Ways teams will challenge Raptors' Scottie Barnes at point guard

Amit Mann and Imman Adan discusses the pros and cons of Scottie Barnes at point guard. Where he will be challenged, developmental steps and more!

After the departure of Fred VanVleet, Toronto responded by signing Dennis Schroder, who has a strong bond with Darko Rajakovic from their days together with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team also has Malachi Flynn and potentially Jeff Dowtin Jr. if he makes the opening night roster.But with Barnes, a player who has "PG" in his instagram bio, this is what the emerging talent wants. The flashes have been persistent with Barnes. The no-look passes, the drive and kicks, the moments of vision passing. But now, he will have the ball in his hands more than ever before and his on-court leadership, situational awareness and decision-making will all be put to the test.It's still unclear what, if any, major roster changes lie ahead for the Raptors. Pascal Siakam has not been traded (yet) and O.G. Anunoby, a player who was heavily sought after at the trade deadline, has a player option after the upcoming season.

But whether Siakam or Anunoby are with the team, it appears the Raptors are aiming to make Barnes a higher usage player next season. Listen to the full podcast on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

IMMAN ADAN: I think hopefully, with the ball in Scottie's hands, we're going to get a more aggressive Scottie Barnes. Because I think sometimes he kind of got lost in the offense a little bit, and I think having a more aggressive Scottie Barnes just makes this Raptors team better. It changes the look of this team entirely. So another point.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. Yeah. And there's-- yeah, I mean, maybe it's unfair to compare him to Fred necessarily, because they're two very different players, but the idea was that there are a few things that he does offer versus Fred. Now Fred, like, he's going to go and do great things in Houston. I don't really have a doubt about that. But for Scottie, he is getting what he's looking for. Right? This is what he wants. And when we saw him take over fourth quarters, largely it was him with the ball in his hands and he was causing havoc.

Now, is he able to do that, sustain that over the course of a game is the question. Can he night in, night out set the pace of the game and control the pace? Like, he's going to be challenged quite a bit with his dribble. I think that's fair to say. I mean, overall, I think with a player like him-- and I'm sure he's working on this right now, but the Alex Carusos, the Pat Beverleys, these are the guys that are going to be probably guarding him. They're going to be picking him up full court, and he's going to have to navigate that.

And he's already mentioned that some of those kinds of players are the ones that give him trouble because he's not always able to see them in post-ups where they're coming from, right, just from his sight. And those are going to be the things that he's going to have to deal with game by game. But--

IMMAN ADAN: He'll get into his dribble.

AMIT MANN: Definitely. Yeah, and that's going to be the MO. And then he's going to have to, you know, in a pick and roll situation, if he is given those kinds of reps-- I don't know if he will be. But those 18-foot jump shots that he was hitting towards the end of the season, I saw-- like I had-- I did a video on this. He shot 10% better in the last 17 games via the mid-range. So can he make those shots? Can he force teams to go over on screen so he can continue to get downhill and penetrate the paint? And it's going to be his challenge. Now, he loves being able to find his cutters, and I don't doubt that he's going to be able to continue to do that. But the ball handling is going to be a big challenge for him, I think.

IMMAN ADAN: And they're going to go under on screens, right? Like that's the sort of issue with having Scot-- like, in terms of getting into the cons, one of the biggest ones there is the Raptors finally have a big man who can roll. They finally have a roller. And now they don't really have the ball handler unless you-- Malachi Flynn takes another leap. And we can talk about Malachi in a bit, I guess, but for Scottie, they're going to go under screens, right?

And how do you navigate-- like, I like that you brought up the dribble because his handle is going to be pertinent to trying to navigate through that. Because you're going to have no space to operate under. Can you still find something? And that's where his passing is going to become obviously so incredibly important, but he's also going to need to have a 3. Like, that's just the next step. If you want to be a lead ball handler in this league, if you want to be a point guard-- not a Bam Adebayo who can still be the hub of the offense.

