The Big Question: Can Raptors' Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam really co-exist?

The Toronto Raptors are still trying to figure themselves out.

After an impressive 127-116 victory over the red hot Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Arena Wednesday to improve to 4-4 on the young season, the vision of what this team could be is becoming clearer.

A brilliant performance from Pascal Siakam Wednesday saw the talented forward finally return to All-Star form after a rough start to the season where he looked lost at times, highlighted by a 2-for-12 showing against the San Antonio Spurs the game before Wednesday’s 31-point, 12-rebound eruption against Dallas.

Siakam's tepid start to the season led to many obvious questions about his possible future with the club, especially because his contract is set to expire at the end of this season but also because of the apparent emergence of Scottie Barnes.

There’s been little doubt that Barnes has been Toronto's best player to start the season. It’s looked like there has been emphasis to groom him into more of a No. 1 option on offence, and he’s embraced the challenge, showcasing a more decisive, forceful post-up game and a much-improved looking stroke from outside.

Prior to Wednesday night, though, Barnes' emergence has appeared to come at the expense of Siakam and his touches, compounding the noise that maybe Siakam isn’t a necessary part of Toronto’s plans moving forward. After all, there’s a lot of redundancy in what Barnes and Siakam do on the floor as they can both run the floor well, post-up, shoot from the perimeter and make plays for others.

With how similar both players are, it’s always been worth asking if the two of them can actually work with one another and lead the team to success.

Sitting on a .500 record, it’s difficult to say either way, but there’s been evidence to support both arguments.

If you’re in the camp that the Barnes-Siakam duo is best for the team, then you need only look at how Wednesday played out.

Siakam was absolutely cooking and the Raptors rightfully recognized that and got the ball to him so he could go to work. Barnes, on the other hand, was ice cold from the field, going just 4-of-15 from the field, but he still found other ways to contribute, pulling down 14 rebounds, dropping seven dimes and coming away with four steals and two blocks.

Essentially, Barnes recognized he didn’t have it offensively, but Siakam did, so it’s OK to take a backseat and find other ways to help the team win.

And this same logic can be applied to Siakam taking a step back himself while Barnes has got off to a hot start. The two have recognized when one or the other has it going and have deferred when needed.

It’s a nice way to think about the team, particularly with coach Darko Rajakovic emphasizing an egalitarian approach to offence this season.

With that said, there is a counter-argument to this pair being able to work with one another, and all you need to do is look at what happened with Siakam against the Spurs and, before that, the Philadelphia 76ers.

In those games, Siakam combined for 18 points on 7-for-23 shooting. He looked passive and confused on the floor at times in those games while Barnes was thriving, even sparking a massive comeback versus San Antonio. The similarities of what they do on the floor looked like the culprit for this.

Yes, it’s still early in the season and they can figure things out, but both Siakam and Barnes look like they want to inhabit the same spots on the floor. It’s not really a secret that the two thrive posting up smaller defenders so they can go to their jump hook or turnaround games, but for the sake of spacing, if one guy is looking for that post-up, the other is going to have to be on the perimeter, where their effectiveness is mitigated.

Barnes is off to a great start shooting, but he isn’t a historically great three-point threat. Meanwhile, Siakam is shooting under 30% from deep this season and is 1-for-12 from outside over the Raptors’ last three games. These guys aren’t exactly great floor stretchers and when they’re on the floor together it can create disruption in the flow of the offence as the two hunt shots and matchups for themselves.

Siakam coming alive Wednesday was a good thing for Toronto, but, in some ways the Raptors were fortunate that Barnes had an off game. It made the pecking order clear, leaving no doubt that Siakam was going to be the guy that night. Will it be that way every night, though?

For the sake of their future, the Raptors should be invested in developing the 22-year-old Barnes as much as possible, meaning he should probably be getting more touches than Siakam, who at 29 and in a contract year would probably like to see things run more like they did on Wednesday.

So, can Barnes and Siakam co-exist?

They appear to be doing so at the moment, but it remains to be seen whether this is a viable plan moving forward.