Does Scottie Barnes want to lead rebuilding Raptors? Either way, it’ll be a

TORONTO — Following a night that he will want to forget, for both on-court and off-court reasons, Scottie Barnes has just one question to answer: Does the third-year Toronto Raptors forward want this?

Whether he is ready to become the face of a rebuilding NBA franchise, to carry the burden of the losses to come as the Raptors try to reshape who they are, is simpler: Of course, he is not. Barnes is 22 year old and has spent most of his basketball life winning at a high level. No matter how many veterans you put around a player, few, if any players his age would be able to ace this process. There will be hiccups

On Monday night, Barnes had a big one. His team lost at home by 23 points to the 11-win San Antonio Spurs. Victor Wembanyama dominated Barnes and the rest of the Raptors with a historic stat line for a rookie. The Raptors and Barnes (who shot 3-for-15 and had five turnovers) were embarrassed. This was not a “these nights happen” type of thing, either. Barnes repeatedly appeared to give up on plays, not attempting to get back on defence in transition, still stuck on the last play. Looks of exasperation, which have appeared frequently throughout his still-young career, were especially prevalent.

“I think it’s more when I’m frustrated or emotional, it’s more on my part,” Barnes said on Tuesday. “I had like … three, four turnovers in the first quarter. I’m just frustrated, mad at myself. Just gotta take care of the ball. It led to easy fast-break points. Showing emotion, not getting back, it cost us. … It’s not really anything to do with anybody else.”

The issue is with Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby gone, everything Barnes does is about many other people, whether he likes it or not. When Barnes left the court a few seconds before the game ended, then, it reflected poorly on him and the team. The ascendant leader on the team, a first-time All-Star, was committing a faux pas that is widely known around the league as unacceptable. Unless you are ejected from the game, you never leave the court early. In a loss on Dec. 29, 2020, Siakam left the court after he fouled out with 25 seconds remaining in the game. He left the floor before the seven-point loss ended, and the Raptors declined to dress him (but did not suspend him) for the next game. Head coach Darko Rajaković said Barnes simply misunderstood a late shot clock for the final buzzer, but Barnes said he thought everybody was heading to the locker room because only a few seconds were left.

The coach said there would be no discipline for Barnes, other than the discussion the star had with the coaching staff on Tuesday. Then again, Barnes said there was no conversation about his actions throughout the game on Monday. The most reasonable assumption is Barnes, who is not always comfortable speaking with the media, just did not want to talk about that issue in particular. Understandable.

“We did have a talk (Tuesday) morning about it,”…