How Scottie Barnes thinks about himself as a basketball player isn’t a mystery.
It says so in his Instagram bio: “6-9 PG.”
And maybe one day that may be true. Maybe Barnes will emerge as the NBA’s tallest point guard, running the offence for a lineup of equally rangy and otherwise positionally versatile teammates.
But as the Toronto Raptors try to figure out how to breathe new life into their season after wheezing and stumbling through the first half, and while Barnes develops the ball-handling skills and perimeter shooting acumen needed to actually run a half-court offence, an interim solution seems to be taking shape.
Rather than point guard, how about ‘point centre?’
That’s the role Barnes has been playing almost exclusively since the calendar flipped to 2023, and the results are at least promising.
Since Barnes took the floor opposite Indiana Pacers big man Myles Turner on Jan. 2, he’s scored more (16.5 points per game vs. 14.5), created more scoring opportunities for his teammates (6.0 assists vs. 4.6) and done both with a better level of efficiency. That is reflected by his True Shooting percentage (.559 vs. .482) and turnover percentage (13.6%, or 2.2 TO/g vs. 6.3% or 1 TO/game) compared to what he was doing previously.
The Raptors’ offence – when not operating in transition – has been a bit of a slog all season, with the club lingering at or near the bottom of the league in half-court efficiency. But in the short time Barnes has been operating primarily at centre, things seemed to have loosened up a bit with the Raptors percentage of assisted baskets improving to 65.3 per cent — which place the Raptors third overall for the season — from 55.8, which would be 27th.
“Just in general, playing centre … he’s an offence creator and we need him to be that,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse on Friday. “That doesn’t mean shooting, that means creating shots for others and creating good movement for others.
“He’s certainly kinda been in a little up and down rhythm with how he’s trying to figure how to play on each night but when he’s making quick decisions I think is the biggest thing.”
Even within a relatively small six-game sample, you can almost see Barnes working to figure things out on the fly.
Typically opposing centres – and the Raptors have faced some pretty good ones of late – have mostly opted to play off Barnes, challenging him to shoot and taking the opportunity to clog the paint defensively.
Attacking it been a learning process.
Against the Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks there were long stretches of games where Barnes mostly facilitated. He set screens and moved the ball rather than use his quickness and athleticism to exploit a potential mismatch. In the first three quarters of all three games (a total of nine quarters) he scored just 15 points, while in the fourth quarters (three total) he scored 30 points.
But something seems to have clicked over Toronto’s past three starts, all wins, albeit against struggling opponents in Portland and Charlotte (twice).
There has been enough offence to keep the defences honest and a variety of playmaking, with Barnes finding teammates out of post-ups and as a roller after setting screens for Raptors guards, getting the ball back at the foul line of top of the key and finding passing options spaced in the corners or the wing.
“It’s all about the ball movement to me,” said Barnes, who has had 20 assists and just one turnover over the Raptors three-game winning streak which they’ll be trying to extend to four Saturday against the visiting Atlanta Hawks. “just trying to get it side to side. It looks way better if you watch the game. I feel like we had more assists as well. So when we get the ball moving, get the ball popping, it’s hard to guard.”
The ball movement seems to be contributing to the Raptors’ improved shooting of late as they’ve connected on an average of 14 threes per game at 41 per cent efficiency, a notable development for the league’s worst three-point shooting team.
“[We’re] getting the ball moving with a little more rhythm and flow and just executing at a higher level,” said Raptors guard Fred VanVleet, who connected with Barnes on a couple of early pick-and-roll plays Thursday against the Hornets that led to easy dunks for Barnes. “There’s a different energy and feel out there at times and we’ve got good shooters on this team. As bad as we shot it before, it’s gotta go the other way and we’ll level out somewhere in the middle. I like the way we’ve been playing lately and we just gotta keep it up.”
It will be interesting to see how the point centre experiment works out for Barnes, long-term, given his point guard intentions.
The move does seem to have got him the ball in more dangerous places closer to the basket which forces opposing defences to guard him and thus opening up chances to attack the rim or create for his teammates. Defensively, he’s also been able to hold his own against some of the NBA’s bigger big men – from Turner with Indiana to Brook Lopez with the Bucks to recent tussles with the Trail Blazers’ Jusuf Nurkic and the Hornets’ Mason Plumlee.
“I feel like I’m better at it every single every time I step on the floor,” Barnes said on Thursday. “I feel like I’m a big guy as well. I’ve got some muscle on me, so [it’s] just about playing with some heart, some physicality.”
It’s been noted by his teammates and appreciated.
“He just looks sharp. Sharp and focused and professional,” said VanVleet. “I think anytime he’s got low turnovers his game is always good for him, just valuing the possession and making the right plays and not getting too crazy.
“He’s been really sharp and really impressive … he’s adjusted and accepted playing the screen and roll game a little bit as a screener. He’s guarded well at the five spot. So he’s playing well on both ends of the floor … we’re going to need that from him.”
If Barnes keeps it up and the Raptors turn around their season, he might need a new social media bio too.
