Is Scottie Barnes Ready For A BREAKOUT Season? | Player Breakdowns

The 2022 Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes didn't have the sophomore season fans expected him. But heading into his 3rd season, Barnes is ready to have a breakout year for the Toronto Raptors. Our Lead NBA Reporter Esfandiar Baraheni dissects the strides Barnes has made to improve his game and why he's ready to take... the Next Step.

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[MRBp]

I think some context to his scoring was ignored from year 1 to year 2.

It may both be 15 points but the way in which he got it was different, also the context around it.

Scottie as a rookie was scoring alot more from offensive rebounds on put backs from teammates misses, easy hustle points, scoring off his own misses.

Raptors didn't need to run plays as he would rack up points just from hustle plays, making cuts, also his touch around the rim + midrange was great as a rookie.

Year 2 he was scoring alot less off hustle plays & just crashing the boards and was doing more with the ball, taking more jumpshots & creating his own offense (that isn't from putbacks).

Also another context also being forgotten is that he dealt with injuries for large part of the season, played while hobbled with knee/ankle problems, also hand injuries.

He played through all of that to play 77 games.

When he was playing through injury he couldn't drive at the rim so was taking more jumpshots, was alot more pass first, his touch around the rim was off.

Also Scottie as a developing shooter & offensive player having knee/ankle/hand injuries effects his jumpshot form, effects his touch around the rim too and his ability to drive.

On defense he struggled even worse, was getting blown by alot, couldn't stay with the offensive player because of the injuries.

When Scottie got healthy again & stopped going down holding his knee almost every other game, that's when he finally started to play better.

Around January time was when he looked healthy again.
He then went on a month stretch where he was top 5 in clutch scoring in NBA.

He led Raptors in 4th quarter scoring & clutch scoring for the season, was one of the most efficient clutch scorers in the entire NBA again the past season after being top 5 most efficient clutch scorers as a rookie.

He was the most clutch Raptor by significant margin.

Also this was with worse shooters around him unlike his rookie season which FVV, GTJ and OG were they were elite to great shooters who team's respected alot more, which opened up space for him.

Teams even dared OG & FVV to shoot in a few games.

Scottie should have averaged 6 assist if the team wasn't one of the worst shooting teams, also would have opened up driving lanes.

[STAINAMNZ]

Scottie will be great trust me and the front office knows what they are doing they don’t always like listening to fans Masia is a genius 😄😄. TRUST THE PROCESS

[kianlahey]

Super star upside Scottie has all the intangibles, the athleticism, passing, rebounding, reading the game extremely well and passing the one thing Scottie needs is his skill work like shooting, isolation scoring, and dribbling to improve Scottie the witch is the easiest thing to attain in a player that’s why he has super star potential
As the second he becomes a scorer that u can’t stop one on one u can’t double as he’s an amazing passer and you would have to guard close as hypothetically he would be around a 37 percent three point shooter I see Scottie being a mvp first team all nba type player and if ur worried about defence he’s extremely versatile and alot defensive development comes from hard work witch has and experience witch simply takes time

He has the potential to be mvp and a number one option on a champion ship team

[markgruner]

It's actually the 2nd year most ROTY make the jump. The last 10 ROTY players made all star their 2nd year aside from MCW, Brogdon and I can't remember the 3rd right now. Add Scottie to that list. Will he go the Giannis route where he starts to blosson when they finally build the team with him in mind or will he be stuck behind Fred and Pascal for years to come because the front office doesn't want to admit it makes mistakes?

[mike_oxhurt]

They seem to be banking on Scottie becomign great, but have not been realistic at all with their recent moves and I hope the front office can start getting out of their own way after thid disaster season

[markgruner]

My main issue with Scottie is a lot of the blame lies on him. You see him in those 4th quarters. He just takes over. But for some damn reason for the first 3 quarters he will attempt like, 3 shots. That's gotta stop. He has to be aggressive from the jump ball and stop taking quarters off on offense. He could average 20 pretty easily if he actually took more shots, too many games he had single digit shot attempts.

[AndreInThe]

I dont view Scottie as a scorer first.

[Saed]

Barnes I don’t think will ever be first option … but he can definitely be a better version of Lamar odom . A point forward who can defend & do little but if everything . I think in order Barnes to make that jump … Raptors need to balance the Roster and need to move Pascal or OG … Get shooter on this team and get that guard who can get his own shot. Put the ball in Barnes hand and let him be playmaker instead of running 90% of your offence through Pascal or FVV …

[WheresWaldo]

No. This is basically who he is going forward. Might score a few more points and a couple more assists if he ever gets to play lead point for a team but he basically will forever be this over hyped player. Did not like him ore draft. Has not proven me wrong yet.