Which Golden State Warrior Is Primed for the Biggest Surprise Season in 2014-15?
Harrison Barnes will bounce back in a big way next season under new head coach Steve Kerr.
He regressed last year, and it wasn’t pretty. His statistical output decreased, and in turn, so did his self-opinion
In January, the San Jose Mercury News’ Diamond Leung asked Barnes to attribute a grade to his overall performance, and he was quite candid.
“Obviously personally, probably not that high because one thing I wanted to focus on coming into the season was consistency," Barnes said. “I haven't been able to accomplish that, but as a team, we've been able to do well.”
| Season | Pts per 36 mins | Rbs per 36 mins | FG% | PER |
| 2012-13 | 13.1 | 5.8 | .439 | 11.0 |
| 2013-14 | 12.1 | 5.1 | .399 | 9.8 |
Barnes’ struggles can be traced back to two specific issues. First, he was a starter during his rookie season, which afforded him the luxury of having players set the table for him.
Barnes was often the recipient of some terrific passes, and his lone responsibility was to catch and finish. The arrival of Andre Iguodala in the 2013 summer relegated Barnes to the second unit, and that leads us to his second problem.
Former coach Mark Jackson routinely played Barnes with other reserves and asked him to carry the offense during those stretches. Barnes didn’t possess the tools necessary to accomplish that, and it made him look bad.
Barnes can’t create his own shot, struggles in post-ups against players his size and doesn’t read defenses particularly well. Thus, Jackson’s decision to run the offense through him was a little perplexing.
Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes echoed those sentiments in February:
"Pinning the full blame on Barnes isn't fair, though. His role is all wrong, both in terms of what he's asked to do and with whom he's asked to do it. It's unclear where the notion of Barnes-as-creator originated, but we've got more than enough evidence to know now that the small forward should only score when set up by others.
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That won’t be the case during the 2014-15 campaign. Kerr has a different outlook, and it will serve Barnes quite well. In May, he mentioned to the San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami that Golden State would utilize some triangle concepts.
The triangle offense relies on ball movement and the ability to get players to read defenses collectively. Hence, the whole team will be tasked with creating scoring opportunities as opposed to merely dumping the ball into one player’s hands and asking him to make things happen.
"I want the ball to move. That's the biggest thing,” Kerr said to the San Jose Mercury News’ Leung. “We've got to get more ball movement, more passes per possession.”
This is where Barnes will get some shine. By moving in sync with teammates and catching the ball in motion, he will get chances to simply catch and shoot or finish.
The burden to create plays will be removed from Barnes’ shoulders, and his production should increase. To be fair, given the amount of talent on the team, I wouldn’t expect him to climb up the scoring charts and average something along the lines of 20 points per contest.
I’m thinking something more along the lines of 15 points game while hitting roughly 45 percent of his shots (both would be career highs).
An unshackled Barnes will do well at small forward, and he might actually be better at power forward, where he thrived during the 2013 playoffs.
At the time, Barnes’ confidence appeared to be at an all-time high, and that was a product of the matchups the offense created.
The Warriors used Barnes as a screener in pick-and-rolls, and he bullied point guards down on the block. Although I doubt Kerr will run a steady dose of these with Barnes, he should get a handful in every contest, and I believe he’ll be successful in this setting.
In addition, Barnes’ decent long-range shooting (35.2 percent) will open up the floor when he plays as a stretch 4, which will provide wide driving lanes. Thus, Golden State has a strong incentive to use him at this position.
Kerr said as much, per Leung for the Contra Costa Times. The new coach is going to spread the court, and that requires a lot of shooting. “That's something we really need on our roster, and Draymond [Green] and Harrison [Barnes] can both help in that regard,” Kerr added, according to Leung.
Barnes is going to surprise everyone and look like a stud reserve player, and he might even threaten for Iguodala’s starting spot.
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