Barnes continues to show growth, versatility in win over Hawks

TORONTO – The night started with something of a challenge, delivered from Raptors head coach Nick Nurse to his sophomore guard/forward/centre Scottie Barnes.

Since putting the finishing touches on a fantastic Rookie of the Year campaign, Barnes has been working on extending his range and improving his jump shot. As the fruits of that labour are beginning to show, Nurse wants to make sure that the talented 21-year-old doesn’t stray too far from what he does best.

“It’s natural, I think, for a lot of guys that come in and do a lot of work on their shooting, they want to take that work to the floor,” said Nurse, just before his team hosted the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. “But you’ve got to always remember, it’s kind of an extra add-on, and not forgot your bread and butter.”

“I’ve already had some discussions with him about it. The biggest thing for me with him is [he’s] gotta go to the basket. He hasn’t been [doing that] enough this year… My sense is he’s not taking it down there and using his physical size and strength to punish people at the rim.”

So, naturally, on Halloween night, Barnes came out masquerading as Steph Curry. Four minutes into the game, he drilled a step-back three over the outstretched arms of Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter. Trailing the play on the very next possession, Barnes took a pass from Gary Trent Jr. and stepped into another three on the opposite side of the floor. Then, he hit his third straight triple, this one from the top of the arc. Finally, his fourth attempt in four possessions – a deserved heat check – rolled around the rim and out.

As Barnes’ offensive profile continues to expand, his shot selection remains a bit of a work in progress. But this wasn’t settling. This was a young star learning to take what the opposition was giving him, and crucially, making them pay. Even his coach was impressed.

“Obviously, he was feeling it out there tonight,” Nurse said of Barnes, who hit a career-best five threes on nine attempts in Toronto’s 139-109 win.

Barnes’ development is right on schedule, as Monday’s game showed. Through six contests, his numbers are virtually identical to last season’s: 15.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.2 steals. But, given his role and team context, counting stats were never going to be a great indicator of his Year 2 growth. It was always going to require us to look deeper. And it was all there against Atlanta.

In last Wednesday’s win over Philadelphia, Barnes started at centre and served as the primary defender on 76ers star Joel Embiid. Now, with the injured Fred VanVleet out of the lineup, he was playing point guard and chasing around the speedy Trae Young. Even in an increasingly position-less league, and on its most versatile team, going from guarding one of basketball’s best and most physical big men to one of the game’s quickest and most dynamic guards in less than a week is a notable occurrence.

It also gave us one of his finest defensive performances. Last year, Barnes seemed far more comfortable guarding in the post than he did defending smaller and quicker players out on the perimeter. But here, he didn’t just hang with Young. The two-time all-star had one of the worst games of his NBA career.

With more size and length than Young is typically used to seeing, Barnes played a big part in neutralizing the Hawks star. Young scored 14 points, less than half of his season average, and committed 10 turnovers, more than twice as many as he combined for over the previous four games. He shot 3-of-13 and hit just one of his five three-point attempts.

“That just shows how versatile he is,” said rookie Christian Koloko, who got the start at centre on Monday. “He can play every position out there, basically. The good thing is that he’s willing to do it. When coaches tell him to play the five, he’s cool with it. Some other people, if you tell them to play the five they’d be like, ‘No, I’m not a centre’. But he’s willing to do it for the team so that shows what type of a player he is.”

On the other end of the floor, he was a steadying presence for a Toronto offence missing its most important – or, at worst, second-most important – player in VanVleet. Barnes recorded eight assists and just two turnovers, and the Raptors outscored Atlanta by 31 points in his 33 minutes.

More often than not, he made the right reads in transition. After picking off Young’s pass late in the first quarter, the former fourth-overall pick led the break and found Precious Achiuwa for the dunk. With his vision and at his size, he also has the unique ability to see over the defence and make plays that smaller guards might not be able to see. On a couple occasions, one in the second quarter and the other in the fourth, Barnes was able to throw the ball over the top of a Hawks defender and find Koloko in the pick and roll.

“It helps a lot with him just being 6-8, 6-9, or whatever they say he is,” Koloko said of Barnes, who’s listed at 6-foot-9. “Running the pick and roll with him, I think they tried to blitz him and it just allows him to see over the defenders [and make the pass]… It feels amazing to have somebody who can play the point guard position and he’s like 6-9.”

As for the jumper, after hitting just 30 per cent of his three point attempts as a rookie, Barnes is 11-for-21 from long range to open the new season. The sample size is small and he’s due for some regression, obviously, but that’s a good place to start.

It was a focus for him over the summer. With some mechanical adjustments to his release and a ton of reps, he’s shooting the ball with confidence and getting results. Now, it’s about finding the balance, and most importantly, continuing to read the defence and take what the opposition is giving him.

Last season, nearly 60 per cent of his field goal attempts came inside of 10 feet. Over his first six games, that number is down to 45 per cent. Thirty per cent of his shots are coming from beyond the arc, up from 20 per cent a year ago.

So far, Barnes hasn’t noticed a big difference in how teams are approaching him. Most of them will need to see that his improved shooting is sustainable before making the adjustment. If and when they do, that opens up even more options for Barnes, as both a scorer and a playmaker.

“I feel like they’re really daring me to shoot the ball,” he said. “But I’ve been working on trying to be consistent with my jump shot.”

“Last year, I feel like I was pretty good in the paint. I feel like when I get in the paint I get easy looks, easier finishes for me. Being able to go downhill, get in the paint, be aggressive, being able to kick out to shooters, that just opens up so many different things for our offence.”

As he gets more adept at making those reads and determining when the coverage calls for him to shoot, attack off the dribble or make the pass, he’ll become even tougher to stop. Gradually, we’re watching him take those steps.