Raptors' Scottie Barnes sets his high goals for sophomore season
Scottie Barnes has big goals for his second season with the Toronto Raptors.
In an interview with Swish Cultures’ Jordan Rivers, Barnes detailed his big expectations for his second NBA season.
“You’re a lot different than the other rookies because you played one through four,” Rivers said, asking about Barnes’ positional versatility.
“One through five,” Barnes corrected.
Barnes was then asked about what his goals were for the upcoming season.
“Continuously, just growing each area of the game,” Barnes said when asked what he’s looking to accomplish in his second year in the NBA. “[I want to] just be able to work on my ball handling, finishing, getting in different moves, getting into the mid-range in different spots. Just trying to be able to score at all three levels, trying to develop in each way.”
One big area of Barnes’ development is his jump shot. Barnes, known for being an interior scorer, shot a team-high 67.9% from 5 feet or less but shot just 30.1% from beyond the three-point arc.
“I’m trying to be a consistent shooter, proving myself that I’m a consistent shooter. And just keeping up with our defence, bringing it every game, and having that intensity, and showing that fight every game.”
Barnes, the NBA’s reigning Rookie of the Year, averaged 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 74 regular-season games. In the postseason, Barnes averaged 12.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists, though he was dealing with injuries throughout his first playoff series that caused him to miss two-and-a-half games.
Barnes was also asked about what he’s learned playing with Raptors veterans Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet.
“Really, you can just see the intensity of each game, every possession counts, every possession matters. They don’t take any game for granted. They’re trying to win every game, every second counts,” Barnes said. You can really see that they bring that championship-like mentality to the floor.”
The full interview is available below.
For the Raptors fanbase, one can only dream big about the ceiling for the 21-year-old Scottie Barnes.