How Barnes, Olynyk combination can help Raptors exploit defences

TORONTO — Depending on how dark your sense of humour, poring over lineup data from the Toronto Raptors a season ago can be amusing.

It’s not for the faint of heart. Looking back at a 25-57 season should come with a warning label.

As you scan some of the lineups that saw the floor together you can’t help but wonder: How did they win 25 times?

Here are some of the pairings that saw more floor time together than Kelly Olynyk and Scottie Barnes, who profile as two of the most creative and versatile offensive players the Raptors have: Ochai Agbaji and Javon Freeman-Liberty, played more games and more minutes per game together, for example, as did Olynyk with Freeman-Liberty and Agbaji with Olynyk.

Dearly departed (from the Raptors) pairings of Jordan Nwora and Jalen McDaniels, McDaniels and Malachi Flynn, and Flynn with Nwora and Jontay Porter, had more minutes or games together than Olynyk and Barnes.

Olynyk and Barnes appeared in just nine games together, sharing the floor for 99 total minutes.

Olynyk joined the Raptors at the trade deadline on Feb. 9, but Barnes' last game of the season was on March 1 when he broke the middle fingers of his left his hand against the Golden State Warriors. In between was the all-star break. Barnes and Olynyk had barely been introduced.

It’s not hard to guess that Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic would like to see them share the floor a lot more this coming season.

His first chance will come Friday when the Raptors return to exhibition action with a visit to the Washington Wizards.

Rajakovic confirmed Wednesday that Barnes will make his first appearance in a Raptors uniform since he lost the last 22 games of the season to injury and eventually surgery. The all-star then missed training camp due to a personal matter and was held out of the first game of the exhibition play on Sunday in Montreal.

He's looking forward to getting back on the floor and playing against anyone other than his teammates.

“I'm just happy to be playing again. It’s been a really long time since I got hurt, so to be able to go play in the actual game it's just gonna be just super fun, I’m super excited for me,” Barnes said. “I've been playing with these guys all summer, and just willing to go out there work and build things out there on the floor.”

Barnes led the Raptors in minutes played last season and likely will again this year, so by default he’ll end up sharing the floor with a wide variety of teammates, but one combination to watch will be him with Olynyk, the centre who has carved out a niche for himself over 11 NBA seasons as a strong ballhandler, passer and shooter and someone perfectly suited to turn traditional NBA lineups on their head.

There's little question that Rajakovic is eager to further unlock some of the options Olynyk’s point-centre skillset creates.

During the Raptors' intra-squad scrimmage in Montreal on Friday he used Olynyk as the primary ball-handler with Agbaji as a screener in simulated 'crunch time' minutes. Rajakovic said later that he’s eager to see Barnes running that same action with Olynyk.

Olynyk is too, based on how effective it was with Agbaji, who is not nearly as big, strong, athletic or skilled as Barnes.

“I mean, we'll see, see where it goes. But obviously, with different lineups and units you have kind of strengths and play different ways,” Olynyk said. “I think that was one way, especially in the open scrimmage and with the lineup we had in Montreal for us to get the ball moving…

"(Agbaji) is a really good roller and when he’s in the pocket, he’s athletic. He finishes, makes plays. (But) Scottie’s elite at that as well, rolling and playing in the pocket. He's a big body, strong, can finish, can really pass. Yeah, that'd be an elite position for him to get the ball as well and hopefully get him there multiple times a game.”

Barnes is eager to see how it might pan out. The Raptors struggled in all kinds of categories last season, but one in particular was scoring in the last five minutes of close games, as their points per 100 possession fell by three in those situations.

A possible solution would be putting Barnes in situations to test defences alongside Olynyk, a skilled passer and three-point shooting threat.

“I think we've been working on that a lot. You play with different lines at practices, see how things go,” said Barnes Wednesday. “Kelly's great at passing. He can dribble really well for his size and just his vision on the floor. So being able to create those advantages where a (centre, guarding Olynyk) used to being in the ball screen, it kind of messes up a team or messes up some rotations, for sure. So just got to try to use that, exploit it at times, and see what works throughout the process, throughout games. If it keeps working, you know, you just keep attacking.”

Olynyk isn’t an over-powering type of big, but he’s more than capable of punishing smaller players at the rim if they do switch on him. If they don’t he shot 39 per cent from three over the past two seasons or he can put it on the floor and take advantage of mismatches on the perimeter. Conversely, Barnes' ability to lower his shoulder and score over and through bigger players at the rim is well documented and his passing ability means defences will have to be careful if they decide to send an extra defender.

One action alone isn’t going to solve the Raptors' woes from a year ago. But the potential of an inverted pick-and-roll featuring Olynyk as the ball-handling 'point guard' and Barnes as the rim-running, playmaking 'big' has the potential to be really fun, at the very least. There’s a good chance we’ll get to see it in action for the first time on Friday.

When it comes to lineup choices for teams trying to play competitive basketball again, fun beats funny any game of the week.