The NBA has such a team, not in the United States, the city's winter is unusually cold and long. When Los Angeles has begun to celebrate the arrival of spring, the people of Toronto are still wearing big jackets and roasting fires around the fire. In my memory, the Raptors' leading players have always been a fierce character: from the demigod Carter, to the Dragon King Bosh, who can be inside and out, to DeRozan, the king of the middle distance, to Leonard, who is integrated in attack and defense, lowry from the small steel cannon to VanVleet, who has just been selected as an All-Star, all of them are qualified leadership players. The Raptors' next baton was not passed to Siakam's hand, but barnes, known as a hexagonal warrior.
In the 2021 draft, the Toronto Raptors, who held the first round of the fourth pick, did not choose Sagas from Gonzaga University as predicted by the outside. The situation was such that the players who were recognized as the Five Kings were Corningham, Jaylen Green, Mobley, Sargus and Cumminga. These five players were the most promising new stars at the time and the biggest picks in the draft. Cunningham's pick is already a nail in the coffin, the Rockets have also determined that if Corningham can't be selected, they will take out Jaylen Green, and the Cavaliers will choose Mobley, and the first three picks are almost no run.
Chapter 1: Barnes or Sargas?
Because of lowry's age, the Raptors need to find a successor to train well, and Sagas, who led Gonzaga University to the NCAA finals at that time, was indeed a good candidate. In this year's rookie defenders, there is no better presence than Sargas. But the Raptors did the opposite, not choosing Sargas as people thought, but turning their attention to Scotty Barnes. This led to the mess in the back, which is why the Warriors were able to pick up Cuminga in the seventh pick.
It is said that 2021 is a big year for the draft, and this season is not wrong from the data. According to statistics, 8 of the top ten picks in the rookie in 2021 have reached double digits per game, which is difficult to see in previous years' draft meetings. To get such a result, at least two conditions must be met, the first is that the players themselves have the ability to score, and there are two brushes on the offensive end; the second is that the team is willing to give opportunities (time and firing rights), if you average 15 or 16 minutes per game, it is actually very difficult to score in double figures.
Scotty Barnes is catching up with Lowry's departure from the East and the team's biggest player is VanVleet. Just short of people on the front end, Barnes is a noble number four show. In fact, just after the selection of Barnes, Raptors fans have a lot of unhappiness, they think that choosing Sargus is the best choice, his leadership has been reflected in the University of Gonzaga, and can take over Lowry's class, why not enjoy it? But at least from the performance of this season, Barnes is completely explosive Sargs, and in my opinion Barnes's ceiling is obviously higher.
Chapter Two: Barnes' Draft Report
To figure out why the Raptors abandoned Sargas in favor of Barnes, you have to take a closer look at Scotty Barnes' scouting report. Scotty Barnes was born on August 1, 2001 in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. Barnes is 6 feet 8 inches (203 cm), weighs 225 pounds (102 kg), has an arm span of 7 feet 2.75 inches (220 cm), and the template given by the scouts is Dream Green/the stronger Batum.
Played a season for Florida State University, playing in 24 games, averaging 10.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.5 steals in 24.8 minutes per game, shooting 50.3 percent from the field, 27.5 percent from three-point range, and 62.1 percent from the free throw line.
His strengths are: his excellent static talent, coupled with a large palm, a height of 203 centimeters, plus an arm span of 220 centimeters, give him a very competitive advantage in the small ball era. At the same time, the control of the body is in place, he can find a balance between the confrontations between the marches, and a precise small throw, it can be said that the arsenal is very rich, is a potential scorer.
Secondly, he is also very active on the defensive end, and he will take the initiative to rely on his physical advantage to make a death-like entanglement of the opposing scorer. His height arm span allows him to defend from the number one position to the fifth position, a little bit of a small card shadow, good training may really be able to take a DPOY. Not only that, but also in the rebounding sense of smell is also very sensitive, has a good sense of grabbing offensive rebounds, after taking defensive rebounds can also be used as a fast attack as the initiator.
Finally, Barnes' possession advantage. His palms are larger, which makes his ball possession a bit stronger than the average striker, and at the same time his vision is good, and barnes is fully capable of organizing the work if the team needs it, which is a bit of a Simmons feeling.
Chapter Three: Performances this Season
Raptors head coach Nas's cultivation of Barnes can be said to be very in place. He averaged 35.4 minutes per game, but his possession percentage was only 18.7%. What level is this? Put it this way, DiVincienzo, who also has 18.7% of the possession of the round, only played 24 minutes. Nas let Barnes play more to develop his awareness of grabbing rebounds and understanding of defense than to let him touch the ball so quickly.
In five games absent from boss VanVleet, Barnes averaged 19.2 points, 10.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game, a feat that helped Barnes win the title of Rookie of the Month of March. Remember the regular season against the Lakers, Barnes against the greatest forward LeBron, he scored a season-high 31 points, but the old Jan still led the team to win the game. Barnes' core strength is sufficient and the defensive position is very wide. Take the ball against the Lakers, even against the old Zhan he can rely on the strength of the lower limbs to top a round or two, really can't stand it and shake people to call VanVleet back to assist in defense, forcing old Zhan to split the ball.
Barnes is one of the few defensive front-liners in the league, and the players he plays against are shooting 34.8 percent from three-point range. Big Bridges is limited to 33.4 percent and Bridges Jr. is limited to 33.5 percent, and Barnes barely makes that line, but considering he's just a rookie, it's a bit of a stretch.
This season, Barnes has played in 74 games for the Raptors, averaging 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals in 35.4 minutes per game. Among them, the shooting rate is 49%, the three-point shooting rate is 30%, and the free throw shooting rate is 74%. If Corningham hadn't played in the second half, this year's best rookie Barnes might have been able to compete!