Scottie Barnes missed the All-Defence First Team despite being close. He averaged 1.5 blocks and 1.4 steals per game, matching career highs, and Toronto finished with the fifth-ranked defense in the league. Jakob Poeltl missed half the season, yet the Raptors still produced strong defensive results. Barnes guarded the point of attack, protected the rim, switched onto bigs, and defended in the post and on the glass. He led the NBA in total stocks and ranked highly in stocks per game, deflections, and clutch blocks. He also ranked near the top in defensive miles traveled and showed high positional versatility and matchup difficulty. He limited opponents to 0.727 points per possession as an isolation defender.
"Barnes was many things to the Toronto Raptors defence this season. He averaged 1.5 blocks and 1.4 steals per game this season, both matching career highs. The Raptors finished with the fifth-ranked defence in the league, and Barnes was more or less the entire cause of that success. He did ... everything for the Raptors' defence. Barnes guarded at the point of attack. He protected the rim. He switched onto bigs and banged with them in the post, on the glass. He annihilated the weak side of the court with his pterodactyl wingspan and coverage."
"The Raptors have the fourth-best defense in the NBA despite Jakob Poeltl missing half the season. Barnes leads the NBA in total stocks and is number five in stocks per game. He is in the top 10 in total deflections this season. He leads the NBA with 8 "clutch" blocks. Related: The Raptors have the best clutch defense in the NBA, allowing just 96.4 points per 100 possessions. Barnes has had multiple game-winning or -saving defensive plays, which gives a whole heck of a narrative to Barnes' award case."
"He ranks second in defensive miles traveled in the NBA. Barnes is also in the 87th percentile in B-Ball Index's "Defensive Positional Versatility" tool, which measures how many positions a player defends and how often. He also ranks in the 94th percentile in terms of matchup difficulty, via B-Ball Index. He grades out as excellent isolation defender, limiting opponents to 0.727 points per possession in these situations, ranking in the 83rd percentile in the NBA - better than all three of Wemby, Holmgren, and Gobert, according to Synergy Stats provided to Raptors Republic."
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