It’s not a secret that Toronto Raptors franchise cornerstone Scottie Barnes views himself as a point guard. It’s in his Instagram bio, and he calls himself a PG whenever the media asks. Despite what Barnes says or feels, he isn’t a point guard in the NBA, at least not yet. While it would be nice for Barnes to grow into that role in the new year, there are more pressing things for him to focus on. Here are three areas Barnes needs to improve on in 2025.
3 Critical Areas for Scottie Barnes Development in 2025
Living Up To His Defensive Potential
Before coming into the league, Barnes earned a lot of praise for his defensive effort and versatility. Even drawing lofty comparisons to all-time greats like Draymond Green. Barnes has shown flashes of living up to his defensive potential through his first four seasons in the league. However, he hasn’t ever been as consistently good on that end as he has shown to be. Barnes has too many games where his defensive effort just isn’t good enough. Letting his man blow by him or being lazy off the ball and not rotating at the right time. This lackadaisical approach is highly frustrating when, at his best, Barnes is a force of nature defensively. Too often, he will let a poor offensive performance affect his defensive effort, which is a sign of immaturity and an inconsistent motor.
For the rest of 2025, Barnes needs to improve these areas and become a full-time defensive menace. Stop letting his offense game dictate his defensive effort and be a leader for the team on that end.
Positive Body Language
Barnes’ improvement in these two areas goes hand in hand, and his body language is a massive factor. It’s pretty easy to see when Barnes is having a bad game just by watching him off-ball. If he’s struggling, he will stand in the corner or take 5-6 seconds to even get into the play, too busy arguing with a ref, throwing the rest of the Raptors out of wack. Defensively, this manifests in Barnes pouting after a defensive breakdown or pointing fingers at teammates.
Yes, Barnes is still young, and Toronto isn’t good right now, but as the leader and franchise cornerstone, you set the culture for the team. When things aren’t going well, the rest of the team looks to its leader, and if their leader looks disengaged or uninterested, why should everyone else care? Barnes’ improvement in his body language and his leadership skills are almost as significant as improving his game for the team in the future.
Changing Shot Diet
The NBA revolves around three-point shooting. This has only become more ingrained in the last two seasons, with teams like the Boston Celtics taking nearly 55% of their shots from deep per game. For Barnes to be one of the best players in the league, he will need to add an outside shot. However, it shouldn’t come at the cost of other areas of his game. Through the first 14-game stretch of his season, Barnes took more threes than shots in the restricted area, with over a third of his total attempts being threes. Over that same stretch, Barnes shot 31% from deep while shooting 68.8% in the restricted area. Yet he never seemed to hunt shots at the rim, often settling for a quick pull-up three over fighting for deep post position.
However, over the last eight games, Barnes has cut down on threes heavily, focusing more on scoring inside. Unsurprisingly, his efficiency has increased. With Immanuel Quickley back to take the ball out of Barnes’ hands, he needs to focus on living at the rim, where he has been feasting all year, shooting 75.3% in the RA and 50.5% in the paint (non-RA). For the rest of 2025, Barnes needs to be a force in the paint and stop hunting threes.
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