So much of Miami's offense runs through Bam Adebayo. I think that that could be so great for a guy like Scottie Barnes, and I think the Raptors are going to run a ton of dribble handoff next year, too. I think we're going to see some of the things that Miami does, just in terms of the creativity of getting their guys looks. Can you be, you know, the Draymond Green in certain situations? And it's like-- maybe, OK, a little bit different.

But you need to be the hub of the offense, but you need to be able to take that outside shot if you want to be the main ball handler. He's going to need a 3-point shot. Just in terms of long term, not just with this season, because if this season is really about Scottie Barnes's growth and about his trajectory and finding things, if your role is point guard, your role includes it-- it is important part is that outside shooting. That pull-up shooting, number one, but also just having a 3. Just like being able to take a 3 is so important as a guard.

AMIT MANN: Mm. I wonder if he's going to be as disciplined as we are looking for him to be with the ball. I mean, his passes are flashy, they turn heads, and they make you go wow, look at this, what this guy's doing at his height. But, I mean, Fred had mentioned this, too, towards the end of the season-- that what he liked about Scottie's growth throughout the season was that he was making smarter passes. He wasn't making-- wasn't as risky. He was being smarter with the ball. He was taking care of it.

Now, that was part of the Raptors' MO-- limit turnovers, force turnovers, we know the deal. So maybe that's a bit different going into next season. I'm very curious what we see from Darko, what kind of system we see. We all know the spacing limitations that the Raptors present. However, I do wonder what an offense that has a bit more pace to it, that has more touch screens, that has more slips, more cuts, that are better timed.

And if they're optimizing the space on each part of the court, which is these are the things that we're kind of getting from what Darko is going to be bringing forward with the previous experience he's had in Phoenix and also with the Grizzlies-- I wonder what that looks. Because we haven't seen that, right? We know the spacing limitations. Yes, Fred shot 35% from 3 last season. It was a down year. Actually, funny enough, Dennis Schroder-- Dennis Schroder and Fred shot the same percentage on catch and shoot 3's last season, which is funny.

IMMAN ADAN: I think the difference in that, though, is so much-- and Fred had a bad year. And I think when we're talking about--

AMIT MANN: He did, yes, he did.

IMMAN ADAN: --what to sort of replicate or what the Raptors need, they don't need Fred from last year. They need Fred from two years ago. Right? Like, if you brought Fred back, we would be having this conversation about-- not like Fred replicating last year, but getting closer to the year before. Because that's the type of guard that the Raptors truly need. But beyond that, even Fred last year, the difference between him and Dennis Schroder, despite the fact that they shot the same on catch and shoot, is defenses are scared of Fred in a way that they're not scared of Dennis Schroder.

I mean, you still want to get a guy out there, I guess, but he doesn't-- he's not the threat that a Fred VanVleet is because Fred VanVleet has been a career 40% shooter on close to 10 attempts a game, right? So it's so much more the way that defenses guard you than just the percentage that you make because that's what spacing truly is. And I think that when we come back to Scottie Barnes, it's got to be aggression.

He's got to be able to take those, trust like-- regardless, Ben Simmons, not to compare them as players, but Ben Simmons completely fell off a cliff when he just refused to shoot outside of 5 feet. When you just do that, you absolutely just hamstring your team. There's nothing that they can do. He needed to be able to take those shots regardless of if they were going in or not when you want to be the lead ball handler for your team. It's just an important part.

And I think the biggest difference between a Scottie and a Ben Simmons is I trust Scottie's confidence. I trust that Scottie's going to be able to do that. I trust his aggression. And we see it. When Scottie's aggressive, when Scottie's looking for his shot, it's such a big difference to what this Raptors offense does. But I think your point about passing as well, it's not about making the flashy pass, but it's just not about getting the assist. It's about making the right kind of play. And I think that that's something that comes with growth.

I think that's also something that comes with more reps, right? Like if you know you're carrying the ball every single time. If you know this offense depends on your looks, obviously you're going to be hopefully making the right reads there. So I sort of trust Scottie to be able to do that with the more reps that he has. But one thing that I do sort of worry about is the paint touches.