Official Scottie Barnes Thread

[LoveMyRaps]

Please make Barnes our starting PG already.

[God Squad]

I've been super busy with work/kids, I've missed the last 3 games. Doesn't look like he's playing well atm from the boxscores. I knew their would be an adjustment period with him and Pascal. But didn't think it'd effect him this much.

[EFF3KT]

Scottie looked the most tired I've seen him all season. Insanely late rotations, losing his man on defense, missing easy gimmes at the rim.
He has this tendency to front his man a lot and he loses them on defence as they cut to the basket.
I'd like to hope it's primarily fatigue but it is concerning to see if we don't see an improvement.

Glad to see him hit 2 threes though which is a huge bolster for his confidence. He has this me against world mentality when it comes to his jumpshot which I feel is why we sometimes see him explode in emotion when he hits a midranger. I don't blame the kid when every analyst said he doesn't have a jumpshot.

[JohnnyFlame]

He still looks as advertised with a good bball IQ and exceptional athleticism. Offensively he is a work in progress and he was getting a lot of easy baskets off of hustle plays. Unfortunately I think the league has discovered you can't sleep against the Raptors as they give a full effort but if matched effort wise they don't have the talent to compete with the top teams. They should just be patient with Barnes and indeed with the whole team. This is a season for development.

[pingpongrac]

I've been super busy with work/kids, I've missed the last 3 games. Doesn't look like he's playing well atm from the boxscores. I knew their would be an adjustment period with him and Pascal. But didn't think it'd effect him this much.

He was great against Portland until winning time (blocked at the rim by McCollum then committed two turnovers in back-to-back possessions with less than 90 seconds left) and he was really solid against Sacramento (but not aggressive at all and had numerous Gasol-esque possessions that should have been been shots rather than passes/hand-offs). Tonight was probably his worst NBA game until midway through the 3rd (blown by/missing rotations almost every defensive possession, two early fouls, a few turnovers, completely invisible aside from 4-5 rebounds) then things just started to click. He took an open three (and made it) then followed that up with an and-1 opportunity and another three within a 2-minute span.

I'd love for him to be more consistent, but it's going to take a long time for that to come to fruition. A 20-year-old that can periodically take over a game on both ends is extremely exciting though. He scored all 10 of his points in the 2nd half while also adding 7-8 rebounds, 3-4 assists and a couple of steals in the last 16 minutes he played.

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[DG88]

I think people are wanting us to give him the keys to everything but he's not ready for that level of responsibility yet. There are parts of his game that still need years of refining before those keys are handed to him. I think now the book is out on Barnes and just in a month and a half he's played almost of a regular NCAA season.

[lobosloboslobos]

it's a monumental leap from playing 24 MPG in 24 regional college games, which is what he played last year, to playing 35 MPG in an intense, non-stop, bruising 82-game NBA schedule in a new city (and country) on a new team under the NBA media glare and having to defend guys like Dame and Tatum night after night while putting up twice as many shots per game as you ever did in your life.

Cut the kid some slack. He's gonna be great.

[Danny1616]

He has a hit a rookie wall but still finished with 10, 13 and 5, which are impressive numbers.

Hopefully he can be more aggressive.

Golden State plays so fast and moves the ball so well, it was really incredible to watch.

[anotherhomer]

He's posting a Boris diaw line, which is decent

[vulture]

Teams have adjusted to him at the moment. they are loading to him at times and not giving him the midrange jumper. He's being forced to take the 3 and that's what teams are giving up to him. He's also being kept off the offensive glass and he's rushing to finish at the rim right now.

It will be interesting to see how he adjusts. He will have to take more 3s and he will have to be more powerful at the rim. I'm not sure if his legs are gone, but when is the last time he dunked?

[Yeezus_]

Scottie struggled but it is encouraging to see him consistently get 4-5 assists every game. The playmaking is real. We just need the coaching staff to see it and let Scottie playmake from the post and even from the perimeter. I just hope his finishing touch comes back because he has struggled with finishing at the rim for a while now. If he doesn't have great touch, its going to severely limit his upside

One of his biggest flaws was his finishing ability in college, he wasn't good at it. So it was surprising to see him finish so well early in the season. Things might be normalizing now.

[vulture]

https://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2021/11/22/scottie-and-pascal-fit-and-more-silver-linings-from-a-loss-to-the-leagues-best/

Adjusting to the adjustment. Barnes has less viable lanes to the rim than he did earlier on in the season, so he has to hunt more opportunities as a cutter, screener, shooter, and he has to dominate his possessions in transition. The 2nd half was an extremely tidy offensive half for Barnes. It wasn’t an explosive offensive performance by any means, but he provided value despite the defense playing him tough. Hit two threes, took 7 free throws, made great reads as a passer, grabbed 3 ORBS – stuffed the hell out of the stat sheet. It was a super nice close to the game for him.

[MikeM]

He's got to shoot the open 3s. It doesn't look that bad. It'll be easier for him to penetrate if he can draw harder close-outs.

