Why Scottie Barnes is driving straight to success this year for the Raptors
First Harold and Kumar are hungry. So, burgers. But a wrong turn brings them to a hospital, where a wrong turn means Kumar performs surgery. A wrong turn means Neil Patrick Harris steals their car. Then jail, a cheetah, hang gliding, wrong turns the whole way, until, finally, burgers. The point being: taking the wrong turn can be funny, and it can advance the plot, but it’s not often going to result in immediate success.
For the Toronto Raptors last season, wrong turns were in many ways responsible for a variety of offensive weaknesses. And this isn’t a metaphor — literal turns. Turned backs, curved edges, poor spins. Add it all together, and Toronto ranked second-last in field-goal percentage on shots taken out of drives last season at just 46.3 percent.
Scottie Barnes was indicative of Toronto’s own limitations while driving. Among 60 players to have averaged at least 10 drives per game, Barnes ranked 55th in field-goal percentage, at 46.9 percent. This excludes passes, of course, which when included raise his percentile rank. But just limited to scoring, his driving was, well, limited. So many of his drives were of the ‘bully’ variety, with him turning his back midway through, slowing down and sometimes opening passing lanes, keeping his dribble, but ultimately allowing defences to recover and take away advantages. He didn’t always reach deep in the paint on his drives, and despite his immaculate touch, he was a below-average finisher from the short midrange last season.
It is Giannis Antetokounmpo perhaps who defines success while driving. He finished second in field-goal percentage last year on drives among players who averaged 10 or more, which has been the case for a while — he has been in the top three in the league in that stat every year since 2018-19 (mostly in first place), hovering at or above 60 per cent efficiency on shots out of drives every season during that stretch.
And it was Antetokounmpo whom Barnes channeled in the first quarter when he drove against the Brooklyn Nets. He took a pick and roll from Jakob Poeltl and looped his dribble almost towards the halfcourt line, easily allowing his man to slide over the screen. Then he turned towards the rim, turned further inside, then further, absorbing contact from his defender, shrugging through it, then blasting through it as he picked up his dribble. One step, two, he jumped and extended, Statue of Liberty dunking from one stride inside the free-throw line. It was a preposterous show of strength, length, and athleticism. But most of all, the drive involved Barnes multiple times taking the right turn.
Barnes did not turn his back. He did not even slow down, despite taking the full blow of his defender’s mass and momentum. He simply drove straight, straight, straight, right to the dunk. Powerful steps, powerful core. Him becoming one of the world’s best drivers — which is entirely within the realm of his abilities — would go a long way to unlocking even more of his heads-up, dynamic-passing, advantage-creating, rapid-processing superpowers.
It was RJ Barrett’s ability to always reach the rim on his drives that meant he inherited Gary Trent’s Context King crown on Toronto’s roster. He drove more and shot more efficiently on drives than Barnes last season, though both advantages were slight. It was likely for this reason, perhaps more than for any other, that he led Toronto’s roster (among rotation players still on the roster when the season ended) in offensive on/off differential.
But against the Nets, Barnes multiple times showed that he is ready to drive straighter, truer, and faster. Later in the first quarter, he rejected a pick and roll, drove middle and put his man on his back, then euro-stepped around the big defender waiting in the lane before laying it in with ease. At every point he continued churning forward, his path never changing from the ultimate destination of the rim, his hips and back telling the truth of his unvarying direction.
When Barnes was asked on media what specific skills he developed over the summer, he did hint at this specific change:
“I would say the thing I’ve been working on the most is my shot creation, just getting off the dribble, working in different sets that we have. Just working on being able to get to the basket and get to my spots more efficiently, where I can be able to create for others and create for myself,” he said.
Now that sounds boilerplate, but he has often been honest about what improvements he has both needed and implemented. Before the 2023-24 season, he said he needed to work on his cardio, and then he became the player who ran the furthest distance in the league, all while taking leaps on both ends in pretty much every area. He knows best what he needs best.
It wasn’t just Barnes. Gradey Dick drove through traffic and finished through contact. (He looks much stronger. Better all around.) Ochai Agbaji looked particularly useful on the offensive end, not as a shooter, but as a cutter, driver, and finisher. (He has shown off that inside-hand scoop layup multiple times this preseason.) Jamal Shead carved through the defence for easy dump-offs for easier layups. Immanuel Quickley in his first game back even drove straight to the rim on multiple occassions, rather than driving a few feet to the outside for his patented scoops and floaters. (He had a blowby in the third.) The entire team, perhaps, looks to be more committed to straighter, stronger drives. Maybe Barrett’s offensive on/offs will suffer, as the team will be less reliant on his individual skills, potent though they are, but the team’s offensive rating will benefit.
Most importantly, there is much that the leader and bellwether Barnes looks to have improved. His jumper, both the mid-range pullup, and the 3-pointer, seem significantly faster, more confident, and more accurate. He talked at length about how he improved his communication (?) over the offseason. He was an All Star last year. And if preseason is to be believed, he is ready to be significantly better this time around.
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