In his first NBA game, Yaxel Lendeborg said that the NBA was “a lot of flopping, a lot of foul baiting, a lot of praying to the ref,” and gave some harsh criticism to a certain MVP-candidate for such behaviour. And it seems that Scottie Barnes has been dealing with this same issue in a very significant way this season.
People love the 2000s in part because they love the infiltration of street style and streetball into the league. That style of basketball, characterized by its free flowing offences
and beautiful ball movement is a joy to watch, and that joy is in large part preserved by the less formal officiating that lends to a lesser emphasis placed on fouling and free throws.
Free throws can be mind numbingly-boring, disruptive to a game’s flow, and frustrating to both players and fans alike. Their importance to the modern game of basketball cannot be disputed, but at the professional level, these disturbances can have a surprising amount of impact on the perceived quality of basketball that is being played on the court.
This was a rude awakening for some, no more than Lendeborg, a national champion turned Golden State Warriors rookie, who’s been a frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year award. Lendeborg has been given an outsized role in the Bay due to the lack of depth, stemming from Jimmy Butler’s season ending injury last year. In that position, Lendeborg has looked like a finished product, averaging 21.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 3.7 assists on very respectable efficiency. With star-like production comes a star-like presence, and when you get someone unfiltered as Yaks in front of a microphone, that means that the NBA has been getting a hard reality check from the 24 year old.
What started this explosion was Lendeborg’s first matchup with Luka Dončić, who has been averaging a career high 38.6 points, leading the league in scoring, while leading the league in free throws attempted. Lendeborg took issue with the latter half of this equation, skewering Dončić in a presser for his on-court behaviour.
“I had a lot of respect for him… but then being in there firsthand, just watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect,” said Lendeborg about the Slovenian star. “It’s not about the foul being called, it’s about him complaining the entire game. And then you get the foul call, congratulations bro… That shit’s weak.”
A lot has been made over the past several years about criticism of flopping, as opposed to unfair criticism of players getting free throws. The back-to-back MVP seasons of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were rife with controversy over exactly this matter.
The Canadian led the Thunder to playoff success in both years, but was heavily scrutinized for what many considered to be an over-reliance on foul calls to pump up his scoring numbers. And now, with Dončić at the top of the MVP ladder, it seems that for the third time in a row, there may be a free-throw dominant player being crowned with the NBA’s most prestigious award.
Enter Scottie Barnes. While injuries have kept him out of the last few games, Barnes’ development has slid onto a new track that few people seemed to be expecting. While he has maintained his facilitating and defensive responsibilities, the forward has turned into a bonafide offensive weapon, scoring 23.5 points per game for Toronto. His midrange has become an important tool in the Raptors’ arsenal, combining with his powerful physicality to concoct an event more potent version of Barnes than in previous years.
On the season, Barnes is averaging 6.3 free throws per game, making 4.3 of them. 18th in points per game, Barnes is 20th in free-throws attempted per. To some degree, what Lendeborg said correlates with reality. And yet, on his highest scoring night of the season, and of his career, Barnes got 41 points against Orlando, only getting to the line at three separate occasions, sinking two from the charity stripe.
That night, the game was exhilarating. It raised the question: had we drafted another volume scorer, in a point forward’s body?
But then, the very next game in Los Angeles, Scottie matched up with Luka Dončić and the Lakers, scored 29 points, but took 13 free throws to do it. The next game against the LA Clippers, Barnes had 15 free throws. In neither game did he shoot a particularly high percentage of them, 53.6%, to be exact.
So, what gives? Is it something in the LA smog that makes players draw contact and get to the line? Is what Lendeborg said about Dončić — and the NBA at large — all true? Maybe not so much in the former case, but in the latter, there may be some truth to that. While it helps with team success, getting to the line is ungraceful and unsexy, and in the Raptors’ case, it hasn’t necessarily resulted in winning basketball. But there’s something to be said about integrity, and achieving victory on the merits of skill, as opposed to reliance on pushing a system of rules as far as it will go.
Barnes, whether he takes them or not, has not proven to be a great three point, or free throw shooter throughout his career, so going from a great game with basically no time at the line, to a good one where he’s staying part time at the stripe is disheartening, and seemingly a less than ideal strategy for the Raptors. Scottie’s 28 free throws in two games are hopefully outliers, especially when coupled with his newer midrange shot diet, theoretically resulting in less time banging in the paint, and less time shooting free throws.
The reality of Dončić’s style of play has not pleased the masses outside of Los Angeles, and like Shai’s style of play, may very well go on to stain his legacy, regardless of what happens on the court. Sure, it’s nice to win basketball games, but it’s even nicer when the referees don’t play the game for the teams. Fouling and free throws are an inextricable part of NBA, and despite the league’s emphasis on a crackdown on flopping, boring, contact drawing basketball seems in no hurry to go away.
Ultimately, the Raptors are in no position to be picky with how they get their wins, nor is any other team in the league. But, sportsmanship has a place in this discussion too, even when such concerns are raised by a rookie on the other side of the continent.
