Draymond Green can’t help but get excited about Scottie Barnes. It wasn’t all that long ago that Green was revolutionizing the NBA with his point-forward play. Sure, Steph Curry was the engine behind those championship Golden State Warriors teams but without Green, the success would have been different. In Barnes, Green sees something similarly special. He sees a player with a cut from the same cloth. He sees a do-it-all forward for the Toronto Raptors, who, Green said, can reach highs higher than Green himself ever did. “You come in this league, and you hope to leave your mark and me playing the point forward position, I’m not going to sit up here and act like I was the first one to ever do it, but I think I’ve done it a little differently than most. And he’ll take that to another level,” Green told reporters Friday night. “For me, to see guys like Scottie Barnes come in kind of in that mold, he’s far bigger than me, probably four inches taller, way more athletic, you know, he’s a special, special, special talent.” The development and work Barnes has done to improve himself hasn’t gone unnoticed. Across the board, Barnes’ stats are up and he’s filling the box score with the kind of stats few others in the league can put up on a nightly basis.
shooting the ball a lot better. He’s making reads. Super aggressive. He’s making guys around him better. I think that’s a great thing for him,” Green said. “I think the thing for Scottie is Scottie is the face of the franchise. He’s going to have to continue to score the basketball. I think that’s going to be the big thing for Scottie. “We know all the things he does on the court, he’s a Swiss army knife, but he’s going to have to score the basketball being the face of the franchise. And he’s doing more and more of that.” That’s the next step for Barnes. He’s fantastic when it comes to passing out of double teams. He threw a stellar skip pass out of pressure from the Warriors to find an open Kelly Olynyk for three. But occasionally Barnes can be too pass-happy and learning how to balance his incredible playmaking skills with his own aggressiveness is going to be important for his long-term development. If Green is right, it’ll come.
