{"id":18388,"date":"2022-04-27T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/?p=18388"},"modified":"2022-04-27T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T19:02:00","slug":"sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/","title":{"rendered":"Season Review: Harrison Barnes"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Kings acquired Harrison Barnes in 2019, it was with the hope that he could provide a veteran presence at one of the most important positions, Small Forward.\u00a0 Barnes had disappointed in Dallas where he was signed to a big deal to be a #1 scoring option, but in Sacramento he could instead focus on being a supporting piece.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say that after three full seasons with the Kings, the Barnes deal has worked out in terms of value, as he has been one of the team\u2019s best players.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the wins have not come as a result, and now we are left with some big questions as Barnes is set to enter the final year of his contract with the Kings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barnes got off to a hot start in the 2021-22 season.\u00a0 Through his first 11 games, he was scoring 22.5 points on a very efficient 49.7% from the field and 43.5% from three and he also chipped in 8.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals. Unfortunately, that hot start wasn\u2019t here to stay. After scoring over 20 points in 8 of his first 11 games, he would only do so twice over his next 27 games, where his averages dipped to 13.5 points on 42% from the field and 41.5% from three. Part of that was a seeming lack of aggression. After the first game of the season in which Barnes scored 36 points, including 8-11 from three, Coach Luke Walton said that he had told Barnes <\/span>he wanted him shooting eight threes a night<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 He would only end up doing that seven times all season, with three of those times being in those first 11 games.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the areas Barnes improved greatly in last season was in getting to the line. The Kings finished the season 5th in free throw attempt rate (up from 20th the year prior), and Barnes was a big reason why.\u00a0 He shot a career-high 5.4 free throws a game and hit them at an 82.6% rate.\u00a0 One of the most reliable ways for Sacramento to score points this season was to give Barnes the ball and have him drive to the hoop, where he would either bully his way to the basket or get to the line for free throws.\u00a0 Barnes has a crafty array of moves, most notably his euro step, but he can also post up smaller players.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Offense has never really been a worry with Barnes, at least in his Sacramento-era.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t seen the issues he had in Dallas with overusing Isos or settling for mid-range jumpers. In fact, he\u2019s basically eliminated the mid-range shot from his game, as only 4.8% of his total shot attempts last season came between 10 feet and the 3-point line <\/span>according to Basketball-Reference<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s defense that\u2019s been a struggle, for both him and the Kings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The eye-test unfortunately matches the analytics here, as the Kings were almost 7 points per 100 possession better defensively when Barnes was not on the court, and NBA.com also shows that players<\/span> shot better than league average<\/span><\/a> when guarded by Barnes in every single category.\u00a0 Part of that is due to Barnes having to play Power Forward.\u00a0 He\u2019s not as quick as many of the league\u2019s wings, nor as strong as many of the bigs.\u00a0 The Kings also don\u2019t tend to have a ton of strong defensive personnel around him to help him out.\u00a0 Still, it seems unlikely that Barnes will become a plus-defender at this point in his career.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the big questions going into next season with Harrison is his fit with Domantas Sabonis.\u00a0 Offensively, the fit seemed very good in the limited time they got to play with each other.\u00a0 Considering they had no prior experience playing with one another and limited practices, Barnes had some of his best games of the season when playing next to Sabonis. In the first 11 games after the trade in which Sabonis and Barnes both played, Barnes averaged 19.4 points and shot 55.5% from the field and 52.6 from three. He also got to the line 7.5 times a game.\u00a0 Unfortunately it\u2019s the other side of the court where the biggest questions lie.\u00a0 Neither Sabonis or Barnes are plus-defenders, and both are among the worst shot blockers at their position; Barnes had just 14 blocks all season and Sabonis just 27. For comparison on how low that is De\u2019Aaron Fox had 25 and Davion Mitchell had 24.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t really matter how good they are on one of the court, if they just give it back and then some on the other end.\u00a0 Getting lucky in this year\u2019s draft and landing someone like Chet Holmgren or Jabari Smith could do wonders here to add someone to make up for their deficiency but as of now I\u2019m skeptical of the long-term fit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barnes has just one year left on his deal and thanks to Ken Catanella\u2019s contract magic setting up a declining deal, it\u2019s only for $18.35 million, which is fair value for what Barnes can provide.\u00a0 Barnes is one of the better assets the Kings have should they be looking to make some big changes this offseason, and there\u2019s a reason his name has been in trade rumors at the deadline for the past couple of seasons.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t surprise me at all if he\u2019s played his last game as a Sacramento King, but he\u2019s a good enough player that if they do end up trading him, they better get someone of value.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Kings acquired Harrison Barnes in 2019, it was with the hope that he could provide a veteran presence at one of the most important positions, Small Forward.\u00a0 Barnes had disappointed in Dallas where he was signed to a big deal to be a #1 scoring option, but in Sacramento he could instead focus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,20,4768],"tags":[58],"coauthors":[311],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeason Review: Harrison Barnes - The Kings Herald<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Season Review: Harrison Barnes - The Kings Herald\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the Kings acquired Harrison Barnes in 2019, it was with the hope that he could provide a veteran presence at one of the most important positions, Small Forward.\u00a0 Barnes had disappointed in Dallas where he was signed to a big deal to be a #1 scoring option, but in Sacramento he could instead focus […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Kings Herald\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheKingsHerald916\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-27T19:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/0F693785-12AE-4D1A-88D2-67720A4B9378-e1651085401570.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Akis Yerocostas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thekingsherald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thekingsherald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Akis Yerocostas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/\",\"name\":\"Season Review: Harrison Barnes - The Kings Herald\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/0F693785-12AE-4D1A-88D2-67720A4B9378-e1651085401570.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-27T19:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-27T19:02:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f6bda5ef20aa10dd9f1ab46a1e2fbb8a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/season-review\/sacramento-kings-season-review-harrison-barnes\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/0F693785-12AE-4D1A-88D2-67720A4B9378-e1651085401570.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/0F693785-12AE-4D1A-88D2-67720A4B9378-e1651085401570.jpeg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":627,\"caption\":\"Mar 2, 2022; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes (40) reacts to a play during the first quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center. 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