Scottie Barnes’ 5% MVP upside

Scottie Barnes’ 5% MVP upside

welcome to P basketball with the Eastern Conference Finals now wrapped and the Western Conference Finals on the verge of being wrapped I think it might be time for this channel to take a bit of a departure from the NBA playoffs and focus on the Toronto Raptors and specifically take a little moment to just reflect on where we are with the Raptors Allstar Scotty Barnes talking to Raptor fans over the last couple of months it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of juice and momentum behind this notion that the Raptors have a truly Transcendent Superstar on their hands more so there’s a bit of let’s call it cautious pessimism um there’s a lot of I guess I guess this is what we have it’s good for now there isn’t a lot of Vince Carter there’s actually a lot more Chris B and I guess I’m here to make the case that Scotty Barnes is probably a lot better than you think he is um he’s definitely a lot better than Scouts thought he was in the 2021 draft and I want to explore this idea of Scotty Barnes having MVP upside because it does seem like a pretty abstract thought now Scotty Barnes for you know for all the good things that he does it might be a little bit triggering for some people who are critics of Scotty to see him mention in the same breath as guys like Luca but honestly player comparisons for Scotty Barnes have always been very weird and very hard he has been compared to so many different types of players he’s been compared to Chris Weber uh he’s been compared to let’s just go through this for a second just to give you an idea of all the different players that Scotty Barnes has been compared to by smart people he has been compared to Draymond Green by most draft analysts he’s been compared to uh mck Johnson and Scotty Pippen by his own uh by his own Collegiate coach he has been compared to he’s been compared to Giannis Giannis Anto TMO Magic Johnson compared Scotty Barnes to himself so he has been compared to um Aaron Gordon by Aaron Gordon himself Aaron Gordon was asked who’s the next Aaron Gordon who’s this guy and Aaron Gordon was like yeah this guy’s Scotty Barnes it seems like this is a very weird player Magic Johnson meets Aaron Gordon meets Kevin Barnett meets Scotty Pippen what is this player and I think that’s part of the issue with trying to tie down Scotty Barnes now there is a draft classmate of his in the 2021 draft who was compared to Luca donich ironically and that’s Kate Cunningham and he has touched nothing close to Luca levels and just to put it into perspective Scotty has also to his credit or discredit not touched Luca levels to put this into context Luca donic has placed top 10 in MVP votes voting in five of his first six seasons as an NBA professional he averages 28.7 points per game and if I told you that Scotty Barnes would ever average 28 points not for five years but rather even for a single season I think you would you would probably call me crazy so I’m not saying it’s a tit fortat comparison I’m not saying it’s a completely exact comparison I’m saying that Scotty Barnes succeeds on the basketball court in similar ways as Luca donic now part of the Brilliance of the NBA playoffs and the fact that the Raptors aren’t in the playoffs and haven’t been really in the playoff picture for the last 7 months it’s given me a lot of time to dig into the film of other players specifically guys like tyres Halbert guys like LCA Don guys like Shay gild Alexander Jaylen Brunson now Jaylen Brunson today is talked about as one of the best point guards in the NBA this is not how he was talked about three years ago ago 4 years ago 5 years ago if he was he certainly wouldn’t wouldn’t have gone in the second round so there’s a case that players can evolve that their shot making Tendencies body control handle things can develop right we often assume now Scotty warrs is way ahead of where Jaylen Brunson was in year three certainly he won Rookie of the Year he’s already an Allstar he leads his draft class in valueable replacement he already averaged uh last year he averaged 78% from the free throw line if free throw shooting is a good indication of shooting potential Scotty Barnes has already addressed a ton of questions that Scouts had about him coming in let’s give a little shout out to S bini with his zero level scorer comment well Scotty Barnes averaged 20 points per game last season it’s not 29 points per game it’s not 35 points per game it’s not Michael Jordan stuff certainly not MVP stuff but let’s let’s get real here Scotty Barnes was an Allstar despite the fact that his team struggled so let’s talk about it how does Luca donic score now one of the things I’ve been noticing in terms of what makes Lucas so Unstoppable is his ability to navigate gaps the other thing that makes him so Unstoppable is his ability to see the floor not just from the position of his vantage point which is that he is significantly larger and stronger than most the guys that he goes up against at the wing position but rather also from the position of his heightened elevated mind for basketball and this is something that I talked about a lot with young players and also with some experienced players guys like Pascal SE yakum guys like Jaylen brown guys that I always believed didn’t read the floor super well maybe they had the skill maybe they worked on their handle but ultimately they still had this process of navigating the game where they would take the ball they