in-line with his performance so far this season. The remark later about the makes being pull-ups is an interesting point, but 12 games into his season, the specifics (especially game to game) mean so very little.

He does need to work on his pull up 3s, and keep taking them, the difference with him though is I don't think he needs too many moves on the perimeter to get an open look for himself. He just needs 1 reliable 1. His sheer length and strides is his weapon if used correctly.

A lot of Scottie's 3s are extremely wide open, which is perhaps the most concerning part of his percentage. I understand him not being good at contested 3s and stuff like that, it makes sense at this development phase. But he's still struggling a lot when he's wide open.

But he has the moves to get open. A screen, movement away from the pull, his handle seems to be more confident so far this season... I don't think getting open is his issue at the moment, pleasantly enough.

[mrdressup]

He' s a poor PG. We' re going to ruin another player by trying to force fit him into a role he's not suited to play. He will give you nothing against league best defenses. There' s just no creativity there. His talent is his power game, and we are not exploiting it atop the three point line. The way we use Mogbo is how a contender would use Barnes to great effect. PF-small C who can extend the defenses.

[Tofubeque]

He' s a poor PG. We' re going to ruin another player by trying to force fit him into a role he's not suited to play. He will give you nothing against league best defenses. There' s just no creativity there. His talent is his power game, and we are not exploiting it atop the three point line. The way we use Mogbo is how a contender would use Barnes to great effect. PF-small C who can extend the defenses.

So we should be feeding those top of the arc possessions to Davion Mitchell?

Barnes will be used as a screener more when Quickley plays, I would hope.

[tsherkin]

He' s a poor PG. We' re going to ruin another player by trying to force fit him into a role he's not suited to play. He will give you nothing against league best defenses. There' s just no creativity there. His talent is his power game, and we are not exploiting it atop the three point line. The way we use Mogbo is how a contender would use Barnes to great effect. PF-small C who can extend the defenses.

He isn't a poor PG, though. He's the best playmaker on the team and has a clearly-evident impact on our offense when he's on the floor.

He isn't Magic, sure, and he has limitations because his scoring is relatively limited at this point, but his use as a playmaker is not one of our problems.

[HangTime]

He' s a poor PG. We' re going to ruin another player by trying to force fit him into a role he's not suited to play. He will give you nothing against league best defenses. There' s just no creativity there. His talent is his power game, and we are not exploiting it atop the three point line. The way we use Mogbo is how a contender would use Barnes to great effect. PF-small C who can extend the defenses.

He wants to play PG, and it's good idea.
Right now, he's playing with limited to even no spacing a lot of the times. Which I don't think people realizes, is good for his development. Darko is cranking up the difficulty now, so later, with spacing, Everything will open.

You just need a little patience.

Nick Nurse should have tried it extensively in his rookie year, for the reps.

[Badonkadonk]

I'm a little surprised to see Scottie so emotional in the pacers win. Yelling and screaming while Pascal didn't shake hands.

Then in this game against okc...looking kinda checked out while RJ seemed to be the one who cared the most.

Was all that Scottie emotion against the pacers something to do with Pascal?

Naw.

What you saw from OKC game is how demoralizing it can be to an entire team when you strip too many pieces away.

No Brown, no problem
No KO, no problem
No IQ, tougher...but no problem
No Yak and none of the above, big problem

It's about advantages. OKC can defend 1 on 1 because they have great 1 on 1 defenders including 1 off the bench. Then add in that they are smart and know when to help and when not to.

Barnes was double teamed most often when touching the ball inside the arc. So he had to give up the ball and the other 4 guys could not take advantage. And not hard to tell why....

Bruno...no offense
Davion...no offense
Shead...no offense
Mogbo...limited offense
Walter...limited offense
RJ...inside scorer
Boucher...hit nothing from outside

When you have 7 guys who shoot 2 for 24 from 3, that's an issue. And yeah. Yak can't either but he is a great screen setter, good rebounder, great passer, and finisher inside.

So what was there for Barnes to be excited about? We could never get anything going TO get the excitement up. And he'll, Barnes had more assist than the other starters combined. He tried getting guys going but just so many missed shots. And he himself his shot was not there.

