Even the video game industry is sleeping on Scottie Barnes.
The Toronto Raptors were not exactly in center stage last season, with a slow start turning into a fire sale as the team remade their entire roster midseason. Then injuries struck, further splintering the team and sending them spiraling to a franchise-worst losing streak and a 25-win finish.
That's why the greater public, and even most NBA fans, can be forgiven for not realizing the step forward that Scottie Barnes took. He improved in essentially every facet of his game, improving as an on-ball scorer, as a shooter, as a playmaker and as a defender. His combination of offensive and defensive stats has only been met by a small handful of players ever in NBA history.
Yet as many analysts are disregarding the Raptors as a team that can accomplish much this season, is Barnes being waved away as a star who has arrived already. Despite making the All-Star Team last season (albeit as an injury replacement; no one is suggesting he was a Top-24 player last season) no seems to think that Barnes has reached the level of team impact one expects from young stars.
That includes the team behind NBA 2K25, the popular basketball video game that assigns every player in the league a number rating, functionally stretching from around 70 up to 99. No one expected to see Barnes up around the superstars at the top of the league, where Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo lead the way at 97 overall.
One may have expected to see Barnes' name appear as you work down the list. Yet you have to keep dropping down....down....down to find him, finally, with an 85 rating overall, tying him for 47th in the league.
Scottie Barnes is criminally underrated on NBA 2K25
Just to recap: a player putting up historic stat lines as the unquestioned best player on his team, who deservedly made the All-Star team last year, and who looks poised to continue growing as he enters just his fourth season in the league, is rated 47th in the NBA.
Among the players that NBA 2K25 ranked ahead of Barnes, a few stand out as immediately questionable. Evan Mobley is a defensive monster, no question, but he has failed to realize his offensive potential and is clearly a step behind Barnes as an impact player. The same should go for Cade Cunningham, who boasts a lot of upside but has been either injured or painfully inefficient for his first three seasons. Both Cunningham and Mobley were ranked more highly than Barnes.
If we are pointing at young forwards in the Eastern Conference, we would be remiss if we didn't point out Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic. Somehow he is a whopping 89 in this year's 2K game, up five points from last season and tied for 21st in the league. Banchero had one of the least efficient high-volume seasons in recent NBA history last season, and other than pure volume of points Barnes bested him in essentially every category: rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and 3-pointers, if you like counting stats; shooting from the field, from 3-point range and the free-throw line if you like efficiency; and in Box Plus-Minus and win shares per 48 minutes if you look at advanced stats.
LaMelo Ball checks in well above Barnes despite missing most of the last two seasons due to injury; Franz Wagner is above Barnes despite having a less potent all-around game. Jalen Green, CJ McCollum and Bradley Beal are ranked alongside Barnes and are clearly worse players; the idea that Jalen Green belongs anywhere near Barnes is laughable.
The ratings in NBA 2K25 are dynamic, which means as player excel or stumble their ratings will be updated to match. Scottie Barnes has the ability to come out, dominate the competition, and earn the respect that he deserves. He hasn't earned that respect in the playoffs yet, but when compared to other young players behind him on the growth curve, he should be higher on the list.
He gets to prove them wrong starting October 23rd.