Takeaways: Barnes shines in Raptors’ pre-season loss to Knicks

The NBA pre-season doesn’t mean much, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean anything. 

The New York Knicks, fresh off their first championship in 53 years, aren’t sweating October basketball.

But for the Toronto Raptors, it’s a little bit different. They are a group still trying to pressure-test their strengths and weaknesses, especially with Kawhi Leonard in the lineup. 

They haven’t had many chances yet. Leonard missed the Raptors’ first two pre-season games as he worked his way into game shape after a long summer lay-off, and even though he and the Raptors looked brilliant against the Knicks in Toronto on Tuesday, the Knicks didn’t travel any of their starters from the championship team. 

The only real conclusion that can be drawn from that 50-point blowout win was that a Leonard-led Raptors lineup would absolutely own the G-League, which is where most of the Knicks on the floor Tuesday will likely end up playing this season. 

Thursday night was a different matter. Josh Hart was the only Knicks starter from their championship roster who wasn’t on the floor to face the Raptors’ preferred starting five of Leonard, Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl. 

At the very least, it meant that the Raptors and head coach Darko Rajakovic would get some meaningful video to look at featuring their best players against a reasonable facsimile of a quality NBA team. 

But given the way the Raptors were man-handled by the Knicks last season — being blown out in five losses — showing that they were better prepared even at this stage of the new season can’t hurt.

“I would say after every game, we’re trying to focus on us; that’s the primary part,” said Barnes the other day. “Just keep focusing on our running habit, the ball movement, spacing … there’s a lot of figuring out and trying to focus on our principles every single game.”

There were plenty of positives from what ended up a 122-120 Knicks win, perhaps the most significant being that midway through the third quarter, when the starters for each team started to filter out of the game, their night’s work done, the Raptors were leading by three, and four of their top six rotation players finished the game having won their minutes. 

For his part, Leonard was much less energetic playing for the second time in three nights. He did put in 22 minutes, building on the 16 he played on Tuesday. He finished with six points and two steals on 2-of-5 shooting but was still plus-8 in his minutes. 

With that, here are the takeaways from another loss to the Knicks, albeit one that showed some encouraging signs. 

By the narrowest definition, Barnes doesn’t profile as a prototypical No. 1 offensive option. He’s not a great perimeter shooter — at least from the three-point line. He’s not particularly adept at breaking his defender down off the dribble, although he’s a handful if he’s in motion and gets half a stride on you. But perhaps most significantly, he’s not a player who is constantly hunting his own shot.

He can definitely score and is legitimately dangerous from 18 feet and in, but he’s more than willing to create opportunities for others and seemingly prefers it. But Barnes as a No. 2 option, flowing into offence against lesser defenders and less attention generally because Leonard is being guarded by the best defender on the other team? That could work brilliantly.

In the early going against the Knicks, it was Leonard who was guarded by OG Anunoby, and he was content to play decoy. That left Barnes free to roam the weak side and look for easy shots well within his price range. He hit the first four he looked at, all against only modest pressure and before Leonard even shook free for one shot attempt.

Barnes finished with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three, along with four assists. The Raptors have a lot of things to figure out, but the potential of Barnes attacking the second wave of an opponent’s defence because they’re so preoccupied with Leonard is a wrinkle that could pay major dividends. 

From the moment it became apparent that the Raptors were acquiring Leonard, it was hard not to be excited about what kind of positive chaos a lineup featuring Barnes, Leonard and second-year forward Collin Murray-Boyles might generate.

All three are big, strong and mobile enough to guard at least four positions, if not five. They all have extraordinary abilities to disrupt ball handlers and cut off passing lanes, and offensively they can more than hold their own. The early returns are fantastic. In just under nine minutes of shared court time, Barnes, Leonard and CMB were plus-9 against the Knicks, which is a pretty decent rate of dominance, albeit in a very small sample size.

Then again, the sample size came against a pretty good representation of the defending NBA champions on their home court. There was nothing crazy about it, just — as you would expect — the other team had a hard time finding ways to score against three world-class defenders, and the Raptors scored off their defence. The most textbook moment came early in the third quarter when Leonard came out high on the floor to pressure Knicks guard Landry Shamet, who bailed out and passed to Jalen Brunson, who Barnes tracked before easily swatting his lay-up attempt off the backboard, which ended up in a dunk for a streaking Murray-Boyles in transition. Textbook. 