would read the situation and then they would decide what they were going to do Scotty Barnes doesn’t work like that one player that I left off this list of players he’s been compared to was actually a comparison that his own head coach made Darko rakovich who’s more familiar with this player that he compared him to than perhaps any coach outside of his own coach Mike Malone and that was Nicole yic he compared Scotty to Nico yic in an interview that we posted on this channel and of course I myself have you know interviewed Brian Mon Scotty’s trainer several times for this Channel and he himself has drawn that nicoa yic adjacent comparison now Scotty’s not a center but this joic Luca thing is actually much closer in my opinion to the ballpark of the type of player that Scotty Barnes is and the ways in which he will succeed on the basketball court than the Giannis freak athlete type now why is Scotty not considered you know that tier one type flight Prospect when people talk about the future face the league why is his coach saying Scotty Barnes is going to be the face of the league and everyone else said sure bro not going to happen why are people still sleeping on Scotty I think it’s partially because it’s really hard to imagine a day in which Scotty is ever going to either a manipulate defenses in a way that you know guys like Kade did at a lower level and guys like Luca do at this level and B it’s hard to imagine that a guy who sometimes struggles to even get 30 32% usage is ever going to be on the level of guys who pretty much do 35% usage in their sleep and it’s not really necessarily the definition of Luca and yic but really high volume creation load responsibilities are a byproduct of being that type of heliocentric hub and so while Scotty may not be that heliocentric Hub that a James Harden or nicoa yic and certainly you know but please understand in every case that we’re talking about here Harden jokic Luca you know what they have in common none of them went first overall yic danam near SLI to the second round Jaylen Brunson as I mentioned earlier who succeeds in a lot of the same ways that I’m talking about in terms of Shifting the defense he went in the second round this sh is not so predestined it’s not so static because it’s not obvious and sometimes it’s just a small thing like it’s a being in the right situation or sometimes it is a certain skill level you know developing or a little bit more experience or your rooll elevates or whatever and then you find the opportunity you find the right fit and boom it suddenly unlocks now we certainly have seen spurts of Scotty looking like that type of player it might be a quarter it might be a half it might be a week it hasn’t been a whole year yet but we’ve seen moments of that level of dominance that level of dominance to start the year in the 2023 2024 season he started the season with this like elevated shot making ability now it wasn’t super Dynamic but it was better than anything we had seen from him before he was doing relocation step backs he was much better handling the ball in the pick and roll um he obviously has a ton of advantages in that situation given his height and his sight lines as a you know read and react kind of guy and his high level of basketball IQ so yeah he’s got a little bit of that Luca stuff already and that you know he can manipulate the defense what Luca does is he punishes the defense far more than Scotty ever has right he’ll get into those little gaps he’ll put a defender in jail he’ll hang the defender on his back and then he’ll get like further and further Force the collapse then pass out Scotty it feels right now just kind of rushes it a little bit where he draws the second Defender and he’s happy to pass out or if he does hang the defender on his hip he’ll usually make the wrong move this to me is a by product of two things really number one his handle isn’t nearly tight enough to to be doing the stuff that Luca and Harden are doing and that’s frankly you know I think that he is so blissfully aware of that the second thing here is just experience Luca and Harden are guys who had the ball in their hands at a very young age and were asked to create at that level and they were doing things with the basketball as guards now Scotty played a ton of point guard going up but certainly not to the level where he was being asked to initiate can roll ball handling situations the way Luca was at 16 17 with with Real Madrid so I think that there’s like a reps argument here as well where Scotty simply has not had enough reps now the Toronto Raptors have traded away Pascal SE yakum who you know Raptor fans will swear up and down is like a real guy like he’s a real franchise guy they let Fred B Vleet walk because they felt that he was going to cost a little bit too much money and honestly when we look at the implications of the CBA and all that stuff you can argued that all of this was financially motivated but I think a lot of it was also motivated by the fact that they had this ascending star and they started to shift things to his timeline and I think that the Open Secret in Toronto Raptor’s you know media space is that it’s because of Scotty that these guys were basically put to pasture that these guys were put on the back burner and they were treated like chop liver because the organization an organization by the way that identified Shay gilders Alexander that identified yanis Sant DMO that made the trade for kawhai that constructed this NBA championship