Life without Scottie Barnes is pretty scary as the Raptors lost 111 to 91 against the Indiana Pacers. This game showed that the Raptors have a huge drop in talent without Barnes. It also showed that the Raptors do not have another two way player on the team. The Raptors struggled both on offense and defense. Watching tonight, you realize that Scottie Barnes is by far the team’s better defender. He is their best on ball defender, off ball defender an rim protector. On offense, he is the team’s best initiator, passer, creator and the only player that will draw a consistent double team. On the one hand, this game shows how amazing Scottie Barnes is even if he is not a finished product yet. But on the other hand, it shows how much the team lacks high end talent.
However, it is not all gloom and doom as the Raptors do have Brendon Ingram whom they recently acquired at the trade deadline. He is a potent scorer and he is long. His defense is probably around average or slightly better but his length and wingspan will definitely help. After that, they have no other two way players. However, does the team have any one way players that are exceptional on either offense and defense?
Life Without Scottie Barnes is Pretty Scary – No One Way Players at all
Nope! That is the simple answer. Is there any hope of any player becoming one? On offense, the only player that I can see is Gradey Dick. His reputation coming out of college is that he is a sniper especially from the three point line. So far in his career it has been a mixed bag on offense. He is currently shooting 41.3 percent from the field and 34.9 percent from the three point line. That is not elite at all.
And it doesn’t justify playing him heavy minutes let alone have him start as his defense is horrific. It really is. He had a couple of charges which were nice. But his off ball, on ball defense is bad. Also, he seems confused when it comes to reading the play and where he should be. He is also not good in fighting over screens and switching. Tonight he was a -22 in plus/minus tonight. Most of the time you take this statistic with a grain of salt but you could tell that he was this bad. I am skeptical that he can ever become a potent enough shooter to compensate for his bad defense. And I am even more bearish that his defense will improve significantly.
What About the Defensive Side of the Ball?
On the defensive side of the ball, there is Jonathan Mogbo, who is almost the same size as Scottie Barnes and is a pretty good defender for a Rookie. He is however, no where near elite. And currently, it needs to be because his offense is so bad. He is truly a zero level scorer. And that sad part is that the closer he is to the rim, the worst his shooting gets. It is truly how bad he is near the rim. He has no touch at all and he throws up bricks. Is there any hope? There is as his defense will improve. However, he needs to have some sort of offense especially close to the rim. If he had even an average inside game, it would open his game up so much.
The one thing that gives me hope is that he can hit the three point shot form time to time after not shooting one three pointer in his entire college career. However, he will need a couple of off seasons working on his offensive game and hope there can be improvement. I hope so but not so sure if it will happen. So is there any hope of another two way player on the team?
Life Without Scottie Barnes is Pretty Scary – Ja’Kobe Walter, Two Way Maybe?
The only player that really gives me hope on the team is the rookie Ja’Kobe Walter. He is a bit undersized at six foot four inches but he has a six foot ten wingspan but he works hard on defense and has the potential of becoming a pretty good defensive player. He had some good defensive sequences against Tyrese Haliburton that gave me hope. Even though he is a bit small, he competes hard.
On the offensive side, he can shoot from deep but only shooting 30.7 percent from deep. However, he does have some crafty moves to get into the paint. However, he needs to gain at least 10-15 pounds of muscle to help him finish better inside. I would like him to get move playing time for the rest of the year as he does have potential; maybe even start. However, we will have to wait until next season to see if he has potential. If he significantly improves than this helps the Raptors moving forward.
Conclusion
Tonight’s game showed how much the team needs to improve on talent for them to compete for the playoffs in the future. Unfortunately, a lot of their veteran players are more or less finish products. There is some hope with a few of their younger players but some of them have severe deficiencies in their game that might be hard for the team to overcome. Hopefully one or two pan out and hopefully they can draft a two way player in this coming draft. Cooper Flagg anyone? One can hope!