Why the Raptors shouldn't limit Scottie Barnes development

Amit Mann is joined by William Lou to discuss Scottie Barnes' evolution as an NBA-calibre point guard and why the Raptors shouldn't limit his scope of development. Watch the full episode on our Yahoo Sports Canada YouTube channel or listen on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: But then moving on to a Scottie Barnes at pick and roll, or Scottie at point guard in general.

WILLIAM LOU: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Where are you with Scottie? Is he getting enough reps at that position? Because right now, he's at what? 3.1 pick and roll reps per game. And you mentioned the turnover problems that Dennis has.

Well, Scottie's like the exact opposite, because he's only turning over the ball at 5% compared to Dennis's at 16.3%. But anyways, Scottie Barnes, is he getting enough point guard reps?

WILLIAM LOU: I mean, I think so. First off, it's exclusively coming with the second unit, right. And so with the starting group, you're very rarely seeing Scottie run the point for the starters. It's pretty clearly Dennis is running point for the starting group.

Anytime Dennis is out there, he's running point. I mean, you're even seeing now 2-point lineups with him and Malachi together. I think they-- Darko likes that--

AMIT MANN: Desperate for shooting.

WILLIAM LOU: --look.

AMIT MANN: We're desperate for shooting.

WILLIAM LOU: Desperate for shooting. Maybe even desperate for some more ball handling, some better decision making. But in general, like, you know, Scottie's had to run the point in the times when Dennis has sat. Now, there's been enough of those moments where those two guys are not sharing the floor together.

I also think late in the games, like, Scottie has the ball in his hands the way it should be, which is enough. I mean, assuming he's in the game, obviously. That's what happened in that Celtics game. You get in late, but--

AMIT MANN: Oh, boy still bothering.

WILLIAM LOU: I know. Look, listen, he's a rookie coach. His intentions were good. He didn't want to overplay his starters. So, you know--

AMIT MANN: What would Nick Nurse do? You can rest on the timeout.

WILLIAM LOU: Nick Nurse would win the game and forget about everything else, which I think, it's a different approach and it's for a different team.

AMIT MANN: Yes.

WILLIAM LOU: But yeah, I mean, I think Scottie on the whole, like if you want to take away some of the pick and roll touches from Dennis, I don't-- I wouldn't mind. Like, Dennis is pretty high in terms of his touches per game and things like that. But I mean, overall, I think Scottie is getting the ball a decent amount. I actually don't mind when Scottie is not running point, because I think it sets him up to score a little bit better, as well.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

WILLIAM LOU: One of the issues I think with him with the second unit is, he's got to call his own number. And I think he's very naturally unselfish. But I also think that when you're the point guard, you got to get yourself into the offense, and then maybe get it back, and then maybe then go attack.

Like, that just takes a lot of time. If you cut out the middle man, you have someone else bring the ball up, set up Scottie in a position to score, you at least reduce one of the steps and maybe make your offense run a little bit faster, as well.

But I mean, like in general, like, everyone's like thrilled about what Scottie's doing. And yeah, I mean, I think he's getting the ball enough. But you know, no one's arguing against more touches for Scottie.

AMIT MANN: Sure thing. There are people arguing about how much Dennis is getting the ball, and they're feeling like it's a little bit too much.

WILLIAM LOU: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Also on his credit, 42.9 catch and shoot percentage so far this season. Another thing that he's delivering on.

WILLIAM LOU: Right.

AMIT MANN: Probably building off of that German national team off season. He continues to make his 3's. That's a great sign. But if you want to move him off ball more, give Scottie more touches, I mean, his pick and roll game, it's so fun to watch, because I think he's getting more confident with his ball handling.

WILLIAM LOU: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: So that way, he's able to get more cerebral. He just has that confidence and now he's surveying the court more and he's able to find those cutters. And just like the range of passes he can make because of his height, is where it's just so special.

And considering some of these runners he's hitting, like he gets one foot in the paint and he's just like vaulting up and may do a toilet bowl around, but he's hitting those shots. It's been so fun to just to watch him get more of these touches, and also execute them.

WILLIAM LOU: Yeah. I mean, look, this is what everybody wants. Like, all season, you know, we talked about the Raptors, whether they should rebuild, not rebuild, whatever. Like, the Raptors are-- the Raptors fan base is like fairly divided among a number of fronts.

The one thing everyone can agree on is that everyone wants to see the ball more in Scottie's hands and for him to do more with it. And that's exactly what he's done this season. And that is a factor in how good he's been defensively.

So yeah, I mean, he's the one guy where I'm like just whatever they're doing with him, like just keep going. Just keep going. And keep empowering him, too. Because I think he does feel like very empowered in this offense under Darko. And you know, I think that's led to a higher engagement level, too.

AMIT MANN: Well, funny you mentioned that, that Darko after the last game, he said that he feels like Scottie has to narrow his focus a little bit. And he gave this analogy about a player who has like one skill set, a very good skill set. They're a role player.

A person who has two, I mean, they could be a starter. And then a person who has like three very good skills, he's like, that's probably an All-Star. But if you get four or five, maybe you're in the G League, because you just can't be good at everything. You're better off being-- like the jack of all trades thing is good, but you want to have like three things that make you extremely powerful on the court.

And he mentioned Scottie in that vein. And it's funny for Scottie to realize that or to hear it, is that like, you're in high school like we're trying to figure out what do we want to do with our lives. And so you have to like figure out what are those three things.

And to his credit, like we're looking at the development he's made this past season and what he's doing with these touches, it must be a hard thing for him to look at like three things that he wants to focus on when his game is still kind of evolving.

WILLIAM LOU: Yeah. Not that I wanted this, because I heard this from Darko, as well. And when I heard it, my reaction was like, I don't know, actually.

AMIT MANN: Kind of, me you?

WILLIAM LOU: I was like, yeah, you know, like, I think LeBron's good at more than three things. And I think Kawhi is good at more than three things. And yeah, I mean, look, listen, I actually don't mind for Scottie to like dabble and try pretty much whatever he wants to do on the court, you know.

And so I understand what he's saying. Like, there's like splitting your focus and then you end up having sort of nothing. But I think what's been really promising, is that there's already really good things he came into the league with, right.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

WILLIAM LOU: You know, you see the playmaking. You see the defense right away. And those things were great. You see the hustle, as well. The basketball IQ is really high for him, too. So the more that he wants to dabble in shooting, like, I'm not worried that he's going to lose the other skills.

I actually just want to see him add and build. So I'm going to disagree with Darko on this one. But you know, I think Darko overall has done a great job with Scottie, so I mean, I think-- I'm not disagreeing with the overall approach, but I do hear what he's saying.

But to me, it's really, the most exciting thing about this season, is seeing Scottie dabble and try these new things. And it working out for him. That's the most important thing. If it did work out for him, we'd be like, all right, this is a development year or whatever, we're the Detroit Pistons, but we're not. We're actually a competitive team because Scottie's made this jump.