roster that you know to my estimation is the best championship roster that we’ve seen since 2019 was that Toronto Raptor team and I think they would have beaten just about any team that’s won a championship since including last year’s Denver duckets including the previous year’s Warriors and including the previous year’s bucks that Brain Trust has identified this guy as a Fran Cornerstone and I feel like a lot of raptor fans might be trying to outsmart themselves here might be trying to think but but but Rob look at that funky release look at that weird jumper look at that quarter where he didn’t score look at that awkward handle I think it’s coming but here’s the thing I want you to imagine that Scotty can handle the basketball a little bit better by next year into the point where it’s actually a little bit better than a little bit better that it gets to competent Wing Creator level Paul George level right one of the things that a lot of players who developed their skills and develop their athleticism and get that opportunity to be a first guy guys like Mel Bridges guys like Pascal seak guys who weren’t necessarily born into it but who kind of evolve into it Jaylen brown guys guys like that even Jason Tatum to some extent he took his lumps with this as well one of the things they struggle with when they get to that next level is how to read the second level of the defense so they can really get past their guy it’s no problem they have a series of counters they have a jab they have maybe a first step like an Anthony Edwards but one of the things we’re seeing even with Anthony Edwards right now is he don’t make he doesn’t make clean passes so when he does get past his man with his Elite burst and you know his Shifty shot making and his body control which is all Elite when he gets to the rim sometimes if he can’t just go through a guy or over a guy and he has to make a pass It’s usually the wrong pass and if it’s not the wrong pass it’s the right pass at the wrong time or if it’s the right pass at the right time it’s the right pass the right time but it’s offt Target we’re seeing a lot of that we’re seeing a lot of that we’ve seen a lot of that with these Stars go through the playoffs and go through that first run but I don’t think we’re going to see that with Scotty he jumped a step he already knows how to handle a double team he just doesn’t know how to force one yet you know what I mean he doesn’t invite them yet and that’s the difference so really the difference between Scotty and Luca is is huge obviously offensively defensively Scotty has him beaten every single category he’s bigger stronger he’s more athletic he’s a better Defender he’s a better shot blocker he’s a better steals Guy he’s he’s longer he’s stronger he’s wider he’s everything right defensively this is no contest so can Scotty do enough for his offense to bridge that tremendous Gap wait and see it’s hard to imagine right now but you look at how Luca is succeeding and you see some of the pieces around him these are not Stars Kyrie Irving is a star PJ Washington was a forgotten role player in Charlotte right Dereck Jones Jr is a veteran minimum guy Derek livley is a rookie Daniel Gafford was a toss in in Washington you can argue that these guys are really good players Jaden Hardy was a second round pick now Luca being the level of playmaker and passor that he is again it’s the same thing with donic sorry with joic in in Denver right Aaron Gordon was this effective guy in Orlando he wasn’t living up to expectations um you know Michael Porter Jr was this off injured guy Jamal Murray had a ton of question marks kcp was tossed in you know all these guys Bruce Brown we’ve seen what he’s been like without yic that’s the Gap these guys they get kind of credit they don’t get the actual credit for how much they do to elevate role players but it is important for the organization to understand that their unique gifts as Playmakers as jumbo siiz Playmakers as heliocentric hubs means that you do need proper play finishers around them one of the things that I was noticing with Luca during the playoff run is how incredibly well the pieces work around him on a string you have the secondary Creator and Kyrie Irving which Scotty Barnes has never had a level of Creator like Kyrie Irving next to him right he’s actually never even had the level of creator that um Luca had two years ago in Jaylen Brun he’s never had the type of you know second option like like christs porzingis frankly when he did have pieces around him like uh OG and Pascal earlier this year he was actually really good he was still the best player on the team I think a lot of people fought that for a while but it was clear as day that he was the best player on the team he did he was the guy among that group that made the All-Star team um he just he didn’t need to be like the number one shot taker every single night because you know Pascal seak needed his shots but on those nights where he was the number one shot taker where SE yakum was sort of standing in the corner and sucking away you know possessions and maybe you know shooting 18% from three he was still really effective Scotty Barnes I think for the first 30 to 35 games of this season was like top 12 top 10 in value of a replacement in the league he was top 12 13 in in box plus minus this is as Talent talented as the league has ever been and when this guy at the age of 2 22 had a competent roster around him Not only was he a solid two-way player Not