In the wake of a wild and somewhat unexpected season of success, an NBA player has more than a few choices.
He can spend the offseason grinding in a gym, shoring up weaknesses to push his arsenal to another level. Or he can take a summer to momentarily luxuriate in his success, at times seeming more committed to shooting commercials than jump shots. The paths aren’t necessarily binary. Surely there have been plenty of all-time hoop greats who’ve figured out how to do a little bit of both. But the overriding results of Scottie Barnes’s inconsistent sophomore season suggest there are those connected to the Raptors who believe Barnes, on the heels of his rookie-of-the-year season, has at times been more interested in revelling in his success than in building on it, more enamoured with enjoying the trappings of the game than in being a diligent student of it.