JB7 wrote:His shooting not seeming to improve is a concern, but he is only 4 years into his career. So maybe there is still some upside.
Unlikely. Not impossible, but quite unlikely at this stage.
But like Magic, his 3pt shooting percentages won't define his game.
Sure. His inability to score at league average or better isn't only due to his 3pt shooting, no doubt. And if he can only ever manage 30-32% from 3, there are still ways to be efficient. Unfortunately, he doesn't have those tools. Doesn't have the quickness and doesn't have the ability to get to, and finish at, the rim well. We'll see how far along THAT comes, if at all.
And why I think that small sample size from the start of his 3rd season is interesting, is that is the only time the team was both competitive (had talent) and Scottie was more involved in running the team (no Fred). Let's see how his 4th season starts off with BQI.
But again...
Year 1: 74 GP, 2.5 months of 35%+ shooting (about 75 3PA), including a 40% month
Year 2: 77 GP, 1 month of 35%+ (about 45 3PA)
Year 3: 60 GP, 2 months of 35%+ (about 165 3PA), including a 40% month
Year 4: 62 GP (and counting), 0 months of 29%+
This year, he's far worse than usual, so there's at least that to be... not happy, but not-sad about, I guess? But generally speaking, he gives you a month or 2 where the shot is falling. So nothing that happened in year 3 is that surprising, it just represented a little better because his season was so shortened that those months were a higher proportion of his season.
But ultimately, his 3pt shooting is far less concerning than his finishing inside 10 feet and his proportion of shots at the rim. His gross inefficiency in year 4 is comparable Year 2 (the other season where he shot under 30% from 3). There are many routes to efficiency; he just hasn't shown us that he can take them, and he has become a laborious project as a volume scorer, to the point of largely not being worth the effort. Past 4 seasons, guys who haven't shown it yet probably aren't going to. You'll find the odd exception, but it's typically in guys who showed at least SOMETHING earlier on. Lowry and his draw rate, playmaking and aggressive driving, for example. Even Kemba Walker had more shooting touch early than Barnes. Kawhi showed a lot very early on and had better tools, the Spurs were simply too good to need him to rush. Siakam followed a path more similar to someone like Hakeem in the sense of coming to the game late and showing rapid improvement in his shooting ability... and then exhibiting the ability to score efficiently around another focal player (something we haven't seen from Scottie to date). And of course Siakam is generally a better corner 3pt shooter than Barnes, and has been for years. These are the common examples we see in Barnes threads, which don't really line up with his specific issues or context.
