Raptors: Scottie Barnes has taken a leap as a playmaker

The Toronto Raptors went into the season with the expectation that Scottie Barnes is going to take the next step. Being a tremendous role player on a winning team is one thing, but fans will likely be examining his stats with a fine-toothed comb in the hope of finding tangible improvement.

Don’t worry Raptors fans. Barnes is far superior to the player he was last season. The league will know before long. With Pascal Siakam down for a bit due to injury, Barnes has a great platform to jump-start his sophomore hype campaign.

Usually, the great players in our game enjoy a nice juicy statistical boost once they enter their second season. Now with a year of experience, the woes of the adjustment period, and the rookie wall behind him, Barnes is in the process of becoming a true standout in this league.

Despite his numbers being more or less comparable to his rookie year, Barnes’ on-court skills are vastly improved. His ability to make plays as a ball-handler and shoot from deep are two areas where he is much better than he was in his debut campaign.

Toronto Raptors: Scottie Barnes can now play point guard

What started off last year as flashes of advanced vision at the forward position has now blossomed into true point guard potential from Barnes. He’s shown not just the ability to throw no-look passes on the break, but also his patience and peripheral vision hitting cutters and shooters from the high post.

This is one of the few areas where we can see Barnes’ ascent clearly on the stat sheet. Watching Barnes distribute the ball to a point where he’s averaging 5.0 dimes per game at his age speaks volumes about the player he’s poised to become. Think of the kind of point-forward he can be with another few years of training and experience.

Empowering Scottie to make things happen on-ball was just the first step. Scottie has been improving his ball handling over the offseason. If the Raptors’ opponents put a bigger or slower defender on him, the triple-double threat now has the ability to dance with the ball in his hands and put a move on slower opponents.

If they try to match him up with a smaller defender, Scottie’s physical tools do the rest, having put muscle on his already impressive 6-8 frame. This strategy worked well in the Bulls game.

All this to say that Barnes has been polishing his weapons of mobility. He’s stronger, faster, and more balanced with the ball than he was last season.

If you think it’s odd that he’s only replicating the 15 points per game he put up last season, the fact he left a Heat loss early due to injury and left blowout wins before he could amass high counting stats all play into that.

Barnes’ per-36-minute stats are a lot more telling than the raw totals. See 17.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game on his usual stout percentages (49% FG, 40% 3PT, 76% FT).

The percentages speak to Scottie’s improved jump shot. What was a mediocre stroke from the free throw line and a poor stroke from three has now morphed into something respectable from both. This makes such a difference for the Raptors team offense.

Take Friday night’s career-first triple-double, for instance. Barnes had an off-night shooting after suffering a turned ankle early in the first quarter, but after Siakam left in the second half with a groin injury, it was up to Barnes to lead the comeback charge.

The Raptors ended up losing the game, but it was one of the first times we saw Barnes take full control of the ball and the offense. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but the Raptors outscored Dallas 29-15 in that quarter and Scottie shone with eight points, six assists, and three rebounds all in just the fourth.

Here’s the bottom line. Barnes not going to be dominating the ball and putting up counting stats like his fellow sophomore Cade Cunningham is in Detroit. The difference is Scottie is constantly doing everything he needs to win the game.

Fans are understandably in a rush to crown Barnes as the next “King of the North.” It’s hard to do that without a fat stat line to back up the claim.

Don’t fret. Big stats and superstardom are on their way for Barnes. For now, let’s enjoy him being the young buck in the backseat before he inevitably takes the wheel.