[rrdjutriurt]

Scottie looks like he has hit the rookie wall already. Body language is nowhere near where it was earlier and it looks like he's also gotten in his head somewhat. He was use to coming off the bench in college so playing big minutes every other day in a man's league is a big transition for him. You can't play on adrenaline every day but as he adapts to life as a pro he will figure it out and assimilate. The talent is there and he will add strength as well as time moves on.

[OakleyDokely]

What we need to recognize is that it's hard to score efficiently in the NBA as a rookie, especially with the recent rule changes. It's a big adjustment even for vet stars who've seen their efficiency drop.

Top 6 picks, FG% this season:

1. Cunningham: 35%
2. Green: 37%
3. Mobley: 49%
4. Barnes: 48%
5. Suggs: 32%
6. Giddey: 39%

When compared against his draft class, Barnes is still performing very well, even though entering the season not much was expected from him.

[kirkwood]

https://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2021/11/22/scottie-and-pascal-fit-and-more-silver-linings-from-a-loss-to-the-leagues-best/

Adjusting to the adjustment. Barnes has less viable lanes to the rim than he did earlier on in the season, so he has to hunt more opportunities as a cutter, screener, shooter, and he has to dominate his possessions in transition. The 2nd half was an extremely tidy offensive half for Barnes. It wasn’t an explosive offensive performance by any means, but he provided value despite the defense playing him tough. Hit two threes, took 7 free throws, made great reads as a passer, grabbed 3 ORBS – stuffed the hell out of the stat sheet. It was a super nice close to the game for him.

He had 3 points, 8 boards and 3 assists when the game mattered, mid way through the fourth the Warriors emptied the bench and thats where Barnes boosted the stats

It was a poor game for him when it mattered

[JN]

Please make Barnes our starting PG already.

Please don't.
He is not ready for it and it will not be good for his development IMO. He is not a great ball handler yet nor does he have a jump shot to create space for him to effectively penetrate and get good passing lines.

Let's try to get him a bit more involved... a few more plays. Certainly get it to him in semi-transition plays. And have him run a few things in half court to build his confidence while he has his limitations.

Insulating him some other high usage players, even if you call them hogs, is not a bad thing for at least until the trade deadline.

[JN]

I ended up cashing out my $100 bet for Scottie for ROY ($700 payout). I cashed out for about $175.

A number of reasons:
- Scottie is still #1 in the current odds at +225, so the cash out pays a bit more. But Evan, and especially Cade will soon bite into those odds.
- Even if Mobley is hurt as long as he plays 65 games it won't come into play.
- Cade is starting to get his game going, and will get usage. He also has at least some tools to handle it better than say Scottie.
- Some elements of Scottie's game are struggles right now -- some blame others -- I don't blame anybody, I simply cite a developing player who has to work on some tools.

And mostly I was using this bet to buy a new golf driver next year if I won. Gambling like that makes no sense, granted, but that is what I did. But I have had such a good run of betting the over on Scottie assists bets over the past 2 weeks (including one at +350) that I have more than surpassed my gambling goal on Scottie Bets.

[KP730]

https://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2021/11/22/scottie-and-pascal-fit-and-more-silver-linings-from-a-loss-to-the-leagues-best/

Adjusting to the adjustment. Barnes has less viable lanes to the rim than he did earlier on in the season, so he has to hunt more opportunities as a cutter, screener, shooter, and he has to dominate his possessions in transition. The 2nd half was an extremely tidy offensive half for Barnes. It wasn’t an explosive offensive performance by any means, but he provided value despite the defense playing him tough. Hit two threes, took 7 free throws, made great reads as a passer, grabbed 3 ORBS – stuffed the hell out of the stat sheet. It was a super nice close to the game for him.

He had 3 points, 8 boards and 3 assists when the game mattered, mid way through the fourth the Warriors emptied the bench and thats where Barnes boosted the stats

It was a poor game for him when it mattered

while it wasn’t a great game by Barnes, I don’t agree that he only got stats when it didn’t matter. other than rebounds, Barnes actually degraded his stats in the 4th by missing a bunch of shots/free throws

Barnes got most of his points and all his 3pt shots in the 3rd quarter when GS starters were playing

[JN]

Before the season we expected Scottie's development path to all star level or better, to be slow and far from sudden. He was a developmental project we thought.

And then he was very good to start the season and it got our hopes up that he was ready to be a star very shortly (and superstar?). It's a tough season -- we want to keep hope on our young players and hope they keep on surpassing what we want. But now he is normalizing in certain regards, and people are blaming everything but Scottie. I am not blaming Scottie -- just realizing that we are getting to normalization and he is probably further behind (right now) then we wanted a few weeks ago. But if we compare it to expectations that we had at the beginning of the season (and probably management as well) we should be very, very happy with where he is at.

Good to see his assists, his threes. His finishing has certainly normalized, and his defence has seemingly been exposed a little more (and that pretty much happens to every rookie). Insulating him a bit for now is good, even if we try to "extend" him out a bit.