Boogie! wrote:pingpongrac wrote:HiJiNX wrote:I think we don’t appreciate how good Barnes is because his biggest weakness is scoring (which he’s still pretty decent at). But he does everything so well. And has huge value.
Scottie had a pretty rough stretch for a few weeks after the Lakers game where he was generally floating around and not being near as assertive as he should have been without RJ/Poeltl while the majority of our role players were struggling, but he has still been a top 20ish player this season considering his two-way impact. Hopefully today's game is a sign of things to come (again) and RJ being back allows him play how he did for the majority of the first ~20 games. We're at the point now where I expect 20/8/7 type numbers (or better) from Scottie pretty much every game, but it all comes down to his effort and focus. When he's locked in, he arguably has the impact of a top 10 player.
The issue with Barnes is there should be no debates about effort and focus at this point in his career. You pay this man to carry you when your team sucks. That’s why he’s the franchise max guy. The expectation is night in and night out you must produce even when no one else is producing we should know that at least you’re going to show up. Chris bosh got slagged for not being a proper franchise guy, and yet I’ve seen more consistency in his effort and play than Barnes. His supporting casts were always so much worse.
Effort level and focus are pretty much the only things holding Scottie back from being a perennial All-Star/All-NBA player. His ability to read the floor and his IQ are up there with the best in the league and he can do just about everything at a pretty high level while he has very few weaknesses. I'm so critical of him sometimes because it is clear that he has the potential to be a dominant force that impacts the game all over more often than not, but sometimes he just floats around and seems to be going through the motions.
