The Top Five Picks
Scottie Barnes, Raptors
Barnes did what was largely anticipated of him in summer league, as well. He’s such a fun, energetic presence on the court. He brings it on both ends, and plays with great intent. Even at an event like this, he played so hard. He played every bit at the level that a top-10 pick should.
The problem is — unfair as it may be — he’s going to be compared for the rest of his career with the people taken around him in the top five. That’s the burden the Raptors put on him by selecting him over Jalen Suggs. Barnes has innate creativity that shines through, but he’s just much more of a project as a ballhandler and playmaker than the other players taken around him. He made some high-level reads as a passer on the move in the halfcourt. There were some positive moments getting to his spots as a scorer. He’s a freight train in transition because of his size. But they were much fewer and farther between than Cunningham, Green, and Suggs. He was much more comfortable out in transition as opposed to a halfcourt creator on the ball. He used his length at times to get to the rim, but just doesn’t quite have the handle yet to be able to consistently create when the game is more condensed.
On top of that, we continued to see many of the same concerns that Barnes displayed at Florida State in terms of scoring efficiency. He can’t shoot from distance yet, and he isn’t a natural finisher in the halfcourt. He made a couple of nice midrange shots that were self-created, but he also made only four of his 15 halfcourt jumper attempts overall. Barnes is going to be a good NBA player, and on some level you have to remove the context from which he was selected by the Raptors in order to evaluate him on his own merits. His performance was positive for a 20-year-old playing his first professional action. But the team used a top-five pick on him over the next guy we’re about to talk about, and every executive I talked to who attended summer league was absolutely effusive about praise for…
Wrong.
In college Barnes had the most assists per 40 of Cade, Green and Suggs. He also had the best AST to TO ratio of the 4. All while having the lowest Usage %.
In summer league Barnes had the most assists of the 4 (although Suggs had a slightly higher AST% to Barnes [22.9 to 19.3], but Suggs had a much higher USG% than Barnes [32.4 to 24.2].
Barnes also had the best AST to TO rate of the 4 in summer league.
IMO, these are indicators that Barnes is the most advanced playmaker out of the 4.
Ford has really slipped in his draft evaluations since the 2000's. I read he has a day job as a professor...maybe he is too bagged to give sufficient attention to his night job.