Everyone is expecting big things from Scottie Barnes in his sophomore season with the Raptors.
Even the man himself is.
In an interview with SLAM's Deyscha Smith, the reigning Rookie of the Year shared his plans on how he's going to build on his impressive first season in the league. His trainer then added fuel to the fire in an interview with Aaron Rose of Sports Illustrated's AllRaptors, saying Barnes is going to be "way better" this upcoming season.
There's no question Barnes has the potential to be a special player. (The Raptors are, after all, said to have no interest in dealing him for Kevin Durant, a 12-time All-Star who is still in the conversation for best player in the league. There's a reason for that.)
But what are reasonable expectations for the recently turned 21-year-old moving forward? Could he join Vince Carter as only the second player in franchise history to make the All-Star team as a second-year player?
Let's take a closer look at two improvements Barnes must make this summer in order to unlock his Year 2 All-Star potential.
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Where Scottie Barnes can improve the most after standout rookie season
Become a more reliable shooter
The obvious one.
Barnes was better than expected from midrange last season. It was from the perimeter where he really struggled. He attempted 2.6 3-pointers per game and knocked them down at a 30.1 percent clip.
For perspective, Barnes was one of 224 players who attempted at least 150 3-pointers in the 2021-22 season. Of those players, only 20 connected on them at a worse clip than him, a list that includes the likes of Josh Giddey, Russell Westbrook and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
That makes for a lot of red on the good ol' shot chart.
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Becoming a more efficient 3-point shooter would obviously do wonders for both Barnes and the Raptors. Not only would add to the team's spacing — Barnes was one of the least efficient spot-up threats in the league as a rookie — but it would open the door for him to be involved in more actions like pick-and-pops.
"I’m just working on being able to get to the basket, being unstoppable on the floor," Barnes told Smith. "Scoring, being in the midrange area and just being a consistent shooter. Being able to knock down shots consistently, being able to carry myself in that way as being one of those top people in the league.”
Barnes almost certainly isn't going to turn into a knockdown shooter overnight, though. The way Pascal Siakam has progressed from 3-point range would actually serve as a solid blueprint for him to follow.
In his first two seasons, Siakam combined to shoot 21.6 percent from 3-point range on incredibly low volume. He then shot a career-best 36.9 percent in his third season, only he was limited to mostly the corners and still wasn't a particularly high-volume shooter. It wasn't until his fourth season that he became more comfortable shooting above the break and off the dribble.
Siakam's 3-point attempts have actually declined in each of the last two seasons, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a far better and more versatile 3-point shooter than he was when he first entered the league.
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Become a more deadly one-on-one scorer
Based on what his trainer had to say, developing more go-to moves has been a point of emphasis for Barnes this offseason. Why? To get "a lot more efficient in the halfcourt."
That's smart.
Even as a rookie, Barnes was near the top of the NBA in transition scoring. He was a big-time scorer on cuts and off of putbacks as well. While he showed the ability to create his own shot, we didn't see a ton of it.
Barnes had slightly more unassisted baskets (238) than assisted baskets (221) last season, but a good chunk (59) of those unassisted baskets were putbacks.
| Play type | Frequency | Points Per Possession | Percentile |
| Transition | 20.9% | 1.07 | 40.1 |
| Spot-up | 17.1% | 0.79 | 18.0 |
| Cut | 12.7% | 1.18 | 31.6 |
| Isolation | 11.5% | 0.87 | 45.7 |
| Post-up | 10.1% | 0.92 | 46.2 |
| Putback | 9.1% | 1.27 | 80.4 |
| Pick-and-roll ball handler | 5.6% | 1.12 | 94.3 |
| Pick-and-roll roller | 4.1% | 0.87 | 16.3 |
His willingness to run the floor in the open court, play off-ball and attack the glass makes Barnes quite a malleable player already — as he showed time and time again, he doesn't need plays called for him to wreak havoc — but the more he grows as a playmaker, the more offense the Raptors will be able to run through him.
Again, Barnes showed enough last season to believe he could become more of a creator, particularly out of the post. He was already a tough cover for smaller defenders on the low block because of his size, and he's apparently added 10 more pounds to his frame.
His trainer also made it sound like we can expect even more polish from him out of the post.
"His mid-post turnarounds both ways, those are, like, he's gonna make a lot of those," Brian Macon told Rose. "Like, those are going to be like his money shots. Especially when he gets switches on smaller guys.
"So I think he'll just be able to get downhill a lot easier than he was and he put on like 10 pounds. So he's like 235 (pounds). He's like 235, 6% body fat. So he's a perfect, like, he looks like a created player."
If that doesn't make you excited to see what Barnes has in store for Year 2, I'm not sure what will.
