PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the best players in the world was trying to shake Scottie Barnes, and Scottie Barnes was not having it.
Damian Lillard was into his bag of tricks, speeding up and slowing down his dribble, attempting to get by the rookie. A few moves put Barnes off balance, but he stayed with the star. Lillard couldn’t turn the corner on Barnes, whose chest was in the guard’s face. OG Anunoby reached in to give some extra help, and Lillard tripped. Did he trip over Anunoby’s foot? Maybe. The official called Barnes for a foul, though.
Barnes reacted strongly, appearing to say something with plenty of passion. Appearing to realize he was in danger of going too far, he stopped talking and began clapping demonstrably, a common move for Barnes. That’s when Ed Malloy called him for a technical foul. Barnes looked perplexed, wondering how clapping could lead to a tech, his second in two games. (He earned the first one, against Detroit Saturday, when he pantomimed the act of putting on glasses to an official.)
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“I don’t know why I got the tech. I guess it was for clapping,” Barnes said. “I didn’t say anything. I was just clapping because I was trying to get my teammates hyped. The ref had other thoughts in mind.
“I’m just a rook. They’re not going for that, bro.”
It is good to be reminded of that fact. Monday’s loss to Portland emphasized how far Barnes still has to go, despite how far he has already come. Almost casually, he put up 18 points and eight rebounds, further cementing his lead among all rookies in both categories. There were clear hiccups, though: a dropped pass that would have resulted in a dunk off a beautiful look from Fred VanVleet and a pair of turnovers in the final two minutes, including a travel after he left his feet without a backup plan.
In an unlikely sequence but still an important lesson, the relatively unathletic C.J. McCollum also blocked the stuffing out of a Barnes layup attempt in a manner similar to what he has done at lower levels.
“You just have to value every possession,” Barnes said of his biggest lesson so far this season. “A lot of these games come down to (the end), and whoever executes the best wins the game. You’ve gotta be smart when you’re in the game. You have to find ways to value the game plan to get your (best) plays in. Every possession matters.”
This was to be expected with Barnes, the type of mistakes that come from a rookie soaking up as many minutes as he is.
“That’s how you have to take them — as learning moments,” coach Nick Nurse said after the Portland game. “He’s a young guy. He’s going to have some ups and downs, make some mistakes, but I thought he was playing pretty hard and aggressively and was making the right reads. He just needs to finish a couple of plays.”
(Another sign Barnes is a rookie: When asked about the five trips left on the road swing, he rattled off Utah, Sacramento and Golden State before not even trying to name the final two stops — Memphis and Indianapolis. “Wherever I go, I go, bro.”)
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Even with Pascal Siakam back, there is no sign Nurse is about to cut back on Barnes’ minutes. While some trimming would be nice, there is no real reason to do so, as his development is arguably the most important single thing within this Raptors season.
Barnes is already up to 462 minutes this year. Playing a similar defensive system at Florida State last year, he had 595.
“At Florida State we had a lot of guys who could play, and we wanted to get those rotations in,” Barnes said. “It was come in, play two, two and a half, three minutes as hard as you can until I was exhausted. Then I get subbed out for someone else. We played full-court, 94 feet, a lot of switching, a lot of ball pressure. But we also wanted to try to play those rotations. So we tried to play all-out for three minutes and then make subs.
“I was just going really hard (in college), running, doing things on the floor. Now you’ve got to play really smart. You can play hard, but you also have to play smart in this league.”
Even a toned-down version of Barnes is, obviously, a high-energy player. That is part of what makes him such an asset, and if he attempts to change that too much in the name of pacing himself, he will not be the same guy.
There might be some opportunities to save himself some money, though.
“I don’t know,” Barnes said when asked if people frequently misunderstand his enthusiasm. “I don’t really care what they think.”
(Photo: Abbie Parr / Getty Images)
