Raptors Want Scottie Barnes to Narrow Skills: 'You Cannot Be Extremely Good at Everything'

The Toronto Raptors see Scottie Barnes as a player who can do everything but as he takes the next step in his development they want that to begin to narrow down

There’s almost nothing Scottie Barnes can’t do on the basketball court.

Want him to run the point and lead the transition? No problem. Need him playing the five and rolling as an NBA big man? He’s done that plenty. This year he’s even developed a jumper and can seemingly play any position one through five.

For the Toronto Raptors, the possibilities feel endless. But sometimes, that’s a little scary.

“He has so many traits, so many things that he can do on a higher level,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said. “I always say, if you're really good at one thing in the NBA, you're gonna find your contract, you’re gonna survive in this league. If you're really good at two things, like you’re a really good player, potentially (a) starter. If you’re really good at three things, you’re (an) All-Star. If you think you’re really good at four things, probably you’re out of the league and playing in Europe.”

For clarity, Barnes isn’t heading overseas anytime soon, but the point is Toronto doesn’t want a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none kind of player.

“You cannot be extremely good at everything,” Rajaković continued. “That's a problem that I'm having with Scottie because he's good at multiple things. We gotta find those two or three things that he's gonna really take to take the jump to the next level and become an all-star player, which I believe he is.”

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What those two or three things are isn’t entirely clear right now, Rajaković admitted. Barnes is a talented driver and a skilled passer. He can navigate the pick-and-roll as the ball handler, a skill he’s developed into the 71st percentile this season, per NBA Stats. He can suddenly spot-up at a high level and his post-up game has been his go-to move since he first broke into the league.

“I just play the game. Whatever comes to me, that's really what I take,” Barnes said. “I feel like when I'm out there, I'm myself: me having the ball, playing pick-and-rolls, playing off the ball, no matter what it is, I'm comfortable doing it, everywhere out there on the floor.”

Barnes has said something along those lines whenever he’s asked about who he is as a player. The fact that he can do so much on the court means he’s willing to do whatever the team needs of him. It’s why he went from playing as the team’s primary facilitator early last season to the team’s offensive center around the new year, only to be displaced again when Jakob Poeltl showed up.

For Barnes, development to the next level means finding those specific skills he can master. It’s great that he’s willing to be flexible, but Toronto needs to know exactly what Barnes is as it begins to build a team around him going forward.