UNC Basketball: Harrison Barnes Is First Tar Heel Taken in the 2012 NBA Draft

With the seventh pick of the 2012 NBA draft, the Golden State Warriors selected former North Carolina Tar Heel Harrison Barnes.

And with that selection, Golden State will officially be a strong shooting team. The Warriors already have Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to light it up from the outside, but they lacked a player that could consistently take it to the hole.

Barnes could be that guy for the Warriors. If he improves his ball-handling over the summer, he may become a force slashing to the paint.

He also doesn't hesitate to put it up from the outside, as he buried 35.8 percent of his attempted three-pointers.

Golden State also ranked 28th on defense in 2011-12, allowing 101.2 points per game. Barnes may not be known for his defensive prowess, but he is actually highly underrated in that category. His ability to lock on defenders should at least improve the Warriors' poor defense.

It shouldn't take much.

There is still a lot to work on with his game, as I point out in my breakdown of Harrison Barnes. But what the Warriors have gotten is a hard worker with a ceiling as high as anyone in the draft.

Don't be surprised if Harrison Barnes finally lives up to the hype that followed him out of Ames High.