There’s little question that the Raptors starters will be stronger with Leonard among them. But will the bench be able to hold serve when Leonard and Barnes aren’t on the floor, or aren’t on the floor together? What about the 20 or so games — if the Raptors and Leonard are lucky, it will only be that many—– that Leonard inevitably misses due to rest or injury or some combination of both?

The way the bench handles it could be the hinge for the Raptors season. There has to be some concern about the scoring the Raptors are going to get from that group. For all of Jamal Shead’s positive qualities, putting the ball in the basket is not one of his strengths at this stage. He was 1-of-6 with four turnovers against the Knicks. Through four pre-season games, Shead is shooting 8-of-24 from the floor and 1-of-11 from three.

Ja’Kobe Walter has a clearer path to offence in that his primary role is to space to the three-point line and let it fly, but in his third season it would be helpful if he could start showing some ability to create his own shot, and on top of that the Raptors get pretty small pretty quickly when starting centre Jakob Poeltl sits.

There was a lot of concern that the Knicks would take a step back with the loss of Mitchell Robinson to the Boston Celtics in free agency — and they might — but veteran big man Andre Drummond was too much for anything the Raptors could muster against him as he finished with 14 points (on 6-of-8 shooting) and eight rebounds in 15 minutes.

On the whole, the Knicks’ first five reserves were anywhere from plus-7 to plus-14 in their minutes, while the only Raptors reserve to finish in positive territory was Murray-Boyles, who was plus-3 and finished with 12 points, five rebounds and three steals. 

It’s a bit early to say for sure, but it might be a thing. The talented second-year forward shot just 50 threes in his rookie season after taking 39 over two college seasons. No one is really concerned with whether or not it becomes a big part of his repertoire now or ever—– Murray-Boyles is good enough to be impactful without it. But if he can become a reliable floor spacer, there is no doubt it raises his ceiling and that of the team as a whole.

It means lineups featuring him and Jakob Poeltl can work more seamlessly, and he can play as a mobile stretch five in small lineups or an Anunoby-like super-sized wing in bigger lineups. He hit a pair of threes trailing on the break on Tuesday against the Knicks and knocked down a catch-and-shoot look on his first chance in the first quarter Thursday.

He had a couple of other good looks from deep that didn’t go down, but his teammates can see the progress: “His confidence just grew so much in the summer,” said Barnes. “He was just constantly working on it, every single day, and we came back together, and he was hitting them in practice … that’s big for him. That’s going to be big for our team. We’re going to need that spacing and need those shots at certain points of the game.”

Jamison Battle has been pencilled in for second-unit minutes since the second half of last year when he moved past Gradey Dick in the rotation. He hadn’t been able to take the floor so far in pre-season due to back problems but didn’t waste any time showing that his uncanny knack for hitting shots and putting the ball in the basket generally with little or no game action has carried over.

He scored 10 points in 15 minutes, including knocking down two threes in four tries. He may never defend well enough to play a heavy load of minutes, but the ability to come off the bench — or out of cold storage — and knock down threes, seemingly, should keep him employed for a while. 

The Raptors play Detroit on the road Friday to close out their five-game pre-season schedule. It’s unlikely that any of their starters play at all, or if they do, it will be short minutes. Getting through the pre-season healthy is probably the single most important goal after training camp, and getting through healthy with some useful video earned against a quality opponent is icing on the cake.

Having accomplished both goals, there is no reason for the Raptors to risk any of their key players tweaking something playing the second night of a back-to-back on the road in pre-season. What will be at stake are the Raptors’ two remaining two-way spots. Only Malachi Smith is on a two-way contract now, with the likes of Jamarion Sharp, Tyson Degenhart, Nimari Burnett and Tyreke Key in the mix for the two remaining two-way contracts, though things could change on a dime. With most of the key rotation players sitting, it will be an important chance for everyone else to make a lasting impression.