Madhouse wrote:He has everything to work and improve on, obviously as a rookie.
The first step will be the realization of his physical gifts and use them consistently. For example this kid has much, much better explosiveness and speed than most realize but lack of assertiveness, hesitation and just the first NBA season grind playing 35 MPG has prevented him from showing it consistently.
That's what I hope to see next season.
Beyond that it's growing and developing his skills consistently. You can really name everything from A-Z where he needs to get better at. You can really name everything he has shown shades of this season which is pretty much everything except a 3 point step back jumpshot off the dribble.
He does use his physical gifts, Cade drives alot more takes more 'driving layups', whereas Barnes doesn't drive nearly as much because when he does, he doesn't quite have the skill shots to take floaters and stuff when needed, but Cade can get into problems there where he's now committed to attacking the rim while not being long or strong enough against alot of NBA defenders.
What Barnes will do instead is back his man down, as unless you're a center or Lebron James or Giannis, he's probably got some size on you. Then he'll methodically and slowly get a good look for either a hook, a layup, and possibly then using his length and strength to get the rebound off his own miss and score or kick it out.
In other words he's much more controlled in how he scores inside, which is why he's scoring much much better than Cade. Although he for sure takes some bad shots inside, his misses seem more like him just missing as opposed to the defenders forcing him into a miss.
In fact the only real scoring difference between Barnes and Cade is that Cade takes like 3 more 3's a game and shoots about the same %.
If Barnes can get just a little bit stronger, with a tighter handle and slightly more consistent jumpshot, he's a problem, while fitting in to our possession battle type of team.