only was he versatile he was also a top 15 player by the analytics in the NBA it just so happened this team was losing and no one was really watching it um I was surprised how little you know most improved player you know Buzz he got but again when your team is 9 and 10 which is where the Raptors were after 19 games or I think they were nine and 11 after 20 games you’re just not and you’re already in Toronto you’re not being seen enough you’re not on national TV people just aren’t paying attention but I think a lot of people you know when it came down to the All-Star Game Stephen A Smith made this huge fuss that Scotty Barnes must be an All-Star that’s rare rare company for a 22-year-old to be an Allstar right it’s very rare go back in the league history there aren’t a lot of guys who’ve achieved that so it’s not inconceivable a lot of people look at Luca and they think he’s a good shooter right did you know in Lucas’s 3DD year that he shot 73% from the free throw line Scotty shot 78% last year it’s not inconceivable at all that Scotty could become a better shooter than Luca what is almost impossible is to think of a world in which shot Scotty becomes a better shopmaker than Luca but when you look at the pieces around Luca as I was alluding to before what are you really seeing well whether you’re talking about vertical lob threats who have short roll pass ing potential like uh previously Dwight Powell but now it’s like Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford so that’s a release because Luca likes to bring that second Defender and then he likes to release the pass right before he’s ready to shoot or right as he’s ready to shoot sometimes you’ll see him go into the shot motion and then throw a doublehand dart right to the paint or throw a lob Scotty is very capable of doing stuff like that right Scotty’s also a transition Terror he is faster than LCA like he has a significantly faster engine so he has that potential to kind of run a fast break like a like a Jason kid or like a Magic Johnson you know like Luca he he he kind of PLS the pace down he plays at his own speed because he’s a very slow player but Scotty has that second burst where he can really get past his man we’ve obviously seen some big big fourth quarter closing moments so there’s no denying that both these guys that we’re talking about here are super clutch right the difference is how they do it Scotty was bully right he goes shoulder down dip hook shot awkward finish weird shots you know stuff like that but actually if you compare year three to year three their true shooting percentage is not that far apart I know the Scotty get’s rep as like a really inefficient scorer and he is by his definition he is um he’s not that inefficient the real gap between these two players is really um apart from the fact that you know Luca invites that double team Waits a little bit longer takes more shots is really usage and free throw rate Luca gets the line like a beast right um I think it was like per 100 possessions I was looking at the Gap is almost twice it’s twice the rate and that’s accounting for so much of the scoring differential between these two guys because obviously if Scotty Barnes got to the line more can you imagine how efficient his true shooting percentage would be it just makes sense right you shoot 78% from the line I mean Scotty already shoots like crazy high percentage from theine line relative to what people thought he was going to shoot from the line I think most people thought he was going to shoot like 60s his whole career because his shot was so bad but if this guy can get himself up to like 80% from the line I mean my God like and he can get to the line more often you’re going to see that true shooting percentage climb up from 56 57 58 60 as he gets stronger and stronger and his touch gets better around the basket you could see this climb up to 62 well now we just have to think about the volume and that’s really where it comes down to aggressiveness assertiveness inviting that double team being willing to take a shot learning and changing perhaps your mindset about what is really a good shot Luca takes a ton of bad shots this is always counterintuitive because when you have players like Scotty who’ve kind of grown up learning how to make the right play always want to make the right play sometimes it doesn’t always show up in their shot volume right sometimes they have nights where they go like I don’t know they take 12 shots because a teammate has it going or a particular coverage is always going to double them and so there in lies that difference that will probably be always there I don’t think that mindset necessarily changes I don’t think Scotty’s ever going to come out and be like okay tonight I’m emptying the clip I’m kawh Leonard you know I’m G to take 45 shots or maybe he will I don’t think he will but maybe he will the point is at 22 the canvas is wide open Scotty Barnes has MVP potential in my opinion and it’s legit MVP potential there are maybe 15 to 20 players in the entire league that I can say even have 1% MVP potential he has in my opinion five 5 to 10% mppp potential what’s required really is ball handling shop making mid-range pull-ups A Renewed focus and perhaps some various techniques because he doesn’t flop very often he doesn’t flop ever of getting to the line and initiating contact inviting that contact and finishing through contact this will come through you know just more training with Brian this will come