What comes with being a top-five decide of an NBA draft might overwhelm a participant till he’s thought-about a bust, or he might make an impression on the ground that may sooner or later contemplate him a metropolis determine, particularly to Scottie Barnes’ scenario, a Toronto hero.
The eye. The lights. The adversity. All of it occurs all through a lottery decide’s early years. For Barnes, his play with the Toronto Raptors final season earned him the Rookie of the Yr award and robust consideration as probably the greatest two-way wing gamers within the League.
This season, Barnes has turn into a high goal of defensive recreation plans trying to shut down the reigning Rookie of the Yr. Regardless of his ongoing adjustment to how opponents defend him, his teammates and coaches nonetheless imagine closely in Barnes’ long-term potential as a featured weapon of Toronto’s offense.
“I stated that his largest problem going within the 12 months was to have the keenness that he had final 12 months,” head coach Nick Nurse stated, per SportsNet. “Each recreation, he was a child in a sweet retailer, and that’s a part of now you’ve bought some consideration, you get some focal [point], you get some powerful defenders, you get knocked round a little bit bit. However maintain working at it.”
With a 5-4 file within the month of November, the Raptors have seen the highs and lows of Barnes’ second 12 months. From five-point performances to 19-point video games, Barnes is at present on a curler coaster run, averaging 12.6 factors and 5.3 assists on 21.2 % taking pictures from past the arc.
These numbers actually don’t matter to a veteran who contributed to the franchise’s first championship in 2019. Fred VanVleet is assured in Barnes’ means to standout amongst the remainder of the younger expertise across the League, and most significantly, it’s simply November.
“No person round right here is fearful about him,” VanVleet stated. “We all know how nice of a participant he’s going to be. There’s not any younger participant I’d commerce him for. The sky’s the restrict for him — I didn’t actually even understand [Barnes’ slump] was a story till I used to be sitting at dwelling watching the Detroit recreation. However yeah, it’s a little bit overblown.”
The professionalism of the Raptors has been the driving drive towards the tradition they’re making an attempt to construct. They show it once more by maintaining Barnes accountable and giving their utmost help to their future celebrity. If the upcoming video games develop into robust performances from Barnes, it’ll show his will to develop and the standard abilities he posses as a pacesetter.
“In fact, I’m going to essentially embrace it, be who I’m on the ground,” stated Barnes. “…the ball is in my arms a little bit extra when [Fred and Pascal] are out, however I’m simply making an attempt to take the sport how it’s—I really feel like that’s a giant factor, everyone giving me that confidence from the coaches to the gamers, having that help employees round me. I really feel like that’s useful.”
