The ticking of the clock. We all see it in sports. Be it counting up until prime years are entered, prime years are exited, contracts beginning or ending – we see it. It’s implicit, because it’s a lot easier to say “Scottie is the future” than it is to say “The NBA is a salary cap sport and stars on rookie contracts are by far the most valuable thing in the league. We have to maximize his timeline and build according to when we think his prime is coming. We need affordable and team-controlled talent next to him, and the current stars of the team won’t be that. Let’s make moves that prioritize Scottie.”
Doesn’t really have the same ring to it, right?
Now, there’s a bunch of push back to that little explanation that can be given, but we’re not doing that. Mostly because we can talk about actual basketball, but also because it’s really foggy to project the future. Let’s focus on O.G. Anunoby & Scottie Barnes dominating a game in a loss, because they were absolutely fantastic.
63 points on 33 shots. They were gluttonous in their efficiency, and extremely complementary in their approach. Anunoby providing the punch the Raptors needed from downtown and navigating driving lanes after closeouts, helping the Raptors close out possessions. Barnes, pushing pace, collapsing the defense to get possessions started. Of Barnes’ 13 makes, 12 came in the paint. He was ginormous. His first basket of the fourth quarter, saw him sky for a rebound and in doing so, bounced Dennis Schroder harmlessly out of the air — a casualty of contesting the same space — before laying the ball in.
The rest of his quarter was a collection of a few different things he’s been working on and succeeding at in his young NBA career. A catch and shoot triple, a couple fadeaways (and he made several in this game), a straight line drive where his mass and speed dared anyone to make the help-side rotation, and they didn’t. We also got a stampede cut where he set his footwork up to go right, pushed the dribble to his left, bending Schroder into a weak stance and plowing through him to finish at the front of the rim over Anthony Davis. Power, purpose, talent, it was driving the Raptors offense in the fourth quarter almost exclusively through his hands. No meandering, only good mannering, Barnes was getting to his spots.
And with Anunoby, who scored 29 of his 31 in the first 3 quarters, it wasn’t as if he was getting to his spots; no one says their spot is a corner three (maybe PJ Tucker) or the rim (maybe Rudy Gobert), it typically means somewhere inside the arc and outside the restricted area where you can hit a contested shot. He was taking the easy things that were available, and keeping his dribble alive long enough to access the more difficult things.
They did different things. The only similarity is their massive shoulders make it impossible for them to slither in the paint. We’re not talking about a lack of success or anything, just that aesthetically, they’re as wide as a working stiff carrying planks of wood across their back – turning causes collisions.
This is the harmony everyone wants, right? An enormously efficient play finisher, who spaces out the lane for Barnes, creates a smidge, and defends the hell out of his position. Not normal, good defense. Game changing, All-Defense, defense. The type of defense where you can stick him on star bigs, star wings, star guards, or Mario (Super, or otherwise) as he’s trying to collect stars – and you can expect a success story. Barnes got to live in the paint, Anunoby got to enter when he pleased, and there was no indication that they were playing bumper cars in limited space.
Platonic ideals, we saw them. Perfect, absolute, eternal forms. The only question, and the question that the 29 other teams in the NBA aim to force on the Raptors every game for as long they’re in the league: what do you do when it’s not perfect? We’ve seen both Anunoby & Barnes struggle in games where they were objectively given the keys to the offense, but it’s games like this that make you want to keep letting them try. For the rest of this season? I doubt it happens often. But for the future? Maybe so.
Have a blessed day.