through added strength but I’ll tell you right now as an athlete he’s on another level than Luca in terms of conditioning he’s on another level than Luca I mean this guy if you look at the distance travel per game I mean he might be lapping Luca right so the energy and focus the other thing that I think you know just to just to kind of tie this up so I’m not talking for 35 45 minutes because this isn’t like a topic that warrants a 50-minute discussion but I do want want to say how many positions can Scotty guard for you now this is an interesting thought experiment I want you to imagine the Dallas Mavericks they play tonight right and let’s just say their entire team you know can’t play and they got like four guys or whatever and they got to get Scotty Barnes just randomly this a really random example Scotty Barnes coming on to their team you know and he’s going to plug in at the five are they cooked cuz Scotty bar got to play five I don’t think they’re cooked I don’t think they’re cooked I think Scotty Warren’s going to bang with Rudy goar he’s going to box out you know Carl Town’s going to do a good job just like he has when he’s had to guard Joel embiid or anybody so he he’s going to fill in for Gafford and Lively and he’s going to do that for you right he’s going to do the dirty work he’s going to block some shots he’s going to protect the rim a little bit maybe not as well as some of those guys because he’s he’s shorter than those guys but he’ll he’ll do his best and he’ll he’ll function in that role you know he’ll probably pick up your offense within a couple of days you know okay well what if he had to function in the PJ Washington role like what if like Gafford or Lively or there but they’re missing their like small ball versatile Wing I think he can do that too okay well what if Kyrie’s missing so they need a secondary initiator next to Luca well this might be a bit of a clunky fit Scotty and Luca maybe the spacing won’t be as nice but I’m pretty sure he can fill in what if he had to fill in for Luca how many players in the league could you say could fill in for Kyrie Luca and Daniel Gafford and the same person and PJ Washington right he probably can’t fill fill in for Derrick Jones and you know that’s that’s more of a point of attack screen navigation stuff um but maybe he could fill in for him too he’s everything and one of the weirdest things for a player is when you’re everything your rise can be very sudden and very spontaneous um because there is no skill in Scotty barnes’s tool chest right now that he can spam there’s nothing almost every superstar has like this one thing or two things or three things that they do at like the 99th percentile you know what I mean like they’re like the best at it Luca it’s like shot making and passing right like the ability to you know bend the defense and initiate the pick and roll suck in that second Defender you know uh make these tough off-balance shots like that’s an elite skill there aren’t four guys in the league that are better than him at it you know with Rudy goar it’s like Rim protection and rim deterrence right like he’s a defensive Superstar like there aren’t Five Guys in the league that are better than him at that but with Scotty what is it is it rebounding no is it perimeter defense no is it you know is it transition defense no is it rim protection no is it shot making no is it passing no he’s not Elite at anything Scotty Barnes is not a lead at anything and that is really a recipe for not becoming that mvp type player right because MVPs have this one thing or two things or three things that they go to consistently and it is through that one thing that they can go to consistently like hakee with his postwork and his footwork in the post made him a terror right and his shot blocking defensively he leveraged one thing hakee was not a perfect player he was not the perfect passer he wasn’t a great perimeter Defender um but you know they kept him in the zone at which he was 99th percentile Rudy goar defensive player of the year he’s getting cooked he’s getting cooked on the perimeter why he can’t be out there right so in a weird way Scotty suffers from this strange Affliction of perfection generalization a term that I just invented up which substitutes really a player who is trying to be not bad at anything and he’s succeeding in that Scotty isn’t really bad at anything is he what is Scotty barnes’s greatest weakness think about it for a bit get back to me in the comments what’s that big weakness is he a super terrible three-point shooter is he one of the 50 worst anything in the NBA 50 worst athletes no 50 worst jump Shooters no 50 worst free throw shooters no 50 worst three-point Shooters no 50 worst rebounders passers shot makers pick and roll ball handlers rollers screeners he does everything he does everything and unfortunately our brains are conditioned to believe that guys who do everything are role players so if you want to you know ask yourself if you’re a Scotty Barnes fan why your friend down in Atlanta doesn’t see a superstar in him it’s because he does so many things well he does role player things he does so many role player things that it’s hard to not see it’s hard to not see a role player when you look at him right and it’s hard to imagine a player who ever had this and then became a superstar but they do exist they do exist um you know people reference Kawai uh Kaa is like really really Elite defensively right but offense L he had nothing to go to