Why Raptors need to figure out how best to deploy talented Scottie Barnes

It was roughly a year ago that Scottie Barnes went to Florida and got his butt kicked.

He wasn’t alone. As a group, the Toronto Raptors spent four days in Orlando last December and came home with two losses to what was then the worst team in the NBA and a whole lot of questions about their viability as a competitive entity going forward.

It was the start of a six-game losing streak and the heart of horrible stretch where the Raptors lost 14 times in 19 games that in many ways started the ball rolling on so much that came afterward: months of trade rumours; the firing of Nick Nurse and his coaching staff, the departure of guard Fred VanVleet in free agency, and many questions about the Raptors direction that even now still remain to be answered.

But the Orlando sub-plot was Barnes getting rag dolled by fellow 2021 lottery pick Franz Wagner. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. If anything Jalen Suggs — whom the Raptors passed over to take Barnes at No.4 — was supposed to be Barnes’ draft-day comp, but injuries slowed Suggs' progress in his first two seasons. It didn’t matter though because Wagner, whom the Magic were lucky to stumble into with the 8^th pick, was more than up to the task.

Over the two wins, Wagner made it look like the Raptors had drafted the wrong guy, as the big German wing put up 57 points on 18-of-29 shooting, including making 5-of-9 threes. He was +19 for the two games.

Barnes looked like a shadow of the player who had been rookie-of-the-year the season before, but seemed to be lacking the verve he’d shown so often that season. He scored 17 points while shooting 6-of-19 from the floor with just eight rebounds and one steal. It would be a poor line for one game, let alone for two games total.

Barnes drifted through his 73 minutes of court time in Florida. Wagner seemed as if shot out of a cannon.

It was all part of a sophomore slump that had Barnes coming into his third season with some question marks beside his name: his ceiling remained high in most people’s minds, but the likelihood of him reaching it was in doubt.

Eleven months later and that all seems like a poorly thought-out dream sequence in what was supposed to be an upbeat action comedy.

Barnes rolls into Orlando looking like a strong all-star candidate — and maybe more than that.

He’s the only player in the NBA averaging at least 20.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, six assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals while making at least two three-pointers a game — on 39.4 per cent shooting! If he keeps it up, Barnes will be the only player to top those marks in a single season since the three-point line was introduced. He’d also blow through his career highs in six significant statistical categories.

Perhaps most telling is his energy and engagement. It’s hard to imagine Barnes playing two full games and having just one steal and no blocks these days, or otherwise just coasting through his minutes. He’s had seven games so far when he’s shot less than 50 per cent from the floor and in those games he’s average 2.5 steals and two blocks — significantly more than for the season as a whole.

It all captures why Barnes remains somewhat of a mystery — in the very best way — as he leans into what appears to be a special third season. Even with 163 games under his belt, what kind of player he’ll be (other than very good) is still up in the air.

What seems ever more certain is that he’s on his way to something special, even if no one knows how it’s all going to look.

“[His versatility] is good but at the same time it's a problem because he has so many traits, so many things that he can do on a higher level,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said after Barnes was at his multi-tasking best with a line of 17 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds on 11 shots in 25 minutes in the Raptors' blowout win over Detroit on Sunday.

“I always say like, if you're really good at one thing in the NBA, like you're gonna find your contract, you’re gonna survive in this league. If you're really good at two things, like you’re a really good player, potentially a starter. If you’re really good at three things, you’re an All-Star. If you think you’re really good at four things, probably you’re out of the league and playing in Europe.”

It was a good line but contained a lot of truth. Part of reaching the upper reaches of your potential in the NBA, and likely in a lot of fields, is focusing obsessively on the things that you do best and achieving a high level of consistency in them. For all of LeBron James' almost limitless abilities, the peak was his last three seasons in Miami when he simplified his shot spectrum, increased his efficiency, and combined athleticism and basketball IQ at a level few ever have. He did a little less and achieved a little more a little more easily.

The challenge for Barnes and the Raptors is determining what that formula looks like. His emergence as an effective three-point threat (his bounce back from last week’s 2-for-15 funk with an 8-of-13 stretch in his last three games makes it seem all the more real) is the latest new wrinkle. How do the Raptors best utilize someone who is simultaneously one of their best catch-and-shoot threats; best post-up players and best pick-and-roll initiators?

“And that's a problem that I'm having with Scottie because he's good at multiple things,” said Rajakovic. “We gotta find those two or three things that he's gonna really take to take the jump to the next level and become an all-star player, which I believe he is."

Like what?

“We're still figuring out but as you can see he is such a good driver to the rim," the coach said. "He's really good connecting with his teammates, sometimes playing him in a position where he can set the screen and roll opens up a lot of things for us. It's still a process in work, he’s still 22 years old, I’m still a first-year head coach, we’re all learning.”

Barnes is certainly not interested in putting himself in any kind of box yet.

“I just play the game. Whatever comes to me, that's really what I take. I feel like when I'm out there, I'm myself: me having the ball, playing pick-and-rolls, playing off the ball, no matter what it is, I'm comfortable doing it, everywhere out there on the floor.

“I feel like my game is still growing. That's really just the main thing, my game is still growing. My shot is still developing, getting better every single day. Just keep working on it. That's really the next step for me.”

That he has taken such big strides so early in the season has to be heartening for the Raptors organization and the fan base alike. He arrives in central Florida in a significantly better place than he was a year ago, and if he keeps it up his team should leave Orlando in a better space than they did last year also.