Scottie Barnes has a *real* year ahead of him. A real year of basketball without an injured supporting cast, a real year of leadership on a team that looks to him as a number one option, and a real year of showing the league what the Barnes-led Toronto Raptors team can do.
When asked about his experimentation on the court last season at Monday’s media day, Scottie took a pause before delivering his response.
“Experimenting… not really much experimenting, you know? I’m trying to go out there and win…
It was a different situation last year.”
I believe this quote sums up Scottie’s, and thus the Toronto Raptors’, mentality for this year. Last year was last year — but the rebuild is over, and this team is now postseason or bust, with a great deal of those hopes riding on the Floridian forward’s shoulders. Scottie’s place on the Raptors is atypical for a star player, but then, the Raptors are an atypical team. While the archetype of two-way point forwards is anything but rare, Scottie’s embracement of a defensive identity for himself is notable, especially when paired with the yin to his yang, scoring-focused Brandon Ingram.
Barnes calls the Raptors a “complete roster” that is not “top-five heavy”, rather, “about thirteen, fourteen guys that can step on the floor every single night and make an impact on this team.” Going even further, the Scottie Barnes-Brandon Ingram tandem means that their top-five is not “top-one” heavy either, with two major two-way focal points rather than a central star around which the rest of the squad orbits. This makes the Raptors different from some of the recent championship-winning teams led by a single superstar like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Nikola Jokic at the lead.
Similar to the “Jays” of the 2024 Boston Celtics (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown), the Barnes-Ingram duo are similar players who have no clear role as either the 1A or 1B. Barnes speaks highly of Ingram’s playmaking and defence, attributes which he himself is particularly known for. Both men seem to want to do it all, but understand the specific roles in which they excel, that being, in Scottie’s case, bringing defensive impact.
Barnes describes the Raptors’ defensive identity as “aggressive,” focused on actively getting blocks and steals, with his own contributions coming in at more than 2 steals per game for his entire career with the Raptors, hitting almost 3 in his All-Star 2023-24 season. That could be Barnes’ ticket to establishing himself as one of the league’s premier two-way players, a status he believes he has, but acknowledges “comes with winning”. If winning basketball for the Raptors means Scottie going back to his roots as a defensive powerhouse with the offensive skills he’s developed, that seems like a role he would be perfectly willing to play.
Will this defensive focus mean a decrease in scoring output for Barnes this year? It’s entirely possible. While the forward does not appear to be taking an intentional step back in that area, Ingram will, by team design, be taking over a sizeable part of the offensive load that Barnes once shared with his teammates. Barnes’ scoring has hovered just below the 20-point mark for the past two seasons, but a shifted focus and newly defined role as the team’s go-to defender may reduce that to around 17 points per game.
When speaking about his offensive evolution since entering the league, Scottie has pointed to his improved ball-handling and midrange scoring abilities, but also acknowledged the reality that the three-pointer is a much newer weapon in his arsenal. Over the past two years, his attempts from the perimeter have gone up, while his efficiency has fluctuated rather wildly. Whether Scottie has solidified his shot from deep remains to be seen, but with the presence of Brandon Ingram and a healthy Immanuel Quickley, it may be that the three is reduced in his shot diet in some way. The spacing for Scottie Barnes will inherently be different because of his style of play, but playing to his strengths as an interior force could mean better efficiency and a healthier Raptors offence.
Stepping into year five, Scottie is quickly becoming a Raptors veteran. “I think I’m the only one left,” he said, speaking about the roster he joined the franchise with. “For the fans that have been very passionate these four years going into my fifth year, that I’ve been here, I feel like with this team we’ve got a lot to prove and we’re hungry. We’re going to go out there each and every single night to try and bring that excitement back to Raptors’ basketball.”
That’s a promise from Scottie. And with a new mission and new teammates, I think he’ll be able to keep it.