nothing the jump shot was not like in the top tier it was not a top shelf jump shot it wasn’t a topshelf handle he wasn’t a topshelf passer with Scotty I will say that there is one thing that maybe is his Ace in the whole skill and that is his passing some people will disagree with that they won’t say he’s a 99th percentile passer for his position at his size he is definitely 99th percentile as a passer so that passing ability will probably become the gateway to unlock all that other stuff that Luca stuff that we’re talking about because once he gets the dribble manipulation down once he gets like the shot attempts up a little bit once he learns to get to the line a little bit invite contact draw contacts pick on all those little you know pick up all those little tricks and tips that Luca has about SW swinging through and ripping the ball through and you know uh catching the defender’s arm and all those little tricks that maybe he hasn’t figured out yet um I think it’ll just be a matter of time before Scotty is actually just this very complete version and maybe it’s like a more defensively leaning version of Luca but really whether he ever is as good as Luca over an entire season or over an entire playoff series what I do believe will almost certainly happen is that there will be plays down the stretch of a game in which he will be able to do for your offense what Luca does for Dallas’s offense in that he will be able to wiggle his way into the middle of the floor get a defender in jail put a defender on his hip and probably make something Elite happen out of that because unlike a lot of players in the league who stop survey decide what they’re going to do Scotty Barnes doesn’t do that I’ve watched so much tape on this guy we’re talking five six years now this is going right back to aou he never does that he’s constantly remapping the floor and once you have that gift really the only question that I have is can you score can you force a double team at any place on the court can you force a double team can you become good enough at scoring oneon-one that you force a collapse somewhere because the way basketball works is that you just need that first collapse and then the whole offense starts from that Scotty too often starts that collapse process with his back to the basket this is starting almost it’s a it’s a compensation because he doesn’t trust his handle in my opinion once he trusts his handle that he can competently not only navigate the floor and get to his spots because he does have spots and they are emerging slowly we’re seeing little turnarounds we’re seeing little pull-ups what I’m trying to tell you is once he gets that handle and that is really the key to unlock all this stuff because the handle gets him to the places on the court the places on the court once he gets to those places on the court then it’s just repetitions the physicality and the and the physical profile is very similar to Luca in that he’s huge he’s wide he’s strong and he’s balanced that’s the Luca recipe and he can pass he can pass over the defense he has angles available to him that Jill and Brunson can’t even dream of that Fred Van ble can’t dream of when you can pass at this size you’re a cheat codee you’re a walking cheat code all you need is angles to make passes and those angles are far far more likely that’s why Scotty bar succeeds in transition because those angles are plentiful in transition but in the half court when the Raptors gets stuck in their you know stagnant play and he’s you know trying to run a dribble dribble handoff and then you know we’re doing back and forth and Gary’s in one corner and you know OG spotting up in the other corner and now RJ or whatever the whole thing is just set up to funnel him into places he doesn’t want to go and there’s help in places that he can’t navigate because his handle isn’t tight enough so really at this point the only Gap that I can think of in Scotty barnes’s you know way is his handle once he gets his handle down he can comfortably get into the post he can get into places where he wants to score and now it’s just about getting there early enough to force the rotation to force Force the collapse or if you don’t get the collapse and you don’t get the second Defender to commit then boom go up and score this is the way every great player in NBA history has ever scored we’re talking from Allan Iverson to Carmelo Anthony to Michael Jordan to Dwayne Wade to Rasheed Wallace anytime you think of Unstoppable score on the Block Unstoppable score in the midi range Unstoppable scorer from three Tracy McGrady James Harden all of them they all operate in the same basis Shaq same thing Kobe same thing Penny Hardaway same thing the difference is they all had a place on the court where they were Unstoppable one-on-one you must get to that point and in order to get to that point you must first get to that place on the court comfortably it can’t always be one of those situations where Scotty is you know getting into the post sealing his man and then demanding the ball like you know like he’s a 19 90s big right so if we’re not going to do that and you know right now I think defenses are willing to live with him because his percentages at the rim and his ability to draw fouls and all that stuff so really everything with Scotty’s game is like it’s like right at the surface you know the water is just about to overflow we got like just put like a few more like one shot in just put one shot one shot it’s this much