'Trying to win basketball games': Barnes focused on results over all-star voting

TORONTO – Scottie Barnes saw the result of the first round of all-star fan voting, the ones that came out Monday, where somehow, he wasn’t voted among the top-20 players in the Eastern Conference. 

Barnes not being among the best 20 (10? five?) best players in the East is a laughable notion, never more so than in a week where Barnes has counted two triple-doubles in his past three starts – his monster 23-point, 25-rebounds, 10 assists game in a win over the Golden State Warriors last Sunday and the 20-14-11 outing against the Denver Nuggets in a loss on Wednesday. 

The Raptors are holding down fourth place in the Eastern Conference after finishing 11th last season. Barnes is averaging 19.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists on a career-best 58.4 per cent true shooting (which factors in the value of two-point shots, three-point shots and free throws). He’s one of five players averaging at least 19/9/5 on that level of efficiency, joining a list that includes Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and Jalen Johnson. The other four are locks for the all-star game, and likely All-NBA status too, provided they play the minimum 65 games. 

Whether Barnes belongs in those conversations will likely hinge on the Raptors season-long performance, but to this point he’s one of the 12 players in the East that deserves all-star recognition and there’s not even much to debate about. 

Barnes didn’t seem too upset at the matter in his first comments on it as the Raptors practised Friday in advance of a pair of home games against the Atlanta Hawks Saturday and Monday. 

He’s got bigger goals in mind. 

“I don’t really think I was surprised [about the voting],” he said. “It is what it is. At the end of the day, I’m just trying to win basketball games. At the end of the year, when All-Defence comes out, I think I’ll be more worried about that.”

There’s no reason Barnes can do both: make the all-star game for the second time in his career and make his first All-Defence team at season’s end. 

That the Raptors are the NBA’s fifth-rated defence featuring a lineup where the starting centre – Jakob Poeltl – has been in-and-out of the lineup for much of the year and where the next tallest player is six-foot-nine and the remaining starters haven’t typically been looked at as much better than neutral individual defenders can only help Barnes’ case. 

Then there’s his status as the NBA’s leader in ‘stocks’: his combined total of 100 steals and blocks is the best in the NBA, while he sits seventh in deflections.

It’s why Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković has been vocal in trying to drum up fan support before the next round of voting comes out on Jan. 6.

“I am puzzled," said Rajaković. "I am very disappointed that Scottie did not crack the top 20. We need to get this right. Canada needs to get this right. It starts with us. It starts with our city. It starts with our country over here. We have 40 million people living in this country and 40 million fans of the Toronto Raptors … I have no doubt that Scottie Barnes is an all-star. I have no doubt that he needs to be toward the top of that list of players in the East. Canada, we need to get that fixed right now.”

Barnes could help his own cause if he continues racking up triple-doubles. There is nothing like some round numbers to get people’s attention.

It’s not his nature to go stat chasing, but there’s no reason Barnes shouldn’t have more triple-doubles given his ability to excel in all three of the major statistical columns. It’s almost surprising that’s he’s only had eight in five seasons and that prior to his two this week he hadn’t had one for nearly a full calendar year.

Given that Barnes is by nature an unselfish player, there’s little risk in encouraging him to push a little harder to post the kind of data points that makes voters notice and would most likely go hand-in-hand with team success.

“I think for Scottie, every night he is definitely an opportunity for double-doubles, I think points and rebounds that it should always be there,” said Rajaković. “Assists are the hard part because I look a lot of times up at our potential assists. [Against Denver] I believe, we had 22 assists, but our potential [assists] says we had 67. So, we missed a lot of shots … so, Scottie, I believe that he should be, and that he is a double-double machine every night. And I think that his triple-doubles can be more frequent as well.”

Barnes has 17 point/rebound double-doubles through 35 games this season, which puts him on pace to blow past the 25 he had 65 games last year, which was his career-best at the time. If his teammates can knock down a few more shots…

“When things are going right, things are going right,” said Barnes on the possibility of there being more triple-doubles in his immediate future. “I’m trying to be more intentional on rebounding, pushing the ball in fast break. It’s great having RJ [Barrett] back out there; he gets me some free assists with how he runs the floor and [his] shot making. He gets me some free assists all the time. It’s good that we’re running and getting our habits right. [I’m] Just trying to lock in on rebounding and when I score, it just happens to be there.”

The reality is there is likely nothing Barnes can do individually to improve his standing meaningfully in the fan vote, though if the doesn’t at least appear in the top 20 in the East there probably needs to be some kind of post-mortem as to why. He should fare better in the media vote (which makes up 25 per cent of the weighting) and the player vote (which counts for 25 per cent).

Raptors teammate Brandon Ingram – a worthy all-star candidate himself – was 12th in the voting, so at least there is evidence that at least some Raptors fans’ votes counted. And there is a history of Raptors stars being voted in as all-star game starters in the past, with each of Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, DeMar DeRozan, Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam earning that honour.

Still, Barnes' road to the all-star game in Los Angeles will likely rely on the Eastern Conference coaches voting him in as one of seven reserves.

The Raptors team success and his individual defence should help in that regard, and a few more triple-doubles wouldn’t hurt either.