PHOENIX—He stands in the corner or on the wing — or anywhere in the court, really — and you can see Scottie Barnes surveying whatever’s around him.
A defender tight to his body, maybe a second one sneaking in from a few feet away, his Raptors teammates flitting about looking for space to slide into.
And then Barnes goes to work: the ball zinging across the court between or above defenders, almost always finding an open teammate, and his work on that possession is done.
It’s a passing acumen that belies Barnes’s relative inexperience and doesn’t seem commensurate with his size and bulk, but it is the thing that sets him apart most nights.