Should the Raptors be worried about Scottie Barnes’ preseason?

Es Baraheni dropped a fantastic video the other day discussing whether Scottie Barnes’ preseason should be worrisome for the Toronto Raptors. He didn’t sound the alarm, but he gave context as to why Barnes’ high rate of jumpers (and missed jumpers) this preseason is a continuation of his approach last year. Context is good.

Still, I’m not overly worried about Barnes’ mindset or shot selection. He said that last year was about experimentation, and this year is not. He knows how to drive and has been an incredibly successful rim finisher and offensive garbageman for a long time. He knows that there is money in them there hills. 

But I am worried about the Raptors’ intended usage of Barnes himself. There have, more or less, been two extremes thus far through his career. To start, he had virtually no plays called for him, and he found his own way to success through athleticism and intelligence. He was overqualified for that role. Last season, he was a high-usage primary initiator, and he was perhaps underqualified for that role. At least in comparison to other high-isolation players at or around his isolations per game (Devin Booker, Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, etc.). 

Where will he land this season? To start Toronto’s game against the Boston Celtics, Barnes does the following on the first five offensive possessions of the game: screens and cuts (doesn’t touch the ball), runs in transition (doesn’t touch the ball), sets a half-hearted pin-in screen from the corner (doesn’t touch the ball), stands in the corner (misses the 3-pointer when it comes to him), and stands above the wing while Brandon Ingram isolates (doesn’t touch the ball). 

Meanwhile, the Celtics race out to an 11-4 lead over those same few minutes. 

There will of course be growing pains, and these Raptors need time to acclimate to one another. This was Jakob Poeltl’s first preseason game, making it his first game on an NBA floor with Ingram. Moreover, due to so many injuries last year, the quartet of Barnes, Poeltl, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley played only 140 minutes together last season. Aside from Ingram, they need time to learn one another’s games, too. 

But where will Barnes be when they are acclimated? He shouldn’t isolate from the post as much as he did last year, yet he surely has to be incredibly involved. He is too talented and too impactful to stand in the corner and set occasional screens, cut, and fill lanes in transition. 

“You know whose name we haven’t called?” asked Brian Scalabrine, Boston’s broadcaster, late in the first quarter. “Scottie Barnes. Is he out here?” 

At the time he was on the bench and had put two rebounds and nothing else in the box score during his first shift.

He checks in immediately after and stampedes a catch to the rim, finally seeing the paint and a layup. He misses, but the process is strong. He takes a screen, draws a double as he sets foot in the paint, and finds Sandro Mamukelishvili for an open triple. Cash. Barnes knows what success looks like on the basketball court, and he knows how to access it. But will the Raptors know how to catalyze Barnes’ success when he’s playing alongside the other core players? 

That lineup sees him alongside youngsters in Jamal Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Ochai Agbaji, as well as role player and spacer Mamukelishvili. He sees lots of the ball and generally knows from where his touches are coming to come within the flow of the offence. The Barnes-and-bench group make a run to make the score respectable. 

Barnes makes a spectacular weak-side block early in the second quarter, appearing at the rim to reach 12 feet in the air and save two points. No matter what last season, when the team was losing and injured and ragged, Barnes treated defence like a life-or-death matter. That’s rare and remarkably meaningful. He is trying. He throws a wraparound lefty dime to a cutter under the rim. He’s remarkable even when his space within the offence is in question. Talent has never been an issue. 

And as soon as he hits the bench, the defence falls apart. Cutters find open lanes to the rim, multiple Raptors close out to the same shooter. Barnes might have his fingers plugging a lot of cracks in the dam on that end. He enters the game shortly after, and the defence is of course magically cured. Toronto shoots out to a small lead. Ingram creates a layup from the corner, and Quickley hits a triple in transition. It is behind the defence that the starters hold court to close the first half. Because the Celtics can’t score, a couple transition buckets for Toronto make the difference. Still, Barnes is again relatively invisible offensively, as Toronto’s spacing principles go out the door with a variety of players frequently standing in the paint at the same time.

The third quarter is a mirror image of the first. Barnes finds success when he’s with his younger, less established teammates and struggles alongside the traditional starters. To start the third, Barnes dribbles the ball out of bounds trying to attack in transition. He misses a transition layup on the next possession and is yanked a little early to see how Agbaji fares with the other starters. Upon his return to play with his Barnes-plus-bench group, he immediately dimes up a corner triple. Draws free throws, gets an early seal in transition. (He is blocked in between those moments. The scoring struggles have been real real real. Just, less real when he’s not with the starters.) 

He doesn’t play in the fourth. The Raptors roll with Agbaji and Mamukelishvili alongside the starters, then they give the bench some run to close the game. At first Boston’s bench beats Toronto’s, but then — again! — the Raptors stage a furious comeback, only to come up short. Barnes finishes shooting 3-of-13 from the field.

So should the Raptors be worried about Barnes? Probably not, he’s an excellent player. I’m confident his offensive approach will intensify when the games matter. Even if the jumper never comes around. But should the Raptors be worried about their own usage of Barnes? That’s possible. 

Darko Rajakovic needs to find better spots for Barnes to touch the ball. He won’t be on the ball as much, and he’s not a terrific screener, and he’s not a threatening floor spacer. So the team has to be creative in where to place him off the ball, how to position him and his movement within sets so as to weaponize his talents rather than simply sticking him in the corner. 

He is shooting 6-of-30 from the floor in preseason. It has been ghastly. He hasn’t been doing anything to help himself. But more significantly is that the Raptors haven’t been doing anything to help him, either. Both will have to change when the regular season begins.

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