There was a big part of me that dreaded LeBron James’ return to the Eastern Conference. The years of LeBronto, and the idea of James in his twilight years snuffing out the Raptors’ playoff hopes in infancy was almost more than I could bear.
Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown, James, and Embiid. Lord have mercy.
But then, Shams Charania made something clear: LeBron James would not just be playing power-forward for the Sixers. Rather, he’ll be slotting in at the point guard for at least a significant amount of
time. This means that the 76ers’ lineup may actually be James, Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown, and Embiid. This is a game changer. And not just for the 76ers, but for the Raptors as well.
People deemed successors to LeBron have frequently fallen short in some way. Paolo Banchero and Zion Williamson both haven’t quite developed into the archetype of unstoppable point forward, but I would argue that Scottie Barnes is closer to what LeBron is archetypically — a do-it-all forward who rebounds and passes as well as scores — than any of these score-first bigs that usually get compared to LeBron.
Since the end of the regular season, I’ve been an advocate of giving Scottie Barnes official point guard status; in a short sample size at the end of the year, Barnes showed that he was more than capable of dishing out assists as needed when Immanuel Quickley was out. In his Instagram bio, Scottie still proclaims himself to be a “6’9 PG”, and I wonder why this hasn’t been made explicit yet?
As Scottie is breaking out as a developing scorer and as one of the league’s premier defenders, I feel like his ability to facilitate an offence shouldn’t be thought of as an afterthought, lumping him into the “point forward” group. LeBron James, who famously played every position at least once in his career, saw one of his highest highs playing PG for the LA Lakers in 2020, leading the league in assists with 10.2 per game, and coming second in MVP voting. That was, in my view, one of his finest seasons in a very storied career. Am I saying that slotting Scottie in at the one is going to be what finally turns him into a superstar?
Yes. I think it just might.
Scottie Barnes is not LeBron James — and really, no one is — but allowing Barnes to focus on parts of the game that feel most natural to him could allow him to develop even more effectively than having him try to straddle multiple roles. The Raptors already understand that part of the key to unlocking Barnes is to remove some of the scoring load from his shoulders, but signs are pointing to a further shift of responsibilities being the thing that could change the trajectory of this team for the better.
The forward at point guard experiment doesn’t always work, and there is a need for true facilitators. But Scottie Barnes is not just any forward. With the Sixers paving the way, will success with LeBron as floor general make the Raptors reconsider how they’ve been using Barnes?
