Raptors urge Barnes to ‘get in the lab’ ahead of crucial off-season

TORONTO – As challenging as it can be to make the transition from college to the pros and hit the ground running in the NBA, following up an excellent rookie season is often even tougher.

For one, you’re not going to catch anyone by surprise. After a year of scouting your tendencies, opposing teams are better prepared to neutralize your strengths and expose your weaknesses. The degree of difficulty is higher but so are the expectations, and with them, the pressure.

Scottie Barnes recently learned that the hard way.

Regardless of how his second season panned out, the Raptors’ rising star was always going to leave some people wanting more. That’s what happens when you’re the reigning Rookie of the Year, when your team stands pat in the hopes that your continued development will help take them to the next level, and when you’re deemed off limits in trade talks for a generational superstar ahead of your 21st birthday.

If he fell short of reaching the bar that was set for him, and that he set for himself, it’s because that bar was set unreasonably high.

“Of course, I was expecting more out of myself, and us as a team,” Barnes said after his sophomore campaign came to a disappointing end with Toronto’s play-in elimination last week.

“I put my highest expectations on myself. I put a lot of [thought] into what I really want to become, what I really want to be. That’s how I look at things, how I see myself as a player. I know how I want to get better. I just want to consistently try to develop in each and every way and make it to the top of the league, be one of those better players in the league. It’s just going to take a different level of mindset, of work.”

This summer is going to be crucial for Barnes to reach that level. With a couple seasons under his belt, including one that didn’t go according to plan, Barnes should have a better idea of what’s required to prepare his body and mind for the grind of an 82-game campaign. 

It’s not that he didn’t work hard last off-season, but there’s a sense within the organization that he could have worked harder and smarter. Some of that showed in his play.

Barnes didn’t have a bad season, per se. He showed signs of growth in certain areas, most notably as a playmaker. There were moments where he would assert his will on either or both ends of the floor, especially late in games. His incredible versatility was often on display, and, at times, you could see glimpses of his immense two-way potential. What held him back was his inefficiency and inconsistency.

While his numbers were very similar to the year prior – his scoring average of 15.3 was exactly the same – his shooting dropped off from almost every area on the floor. Part of that was his shot selection. Of the 81 players to attempt at least 100 mid-range jumpers, no one shot worse than Barnes’ 32 per cent. Of the 211 players to take at least 100 above-the-break three-pointers, Barnes hit a league-low 27 per cent.

But as is often the case with Barnes, the biggest swing factor in his game was his fluctuating effort and energy level. For a player who relies so heavily on his motor, there were too many quarters in too many games where it wasn’t firing on all cylinders. He’d usually ratchet it up by the fourth quarter, but more often than not, it wouldn’t be enough to salvage his, or the team’s, night.

After coming into training camp with an ankle injury and then battling a knee ailment later in the season, it seemed like health could’ve been a factor, but Barnes offered up another possible explanation.

“I probably need a different level of conditioning for the way I want to play,” the 21-year-old said when asked about his focus for the off-season. “I play very hard on the defensive end, so I feel like it will take a different level of conditioning, [which] I’ll work on this summer.”

While Barnes didn’t think it had a significant impact on his performance, he admitted to occasionally feeling tired on the defensive end when he was picking up full court or rotating out on shooters. He didn’t share his plan to build up his stamina but said he would consider hiring a full-time strength and conditioning coach, like Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, and many others have done over the years.

That’s part of the learning curve for any young player in the league, especially one who’s carrying a sizable workload – finding a way to maximize their off-season in terms of skill development, while also figuring out how to pace themselves. There might not be a better example of that than Siakam, a self-made star who is known for his summertime training program and has also led the NBA in minutes in each of the past two seasons.

“It’s turned into a 12-month thing now, where you’ve just gotta have your body in the right shape at the right time,” said VanVleet, who changed up his routine last summer after his 2021-22 season was cut short due to injuries. 

Barnes’ laid-back demeanour hasn’t always sat well with his veteran teammates, making for a bit of an awkward locker room dynamic at times this season. That’s the by-product of throwing a fourth-overall pick and future face of the franchise, who inherited a big role out of the gate, into a room led by guys that scrapped and clawed their way into the league and onto this team.

Barnes isn’t the Raptors’ best player, not yet anyway, but he is their most important. We don’t know what the roster will look like on the first day of training camp in the fall, or who will be coaching it. Barnes is one of the lone certainties, and regardless of what changes around him, he’ll be the biggest factor in determining whether there’s a path to becoming something more than the middling team they were this season.

The premise remains the same: they’ll go as he goes. In many ways, they already have. When he smashed initial expectations as a precocious rookie, the team progressed ahead of schedule. When his development stalled in Year 2, so did the team.

Where they go from here is largely up to him. If Barnes is going to become the player he wants to be, and the player the Raptors need him to be, this could end up being the most important off-season of his career. The Raptors have not been subtle about what they’re looking for from him going into Year 3.

“He’s got to get a lot of time in the gym and continue to work on his offensive skills – handling, shooting, finishing, all the things that he can do to really put pressure on teams as a scorer,” said Nick Nurse.

“Just get in the lab,” VanVleet said. “That is the only thing I ever tell him. Scottie is going to be as good as he wants to be. I don’t think there’s anything he can’t do on the court. Just be a gym rat. Stay in the gym. That will speed up the process, and he’s doing that. He is learning what his routine is going to be… He has a great attitude. He is a baller, man. The sky is the limit for him. Obviously, finding what [that means] for him in terms of who he is, what he is, we are still exploring that. For any young guys, especially at that age, he has to be in the gym all day every day and you will see the results.”