Why Scottie Barnes can appear passive on the court

On the latest episode of "Strictly Hoops," Amit Mann and C.J. Miles discuss why Scottie Barnes may appear passive on the floor. Full episode can be found on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Do you think there's anything to, you know, when he's on the court with Fred and Pascal, does he defer a little bit.

CJ MILES: It's hard not to, right?

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: It would have to be, you know what I mean? Like especially being a young boy. That's not saying that he don't have confidence in himself and he don't. But it's like you're sitting beside these two all stars--

AMIT MANN: Right.

CJ MILES: --who are proving, you know, who they are and what they can do every night, and you feel like, as a basketball player, you try to make the right plays. And probably, a lot of times, you can make the right play by getting the ball to Pascal or being in the action with Freddy, you know, because those guys make the right plays. And I don't really think it's deference as much as it's just trying to play basketball right.

AMIT MANN: Sure. It's a good quality, in a sense, right, because he's putting winning first. And I did a podcast with Seerat Sohi who's a reporter with The Ringer, and she was talking about that very fact, that Scottie, from his early age, right, like winning was priority number one. And losing, like it ticks him off so much. And I think it's a bit of a cliche thing to say that winning he makes this person angry. But for him, like it really does bother him. And he will put winning over him his personal stats, right?

Which is something that, I mean, certainly matches up with the Raptors and their identity and Masai Ujiri and all that kind of stuff. But within that, I mean, if the offense is flowing and things are going-- and they were scoring points yesterday. But early fourth quarter, I think there was Fred and Pascal were off the court. And he kind of had to be that player who's going to be initiating, orchestrating, creating, and finishing, and he got into a rhythm. And scoring on Jaren Jackson, that's not easy.

CJ MILES: Not at all.

AMIT MANN: That is not easy.

CJ MILES: Even when he was younger and I was there for just a couple of months when I played with him, like I saw that turning into being a real beast type of thing that he turned into. I don't know if I knew he would block his many shots and see blocked, but defensively, he just had the mobility to be able to do so much.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. Active. Very active.

CJ MILES: But going back to Scottie, I think that's a hard thing to be put on young players, you know, that have the potential to be special and they're figuring it out. And you don't want to take that-- it's a thin line. It's like how do I teach you that sometimes you taking a bad shot is the right shot because you the one that's trying to take over this game, and at the same time, still keep you playing good basketball, not turning into hero ball or anything like that. It's just sometimes I would rather put all the money in your hands and say, you make sure they don't take this, than give it to a couple of other guys, even if they got a little bit of a favorable match-up just because of your skill set. I would rather see you do that.

And when you have a guy that, at the same time, some nights him having 10, 8, and 5 is winning the game. And that's still him being the best player on the floor, it's just not these high numbers. And we look at the numbers so quick like, oh, he only had 10, or he only-- he must not have been aggressive, when you have no feel of like actually watching the game. It's like if people didn't watch Draymond play and they just looked at his numbers, they'd be like, why do people like him? You know what I mean? Like it's like, watch the game.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. When he gets into the post, and especially, I guess a player like Jaren Jackson, like-- I mean, the Grizzlies yesterday, they were pushing around the Raptors quite a bit, and they weren't even at their peak optimal size without Steven Adams, right? But they were bullying a little bit Precious and Scottie, Pascal too. Like some of those switches, you're seeing-- you're just seeing like the physical size difference between some of them. And Precious is a big guy too. But Jaren is like-- he's a different beast. He should be playing center, but they got Steven Adams. So he's able to, you know, work over in power forward. But that's what makes their defense so good.

CJ MILES: Steven Adams is-- sheesh.

AMIT MANN: That's different, man.

CJ MILES: Yeah, that's different.

AMIT MANN: When you see that hair go down. Like the past few weeks, there have been a few cases where his hair goes down, and that man is like ready to rumble. [LAUGHS]

CJ MILES: It makes no sense. Like it's unexplainable like how strong that dude is. Like I can't even-- I mean, but like you say, obviously, like-- but Memphis, they bring a little bit of that out of you too. Because they get to chirping a little bit, they physical, and you came back down.

AMIT MANN: No.

CJ MILES: Because they can turn it into an embarrassment in there. Because they can be physical and get the yapping in and then they get up and down a little bit, start throwing lobs, and now they're in there embarrassing you and they dancing on the sidelines. And nobody want to go through that. So like you coming in--

AMIT MANN: No Grittys. No Grittys. No Grittys.

CJ MILES: Yeah. And you know--

AMIT MANN: Stop it.

CJ MILES: And that's-- like you say, that's without Steven Adams and Ja Morant still. Like the identity of that team is turning into cement. Like who they are, they building in a real special thing over there.

AMIT MANN: Why did Dillon Brooks get suspended? Why was he not there yesterday? It's because he got into a scuffle with Donovan Mitchell. Scuffle, NBA scuffle, whatever it is.

CJ MILES: Yeah, but that-- yeesh. I mean, there's been a couple of times now like that he's been involved in something like that.

AMIT MANN: He walks the line and he also crosses it. That's his vibe.

CJ MILES: Also crosses it, yeah. He's definitely-- definitely crossed it. He competes, though, like as a basketball player, like you know?

AMIT MANN: Sure.

CJ MILES: But it's getting real Grayson Allen-ish. Like-- I'm just saying.

AMIT MANN: He was also in Memphis, wasn't he? Yeah. But when Scottie like-- during that fourth quarter, it was then when I felt like we're seeing Scottie and Jaren Jackson, like now Scottie is not so small anymore. Because once he gets that elbow into-- or his shoulder into you and he gives you that bump and he has that hook shot, like I don't know how many players, when they're already like compromised a bit because they're on defense and they're backpedaling, who can take that bump and also negate Scottie from getting like that hook shot off or that push shot off. And that was the shot that he hit, you know, at the end of the fourth quarter there and it was a huge shot. And I just think like that could be his bread and butter.

It's like similar to, I don't know, like take your pick, like a Giannis, right? When he gives you that shoulder right to your heart.

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Right?

CJ MILES: That's a different--

AMIT MANN: It's soul crushing. It's true. Right. So I'm not saying they're the same, but there aren't going to be too many players. Because Scottie is so big. He's such an imposing figure in his own right. Who can take that shoulder and also negate him getting off that hook shot? It's not many, all right? So that's not going to be good for him.

CJ MILES: Not many. It's not. It's not a lot. Either-- because it's going to-- and it's going to be either one. It's going to be either the guy's not quick enough and don't even have to get to that, I get by him, or the guy's not big enough. Like he's in this position where it's a lot of the times. Because even the way we play now with less positions and there'll be some 3's and 4's that are bigger guys, there's not that big. Not all of them, you know what I mean? Like--

AMIT MANN: Right, right, right.

CJ MILES: And even the ones that are like-sized, still he's a lot stronger than he looks.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: He's got enough stuff that he can really take over games and spaces like that.

AMIT MANN: And the touch around the baskets going back too, which is really nice to see. That's what stood out last season.