Raptors Give An Explanation of Their Starting Lineup Change and How Scottie Barnes Will Be Affected
Toronto was trying to alter Barnes’ use because the then-sophomore forward’s season hadn’t started out as expected. The Raptors believed it was time to upgrade Barnes from a small-ball center to an offensive initiator because both he and the club had struggled with him playing alongside Fred VanVleet.
After New Year’s, Barnes started to show signs of improvement in the 20 games leading up to the trade deadline, when Toronto acquired Jakob Poeltl. He became much more adept at screening and exploiting the space that opposition big men were giving him. Despite Barnes’s lack of shooting ability at the time, he was hesitant to move out near the three-point line.
Toronto has chosen to implement yet another reform that is centered on Barnes a year later. The third-year guard is now once again leading the club as its point guard, taking over for Dennis Schröder, who was benched on Wednesday, thanks to the Raptors’ decision to send him back down the positional spectrum.
The Raptors started this year in a very different way than how they finished last season, which was disappointing. For fear that Barnes wasn’t nearly ready to handle point guard responsibilities once more, Toronto had been hesitant to let him play as the lone guard.
Asking why Toronto hadn’t allowed Barnes play more as the team’s lone point guard, Raptors coach Vlade Divac replied three weeks ago, “He needs someone to help him.” “I believe that he is capable of making decisions and managing the ball in pick and rolls, and I think that he will continue to grow in those areas. I simply believe that it can be useful at times to have a second player who can bring the ball and set us up and organize.”
However, the Raptors were forced to make changes after Toronto’s failure to find success with their original starting lineup.
In addition to wanting Dennis to assist more with the second unit, we felt that this was a good opportunity to use Scottie Barnes as a ball handler, Rajaković told reporters on Wednesday.
Relying on Schröder to steady the second unit as the team’s backup point guard, Rajaković stated that the intention behind moving Gary Trent Jr. from the sixth man into the starting lineup is to give Barnes more time to grow as a player. The fourth-year point guard was kicked out of the starting lineup against Washington, thus Toronto was forced to move Schröder to the bench and can now rely on Malachi Flynn as a backup guard.
The Raptors understand that there will be hiccups along the way because Barnes isn’t a conventional point guard. One careless first-quarter error included him giving up the ball to Deni Avdija at mid-court. The cost of development is that Barnes will undoubtedly make mistakes of that nature more frequently than Schröder did.
Barnes performed a terrific job of leading our attack, keeping players oriented, touching the paint, and making additional passes, according to Rajaković, who spoke highly of him in the first half. He may need some time to adjust as he handles the ball more and calls more plays, but eventually he will become more at ease in that role. This is obviously what you have processed.
A sign of hope for the future is this shift. Toronto appears to be betting on Barnes to develop into a modern-day all-around basketball player who is able to play all positions on the court.
Gary Trent Jr. addressed reporters about Barnes, saying, “We believe in 4 at the point guard.” We’re able to observe his actions with it. The way in which he passes it. His movements, his use of them, his development, and his growth.
Currently, this season should be centered around Barnes’ growth and figuring out who works with him. Barnes and Toronto were obviously not getting along with the previous starting lineup, which featured three shooters who were below average, and the Raptors were left with a mediocre bench.
Is this new lineup going to function?Too soon to tell. However, it will at the very least aid in Barnes’ growth and make clear who is and is not compatible with Toronto’s future treasure.