Mentoring Scottie Barnes Has Been 'Challenging' Albeit 'Fun' Experience for Fred VanVleet

Toronto Raptors veteran Fred VanVleet says Scottie Barnes has been one of his most challenging projects to mentor

Aaron Rose | Dec 11, 2021

Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

It’s usually the most challenging and the most frustrating journeys that are the most rewarding.

That’s been the Scottie Barnes experience for Fred VanVleet this season. It’s like, c’mon man, you have all the physical and talent gifts in the world, let’s just put it all together. What are we waiting for? But VanVleet, the leader of the Toronto Raptors this season, understands that’s not how development works.

“He’s definitely one of the more challenging projects that I’ve had,” VanVleet said Friday night. “He makes some plays sometimes that you can see that the vision and the feel and some stuff that’s hard to teach and he had a lot of big plays tonight. There's really nothing he can’t do out there on the court.”

And yet, there are these momentary lapses in judgment that are infuriating to VanVleet. Why, he must wonder, is youth wasted on the young? How come Barnes can lock down defensively on some of the league’s most explosive players, get his shot off like an NBA veteran, or make offensive reads and no-look passes like few others, and yet, a few possessions later he’ll make an ill-advised behind-the-back pass to nowhere or take an early shot clock three-pointer early for no apparent reason.

“It’s just being loose and understanding the value of possessions and time and score and how quickly the momentum can change,” VanVleet said. “Just because we’re up 18 or 17 it’s not time to start trying stuff. You can go on the wrong end of that run real quick.”

When VanVleet broke into the league, an undrafted player trying to fight for minutes on a 51-31 team, there was no leeway for silly mistakes. One or two slipups in his few NBA minutes could have been the end of his career. But on this 2021-22 Raptors team, the situation is entirely different. This season is about development, specifically Barnes’, and while everyone else — myself included — has heaped praise on the 20-year-old who has become one of two frontrunners for the Rookie of the Year award this season, VanVleet has to take a different approach.

He’s on him every day, VanVleet said. He’s not going to let Barnes get away with mistakes every so often. Instead, he’ll pull him aside, even in the moment, and explain how things are supposed to be done at this level.

But for all the frustration this season, VanVleet acknowledged it’s been a fun challenge at times. It’s forced him to become a bigger leader, to constantly explain all the little things that will go into making Barnes a future star, knowing one day it’ll pay off the same way it did for VanVleet as he learned under the wing of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.

“It’s not always perfect but I think we have great chemistry,” VanVleet said of his relationship with Barnes. “We’re getting through all the tough moments.”

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