The unheralded aspect of Scottie Barnes' development

The Toronto Raptors were one of the best regular season teams for almost a decade and this current core is building a similar identity because of a few factors. And it's rubbing off on Scottie Barnes. Listen to the full episode on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

- Makes a move, gets in the paint. For the tie, tapped up and good. It's Barnes offensive rebound put back.

AMIT MANN: You mentioned the trapping that teams are doing with Fred, The key to beating any kind of trap is how quickly you can make that first pass, right? And then with that, you need a person like Scott, who's so good at this. Like, his usage has gone down a little bit, but when they need him, he's kind of there. And it's in those situations that--

YASMIN DUALE: Yeah. With the 3 or the pass, yeah.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. When the trap happens, you've got to make that first pass really, really quickly. Otherwise, you're screwed. And if it's not Scottie, it's Gary. Or if it's not Gary, it's OG or Pascal. Like, they're reading each other so well, and that's where the chemistry comes into play too. OG and Scottie, their job is to execute in mismatches, create those advantages, do the kick outs when you do get doubled, beat your check down the court, trying to get some easy buckets when you can.

For OG, hit your catch and shoot 3's. For Scottie, be that release valve when traps happen or just find the open space of that way when they do get into a jam, like, you're the guy that they can find. And he's been so good at making really smart decisions.

YASMIN DUALE: Oh yeah. He's been a main character in a lot of those clutch moments just from doing that job, being that cleanup guy who cleans it up around the rim, makes the correct pass, kind of acts like the connective tissue of the team.

AMIT MANN: He did me a solid yesterday, actually. I had him to score at least 10 points, and he did that down the stretch of the game when he had 7 points.

YASMIN DUALE: It was dicey.

AMIT MANN: It was. Oh, it was. It got really, really tight, and he had 8 points. And then he got fouled, and just like hit these free throws, hit these free throws, and he did. So thank you, Scottie, for making me some money. Much appreciated.

- What a finish by Scottie Barnes. How about that over the shoulder?

- And we talk about someone has the potential to be special, that's where it comes from as well.

AMIT MANN: I saw Chris Bosh yesterday. He posted a quote and he said that the difference between a bad, good, and great team is focus. And that applies in a lot of different areas. It's like you're focused on being able to move on after loss, your focused on each possession, you're focused on the task at hand, you're focused on executing sets. He's like that is the difference.

And with that Hornets game yesterday, you could see the core was tilting a little bit with the Hornets. Like, they were really putting on a lot of pressure in that third quarter.

YASMIN DUALE: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: And the Raptors made a run on themselves and there wasn't celebrating. Scottie Barnes hit a 3. He doesn't hit that many 3's anymore, doesn't even shoot that many 3's anymore. I guess that stretch where he was asked to shoot like five a game has kind of gone away. And now he's like, no, be a center, be in the dunker spot, being an opportunistic scorer.

But, anyways, I mean, I get why that happens because Gary Trent jr. Has gone insane. But yeah, it's like stuff like that is that they're so locked into each and every possession and it's kind of like completing the task at hand, and that's what I loved about the Raptors, the Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan era Raptors that they were so focused and they took care of business.

YASMIN DUALE: Exactly. And I don't think people realize how expressive Scottie Barnes was in college and high school. Like, the difference in his focus and his concentration. Anyone who's known him in days prior to professional play has said that the thing that stands out about him in the NBA is how calm and focused he is and how he's reduced his celebrations so severely. Like, this guy would be elated after a simple pass. Like, he would be jumping.

All of his prior teammates would talk about how his energy was just kind of the most noticeable thing about him, but the change and the maturity that you were already seeing playing on this team. And, honestly, just seeing the trickle down effect of the championship having on the veterans of the team today who were-- I don't want to say peripheral pieces of that championship team, but they weren't the main characters, they weren't Kawhi and Kyle Lowry.

Obviously, Pascal was important to that, but you're just seeing how that experience in of itself is kind of trickling down to this current team and how-- it's already how OG is built, so he didn't he didn't have to do much. But yeah, it's having such a positive effect on Scottie and Gary Trent and everyone else on the team. Like, it's been great. It's been great seeing how professional they are. And yeah, you're seeing the benefits of being a winning team, winning organization.

AMIT MANN: You see Gary celebrating, though. He had a little hang time on a dunk yesterday.

YASMIN DUALE: Little bit, yeah.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. And that's OK. I don't want him to just completely abandoned who he is. Like, that's who he is, that's who he is. But Pascal, he only yells at Bobby Portis. Fred VanVleet rarely does anything. OG is OG. So I get it. And it's building that professionalism. And that's what I thought yesterday's win was, it was a professional win. Like, you bend but you don't break and you keep on running your sets, you stay devoted to your system. And that's been one of the best parts about this. Like, damn the stats, like, those are obviously very important. Yes, you're running your actions really well. Everything is very crisp, but they're so locked in.

- Anuoby, uh-oh. Good golly.

AMIT MANN: They're regaining that formula that made them a great team for so many years, and also eventually a championship team.

YASMIN DUALE: Yeah. I mentioned it, I think it was a couple of games ago. They've had a lot of clutch games lately. And I mentioned that it seems that whenever they're in clutch minutes, they look almost bored. Like, the way they get into it, there's no erratic behavior, no one is frazzled, they're extremely calm, they don't even change their pace, like, their speed up the court, bringing the ball up. Final minute, they remain the same, it's very steady.

But you could see the opponent making the mistakes. Like, you're seeing the opponent opposing turnovers in the clutch and everything, even versus Miami. They're fumbling the ball, losing it, it's getting out of bounds and everything. They're taking ill-fated shots and everything. So you're seeing just a difference in their clutch time. So maybe all the reps, all those close games, all those fourth quarter comebacks are kind of benefiting them now. But it's not fun to watch, but it seems to be very good for the team.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. Stress, right? They actually lead the NBA in clutch minutes over the last 15 games, so there you go.

- This is a fun group. They just grind, they compete, and they're open.

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