As I sift through the never-ending stream of intriguing quotes at Toronto Raptors media day, I keep coming back to one thing Scottie Barnes said. Barnes was asked about his desire to avoid situations where he isn’t as involved on the offensive end, and his answer is something Raptors fans have been begging him to do and say.
"I feel like sometimes I get that tendency of because I just love passing that I just try to make the right read every time by passing, but sometimes, you know, the right read is just me just trying to be able to just go attack and go score the ball," said Barnes.
The idea that Barnes is too passive of a scorer isn’t new. Whether it was big Toronto media personalities questioning whether Barnes had a killer instinct, passing the ball to RJ Barrett in big moments, or his willingness to defer as a passer. Fans and people in the media for some time now have been calling for Barnes to check that last box as a franchise player by taking that mantle as the team's No. 1 scoring option.
Heading into the 2026-27 season, he appears ready for that moment.
Barnes is ready to take his next leap
The immediate pushback from many Raptors fans and people across the NBA is that Kawhi Leonard’s arrival makes him the No. 1 option, and I don’t disagree.
Last season, he finished top 10 in MVP voting and averaged over 27 points per game. But that doesn’t mean Barnes can’t have moments where he’s the No. 1. When you look at the messaging from Leonard, and even the Raptors staff, about Leonard since he arrived, it’s clear he knows this is Barnes's team. His understanding that the Raptors are building this thing around Barnes is why I see the marriage between Leonard and him as more of a 1A and 1B than a No. 1 and No. 2.
Obviously, if it’s a three-point game and the Raptors have the ball with hopes of forcing overtime, they need Leonard to be the guy taking the pull-up three with the game on the line. But if Barnes is pulling down a defensive rebound and pushing the break, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be waiting for Leonard or any of his teammates to catch up anymore. Instead, we should expect to see him go downhill and attack the hoop in those situations way more frequently.
Barnes is already such a threat with the ball in his hands because of his size, tight handle, and elite playmaking skill set. Now you factor in that he is going to start using his raw skills as a scorer more to attack players off the dribble, and this Raptors offense gets scarier.
Last season, we often saw defenses stop Toronto when Barnes had the ball because they knew he was looking to pass or create for a teammate. If he starts hunting his own scoring chances, teams aren't going to be able to do that as easily.
We saw a prime example of exactly this in last year's playoffs.
With no Immanuel Quickley and Brandon Ingram being all over the place offensively, someone had to put points on the board, and Barnes took that challenge on. The result: his points-per-game average jumped by six from the regular season to the postseason, and the Raptors forced seven games in a series they had no business doing so in.
The 2026 postseason gave Raptors fans the exact version of Scottie Barnes they had been begging for, and even with the Klaw’s arrival, he doesn’t appear to have any plans to go back to his old ways.
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