The Raptors expect a lot from Scottie Barnes—perhaps too much. They need him to be a scorer and playmaker as well as an almost flawless defender at multiple positions. That pressure on Barnes only increased in the playoffs. With Immanuel Quickley sidelined with a hamstring injury and Brandon Ingram struggling to produce even before a heel injury kept him out for the last few games, Barnes had to take his scoring to another level.
There’s a thin line between pushing your star player to be the best they can be and burning them out due to too many responsibilities. The playoffs showed the Raptors that they need to get Barnes some more help on the offensive end of the floor.
Their new neighbors, the Toronto Tempo, are falling into the same trap as the Raptors with their usage of Brittney Sykes. They are asking her to do everything in hopes of making up for glaring roster holes.
The Tempo are putting Sykes in a similar position to what Barnes had to do for the Raptors
Scottie Barnes is a capable scorer, but not a traditional number-one option, and his most natural ability to impact games is as a versatile defender. The Tempo’s first star signing, Brittney Sykes, fits a very similar mould.
For most of her career, she made her living in the WNBA as one of the top perimeter defenders in the league and a second or third offensive option at most, relying on her athleticism and ability to get to the rim while struggling to knock down 3-pointers.
Now that she’s in Toronto, she has had to fill a much bigger role than that over her first four games. She is the team’s leading scorer and playmaker and go-to defender against other teams’ best guards—she has to be for the Tempo to win, but it’s a new territory for Sykes. She filled a leading role for the Washington Mystics last season, but even then she had two rookie All-Stars next to her.
Before this season, Sykes never attempted more than 13 shots per game. So far, she is taking 18, just over five more than Marina Mabrey, who is next in line for the Tempo. She is also attempting more than four 3-pointers for the first time in her career. The new workload paired with finding herself on top of every team’s scouting report is showing itself in shooting inefficiency and a career-high in turnovers.
Sykes rose to the challenge when she recorded 38 points on 10-21 shooting, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block in the Tempo’s second win of the season. However, much like it’s the case with the Raptors and Barnes, just because they showed they could do it, they shouldn’t have to do it every game.
The Raptors are still in the process of retooling the roster after their 2019 championship, and the Tempo is a brand-new team. Both still have a lot of work to do roster-wise before they’re ready to bless Toronto fans with true contenders.
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