So yeah, hard to get excited when it was bad right from the start

Temple was on the Raptors Show with Bonner and Blake today and he said how impressed he was with how vocal and supportive Barnes was during a blowout loss. Starts roughly at the 35 min mark:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2yYwiZaWMM6akcJAiJfgjw?si=03a83cf1859b47d5

I guess you never exactly know what the vibe is on the bench when you're not physically near it.

[manjusaka]

He' s a poor PG. We' re going to ruin another player by trying to force fit him into a role he's not suited to play. He will give you nothing against league best defenses. There' s just no creativity there. His talent is his power game, and we are not exploiting it atop the three point line. The way we use Mogbo is how a contender would use Barnes to great effect. PF-small C who can extend the defenses.

He wants to play PG, and it's good idea.
Right now, he's playing with limited to even no spacing a lot of the times. Which I don't think people realizes, is good for his development. Darko is cranking up the difficulty now, so later, with spacing, Everything will open.

You just need a little patience.

Nick Nurse should have tried it extensively in his rookie year, for the reps.

I agree he would excel on Mogbo’s role. However, it is really apparent that Scottie himself wants to play this way. Although he is not a poor PG, but he isn’t a good one yet. Sadly he is the best that we have now.

BBQ together on the court will be tricky, they all can run the point in a pinch, but I think currently non of them are starter level. Both IQ and RJ are natural scorers.

Scottie has the natural pass instincts to be a PG, it is something cannot be taught. However his skill level as a PG is… very lacking. He can’t break down the defender with dribble, at least he needs to get that to a healthy Ben Simmons level. Obviously, he needs to work on shooting. He also needs to get better on running the half court sets and be patient, cutdown the home run passes that wasn’t there.

Scottie is great on the open court. But he can’t rely on it. Remember his rookie year we were in the playoffs against 76s? We were really good transition team that year. But we were not getting much transition in that playoff run. Through the history, in the playoffs, when the defensive intensity go up, half court sets are the fundamental.

[Scase]

I'm a little surprised to see Scottie so emotional in the pacers win. Yelling and screaming while Pascal didn't shake hands.

Then in this game against okc...looking kinda checked out while RJ seemed to be the one who cared the most.

Was all that Scottie emotion against the pacers something to do with Pascal?

Naw.

What you saw from OKC game is how demoralizing it can be to an entire team when you strip too many pieces away.

No Brown, no problem
No KO, no problem
No IQ, tougher...but no problem
No Yak and none of the above, big problem

It's about advantages. OKC can defend 1 on 1 because they have great 1 on 1 defenders including 1 off the bench. Then add in that they are smart and know when to help and when not to.

Barnes was double teamed most often when touching the ball inside the arc. So he had to give up the ball and the other 4 guys could not take advantage. And not hard to tell why....

Bruno...no offense
Davion...no offense
Shead...no offense
Mogbo...limited offense
Walter...limited offense
RJ...inside scorer
Boucher...hit nothing from outside

When you have 7 guys who shoot 2 for 24 from 3, that's an issue. And yeah. Yak can't either but he is a great screen setter, good rebounder, great passer, and finisher inside.

So what was there for Barnes to be excited about? We could never get anything going TO get the excitement up. And he'll, Barnes had more assist than the other starters combined. He tried getting guys going but just so many missed shots. And he himself his shot was not there.

So yeah, hard to get excited when it was bad right from the start

Temple was on the Raptors Show with Bonner and Blake today and he said how impressed he was with how vocal and supportive Barnes was during a blowout loss. Starts roughly at the 35 min mark:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2yYwiZaWMM6akcJAiJfgjw?si=03a83cf1859b47d5

I guess you never exactly know what the vibe is on the bench when you're not physically near it.

Meanwhile we have people psychoanalyzing his post game presser for not being emotional after a crushing loss, yet being hyped after a win against the Pacers.

Temple is obviously going to glaze his teammates, but at the same time, lets think of all those games he was on the bench injured, he was always cheering, talking to guys when they sat for a res, breaking down the game etc.

The whole "Scottie doesn't care" think is blown out of proportion, I don't think I've seen a single player on this roster look like they dont give a ****, we'd have been blown out a whole lot more this season if that were the case.