Scottie Barnes rediscovering rookie-year joy as Raptors round into form

Reaching the top of the mountain is a difficult endeavor.Staying atop the mountain is even harder, and eventually, therewill be a taller one to scale.

Such is life for Scottie Barnes, the reigning NBA Rookie of theYear who’s in his second season with the Toronto Raptors and hasfound his rhythm over the last couple of months after a slow startto the campaign.

When teams in this league can pinpoint tendencies, it can betough to adapt. Opponents figure out your spots, where you like theball and how you process the game, and they try to exploit anyweaknesses in your game that pop on film. That can be especiallydaunting for somebody who burst onto the scene the way Barnesdid.

To his credit, Barnes has fought through it, and it's led toresults for not only him, but also his team.

“He is playing really well right now. He's on probably a goodsix-week stretch where he's looked like he was a year ago andimproving from that,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse told BasketballNews. “He had probably a little bit of a rocky start; at times,some of those things you talked about probably weighed in. Whoknows, man?”

Barnes downplays the notion of teams figuring him out early, andthat it’s solely been on him to adjust.

“It's all about me, for sure. I don't think it's nothing else.It's all about me,” Barnes told Basketball News following Toronto’sloss in Cleveland on Sunday. “I feel like I can control the game inthe way I want to control it. Every game is different, every teamis different, every team is gonna scheme you a different way, playyou a different way. It's just about how I attack the game.”