CanadaB-Ball wrote:fredericklove wrote:CanadaB-Ball wrote:I've watched him play in Golden State. He's improved his handle, yes, but he's still not overly productive. Average efficiency (53.3 TS%) on low-usage, an 11.7 PER, 0.083 WS/48, 103 ORtg, 105 DRtg and a -14.8 (!) NET +/- don't exactly scream future all-star.
He's still young, and he's a solid defender (which he has been dating back to his time at UNC), but I think you need to temper expectations. He's not even playing at the level (offensively) that DeMar was as a rookie/second-year pro.
His currency efficiency is low but you do have to consider the fact that he's being used as 4th option behind Curry (18.5 FGA), Thompson (16 FGA) and Lee (13.9 FGA), all of their FGAs are significantly higher than Barnes, the situation he's in and the current stat he poses under that circumstance, that's not a fair judgement to say he won't be future all star, whether he can become one or not in the future is depended on what "option" he will be used, that's the key here, 4th option wing player is never going to channel all star numbers, but he's already showing advanced skills to prove he belongs in the league, contrary to a lot of people that say he's a bust or he won't be able to score at the NBA level, all of these claims are already proven wrong, while your claim of him that he just hasn't been that good based on statistically, to repeat again, he's 4th option on a loaded team. Comparing to Demar in retrospect, he's actually more advanced than Demar was in rookie/second year pro, even Demar had the 2nd option opportunity in his 2nd year (14.1 FGA) which Barnes (10.8 FGA) doesn't get the privilege of doing so.
What? Sure, his PPG numbers will presumably improve as his role increases, but his efficiency (more than likely) will go down not up as his usage increases.
I'm not saying Barnes can't be useful. I think he has the potential to be a good third option (solid defender, good shooter, willing passer), I just don't see the star potential that you do. I'm not definitively stating that he won't be a star (no one knows for sure one way or another), I'm just saying I don't think he will be, and he has a long way to go before he can be considered one.
I brought up his PPG because you were touching on the all star subject, efficiency will go down as usage goes up, that I know, but why I brought up the PPG is because most all star wings' scores around 18-19+ ppgs, if he can provide productions somewhere around 45% FG, 18-19 pts and 4-5 reb per game on a playoff contender, that's likely a stat line good enough to be brought on the all star mentions (e.g. Deng did it, and most compare Barnes to Deng's upside), will he get there? No one knows, but I'm speaking on the sake of what he has to do to get there statistically, imo he's got the skills to get there, to remind you that this is only his 2nd year of a long NBA career, it's a long way to go (yes) but skilled wings tend to break out in their 3rd/4th year.