water’s already this full you got to put this much and the whole thing is just going to flow the whole thing flows he’s so close man I don’t think people realize it I really don’t don’t tell me next year you’re surprised by it he might get there this year he might already be there right now honestly but I feel that this guy is about to surprise a lot of people and if he becomes that good just wait till you see how good Emanuel quickly RJ Barrett yako purle gr dick and those guys become because the one thing that the Raptors have lacked since kawhai left was a first option who could reliably suck in a double team and punish the defense for overc committing SE yakum wasn’t it I promise you he does not read the game that way even if I wish I could give Scotty Barnes Pascal seaks handle and overall scoring package he would be freaking Unstoppable well think about it I can’t what’s easier Scotty Barnes developing Pascal’s scoring package or Pascal cakam getting Scotty barnes’s understanding of basketball honestly at 22 he’s leap years ahead of where Pascal seak was at this age leap years so if Scotty continues to work the Toronto Raptors indeed do have a first team all-nba future MVP type of guy on their hands Will he win MVP no idea probably not going to be Victor ryes for the next 15 years unless he gets injured or maybe Anthony Edwards there’s a lot of talent in the league I’m not making any proclamations that he’s going to win MVP or whatever I think what I’m saying is that he will be an MVP type player what I mean by MVP type player like Luca this year Luca’s been an MVP type player for five years he’s won zero MVPs okay uh Joel embiid’s been an MVP player for four years he’s won one MVP joic has been an MV player for six years he’s won three MVPs so my point is in that conversation Shay’s been an MVP player for a year and a half he’s won zero MVPs and he might not win one ever so my point is on that level top shelf better than Donovan Mitchell better than tyres halberton but maybe worse than Nico yic somewhere in that range of the upper echelon the type of guys who get you to championships I think the Raptors have that guy in Scotty Barnes let me know in the comment section what you think about this extended rant and there are 10 qu 10 comments here appreciate y’all it’s 7 a.m. 7 a.m. um thank you for the nice uh he’s not W he’s not a winning basketball player best guy in a bad team not true uh Scotty accelerated the rebuild process without question facts uh Scotty needs to work on his offense this off season he needs to be more assertive agreed uh Lions production Magic Johnson yep Scotty gets the easy ones I appreciate you quoting Brian on that one man appreciate it um is it effort I’m not sure what that refers to but um yeah I’m I’m sure you know it just comes down to as I said it’s the handle the handle unlocks scoring package scoring package and the assertiveness he’s really like three steps away from it and I think those steps are pretty close part of it is developing the handle and doing the reps the next part is actually trusting that handle and getting comfortable with that handle in like live game situations right different situations Scotty’s never had like what I consider like the right handle for a guard like even watching him in aaou it always felt like his handle was a little wide a little loose a little flimsy right and at the NBA level if his handle is way better than people think it is but it’s also worse than it needs to be so what I’m stying to say is like if his handle was as bad as people some people want to pretend it is I promise you he would have like six turnovers a game his turnover rate is way lower than Lucas was in year three okay so he handles the ball a lot he initiates the offense a lot for the Raptors he was much better than pick and Ru this year I think his game kind of fell off in the second half as the pressure to win and maybe even the incentive to win and the teammates around him shifted but with another year with Emanuel quickley with you know the losing that they endured this year I expect him to come out like Gang Busters I I do expect him to be like a six seven boxes minus guy next year top shelf Allstar perennially I expect Scotty to make 12 13 14 All-Star games what he can do beyond that is really anyone’s guess at this point but my guess would be he’s going to be in that mvp conversation before you know it all right talk to you’all later peace have a good one

Scottie Barnes has been compared to every player imaginable. Kevin Garnett, Magic Johnson, Draymond Green, Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Pascal Siakam, Scottie Pippen. The comparisons range far and wide, and while many Raptor fans hope the upside is closer to Magic than Gordon, let me make a case for Scottie Barnes’ sneaky MVP trajectory by taking a look a Slovenian wunderkind who does magical things with the basketball.

This is not to say that Scottie Barnes IS Luka, can be Luka, or is better than Luka. What I will say is that with some work, Scottie Barnes can succeed in similar spots, and similar ways as Luka Doncic, unlocking similar advantages, and posing similar problems. With a bit more defensive upside to boot, and a little less shot making to compensate.

I remain sold on the idea that Scottie WILL become an MVP candidate in his prime. But he won’t do it without the right pieces around him, and the right support staff to take him there.

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