Raptors’ Barnes starting to fulfill elite defensive potential

TORONTO – Scottie Barnes has always been able to do special things on the defensive end of the basketball court.

Before he was zipping no-look passes across the floor, mastering the mid-range or posting triple-doubles, the Florida State product tantalized NBA scouts with his lofty defensive upside. At 6-foot-7 and with an enormous 7-foot-2 wingspan, Barnes had the physical tools, as well as the motor, to grow into an elite stopper at the sport’s highest level. It was among the first things that the Raptors noticed and fell in love with.

“[He’s a] super versatile defender and I think he hangs his hat on that,” Toronto’s general manager Bobby Webster said in a Zoom press conference (remember Zoom press conferences?) from Tampa shortly after making Barnes the fourth-overall pick in the 2021 draft. “Defensively, you see that he wants to do it and I think he has that desire.”

It’s not that Barnes has fallen short of those expectations four years into his professional career, but when his offensive game developed quicker than anticipated that became the thing most people focused on. As he pointed out earlier this week, he’s generally not talked about as one of the league’s top defenders, even though he feels like he should be included in that group. Perhaps that’s about to change.

Over the past seven games – a stretch in which they’ve gone 6-1 – the Raptors have been the NBA’s best defensive team, allowing 105.4 points per 100 possessions. This is the same club that was surrendering 121.3 points per 100 – dead last in the league – when they lost 16 of 17 games earlier this season.

There’s more than one reason for this drastic improvement, but the simplest explanation is that the team’s most important player is playing the best defence of his life. The eye test and the numbers tell the same story. With Barnes on the floor, Toronto is holding opponents to a remarkable 99.3 points per 100 over these last seven games. Without him, it’s giving up 116.0, a difference of 16.7 points per 100.

He's shown flashes of impacting the game at that level before, the missing piece has been sustaining it for 48 minutes and doing it every night. Those challenges aren’t limited to him; they’re something that every young player faces, and at 23, Barnes is still very young.

After inking a maximum extension over the summer – a five-year deal that could be worth up to $270 million, officially crowning him the face of the franchise – he had a bumpy start his fourth season. He took a Nikola Jokic elbow to the eye in the fourth game of the campaign and broke his orbital bone, missed the next 11 contests and then sprained his ankle a few weeks after his return to the lineup. Fortunately, that injury wasn’t as bad as initially feared – he only missed two games – but it took him some time to get back to full strength.

Now that he’s there and the stars are aligning around him, he’s taking his game to a whole new level. Davion Mitchell, who has been starting in place of the injured Immanuel Quickley, and Bruce Brown, who is finally healthy, have shored up the on-ball perimeter defence that was lacking earlier, taking pressure off Barnes as the help man and allowing him to lock in on his assignments. When he’s able to play off his man and blow up plays as the free safety, which has always been a strength, he’s taking more calculated risks. That the schedule is starting to get friendlier also doesn’t hurt.

But mostly, this is as engaged as we’ve ever seen him. He’s not taking plays off or sulking after missed calls. His effort and focus haven’t waned or wavered. He’s bringing it on every play.

“I think the biggest thing is his consistency in playing hard,” 15-year veteran Garrett Temple told TSN. “I think that’s one thing I’ve seen level up. Just very consistent in playing hard on both sides of the ball, and obviously on the defensive side that’s going to show out. There’s not really a lot of people that do that, especially stars of teams.”

It's commendable given how much is on his plate. They play through him offensively, where he’s averaging personal-bests of 20.2 points and a team-high 6.6 assists. He leads the club in minutes at 34.8 per contest and is often tasked with guarding the opposition’s best player, across all five positions. Recently, that’s meant chasing around a pair of perennial MVP candidates in Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo, wrestling with Paolo Banchero, and trying to contain human battering ram Zion Williamson. He embraces those challenges. As his coaches and teammates often say, he seeks them out.

“That’s the type of player I am,” Barnes said over the weekend. “I came into this league with that mindset. I feel like I’m a great defender. I feel like it doesn’t really get talked about enough, but I feel like I’m a great defender. I guard whoever. I can play one through five. That’s what I pride myself on. Every time I step on the floor, that’s what I’m ready to do.”

While Williamson still finished with 31 points on Monday, Barnes made the Pelicans star work, routinely picking him up full court and getting into his body to deny him the ball. Their head-to-head battle was among the highlights of Toronto’s 113-104 win and fourth straight victory.

Prior to the game, Darko Rajakovic made an unprompted plea on behalf of his best player. Hearing him speak glowingly of Barnes was hardly unusual; he often goes to bat for his star, as any head coach should. This particular pitch was unexpected, though. This is the time of year when coaches generally campaign for their fringe all-star candidates – the league’s head coaches had until Monday afternoon to submit their ballots for all-star reserves, to be announced on Thursday. Despite his late push, it’s hard to see Barnes overcoming his 13 missed games and the team’s 14-32 record to get enough votes for a second straight all-star selection. Instead, Rajakovic had something else on his mind.

“Scottie Barnes is playing at such a level defensively that I think definitely he needs to be considered to All-Defensive Team in the NBA,” he said, citing a few stats – steals (1.5), blocks (0.9) and defensive rebounds (6.5) – as well as his versatility and workload. “He does so much.”

Unless the Raptors can continue to turn around their season, and Barnes remains at the forefront of it, it’ll be a tough sell. Historically, it’s exceedingly rare for players to be named an all-league defender – especially for the first time – when playing for a below average defensive team, and despite Toronto’s recent improvement, it still ranks 25th on that end of the floor.

The accolades will come, though. His ceiling remains sky high. That he’s beginning to scratch the surface of his immense capabilities and fulfill his promise as a defender is an encouraging sign for a rebuilding team that’s starting to turn the corner.

“He has the physical tools and the IQ to be first team all-defence, that’s the kind of guy he is,” said Temple, who played with a 15-time all-league defender in Tim Duncan with the Spurs. “Honestly, maybe even Defensive Player of the Year. He has that ability… And again, if he can get his endurance, his conditioning to a point where he can play that way on defence and still be who he is on offence then that’s when you get into the realm of perennial all-star and all-NBA type guy.”