harrison barnes struggling (Photo: Ryan Brown / LetsGoWarriors.com)
Golden State Warriors backup forward Harrison Barnes is mired in a slump. He’s 9 for his last 37 (just under 25% shooting) and has scored a grand total of 31 points in his last seven games (4.4 ppg).
Fans and the media are all over it. Some of the more trigger-happy in #DubNation have called for him to be traded due to his lack of production. Thankfully, most of our followers on Twitter have prevailed with cooler heads:
@LetsGoWarriors They'd be selling low if they did it now.
— Mark J. (@itsthemizzark) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors I hope they don't give up on him this season its too early.
— 4849er (@boodog4849) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors Harrison Barnes is young and he's a true #Warrior #GTFOH with that trade talk. #fullsquad
— DJ Styles (@somanystyles) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors I don't get how they can bash Barnes but praise Bazemore smfh
— ant (@methodant) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors not time to trade barnes, but we need someone to pick up his slack offensively he's very young needs time to grow #DubNation
— Adam Patino (@Adam_Patino) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors Yeah, it just looks like Barnes can't be super effective off the bench at this point in his career. Too early to give up.
— Marin Perez (@Marinperez) January 27, 2014
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@Adam_Patino @LetsGoWarriors I don't think you can give up on this kid, his potential is there. But to me, he looks lost in all phases.
— Manuel Munoz (@SLDSNK32) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors I would never trade him 2 much potential to be great and we are good so why trade him?
— Eric Jackson (@EJnJuice33) January 27, 2014
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@EJnJuice33 @LetsGoWarriors Agreed. It's called a mini-slump. All great players have them. HB had 7 rebounds last night! #factsofthegame
— michelle wagner (@michiwagner) January 27, 2014
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@SLDSNK32 @LetsGoWarriors @Adam_Patino Barnes needs to work on his driving to the basket. He should model his game after Iggy.
— Tim Vo (@timvo) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors Barnes is in his second season, usually reserved for a sophomore slump, while adjusting to a bench role. Let him breathe
— Scott Burns (@ScottInTheBay) January 27, 2014
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@LetsGoWarriors Barnes needs the playing time and we will see him grow just like in the playoffs with Lee out. He's in a bad situation rn
— Moaaz (@iMoaaaazzz) January 27, 2014
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@timvo @LetsGoWarriors @Adam_Patino there's no doubt he can take it to the hole when he wants has a great first step. All mental right now.
— Manuel Munoz (@SLDSNK32) January 27, 2014
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@SLDSNK32 @LetsGoWarriors @Adam_Patino I think his handles are a bit suspect. He seems to rather back players down than drive to the hole
— Tim Vo (@timvo) January 27, 2014
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@rival_brandon @LetsGoWarriors His confidence has been rocked but being a young 2nd yr pro w/ a great work ethic he'll regain it & produce.
— Nick Murphy (@nmurray49) January 27, 2014
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The slump can be blamed on a number of issues, but it brings to mind a conversation with Keith Smart on GoldenStateOfMind where the topic of playing a promising Ekpe Udoh, then a rookie, came up (in the comments section):
So with Udoh, it was all about him not being quite ready yet. Smart said that if Udoh had been at the Ontario preseason game guarding Gasol and Bynum for a stint, then there would have been experience there. Instead, he made an in-game decision that Lee, Beans, Vlad Rad, and crew were more ready than Udoh.
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One excellent point he made is that if the rookie you put in the game fails, then you may have, in effect, pushed him off a cliff (my analogy, not Smart’s). Thus, you have to be careful about the downsides of putting a green player out there against the world champions.
There have been four major articles written by the Warriors beatwriters in regards to Barnes’s struggles. The following is a sampling.
Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area had the first report last week:
When I asked Harrison if unproductive games could scrape away confidence and affect mental focus, he conceded it might.
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“If you’re shooting the ball and missing shots, but it feels good, you know that it will start to fall,” he said. “But it’s when you start overthinking that you can get a hitch in your shot. Then you have to correct that. Then you start to do other things, and the next thing you know you’re not taking your natural shot.
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“You just have to trust yourself and say, ‘Look, I’m not making shots now. Should I continue with the same routine? Should I guide it little more? Kick my feet out? Fade back?’ You start doing those kinds of things and it’s hard to get out of a slump.”
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle has a transcript of the media availability with Barnes earlier today:
How’s your confidence?: “I feel good. I come into work every single day and put in the time, so I’m confident.”
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How hard is it to not force the issue during a stretch like this?: “It’s a battle every day, but the biggest way to work through it is to continue to work hard. If you continue to practice the same things every single day, you know you might miss a shot or a couple of shots, but if you keep working the same way, they’ll eventually fall. It’s a long season. There’s no reason to try to adjust things now. You’re already 40 games into it.”
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Can an easy basket get you going?: “I always joke with Klay (Thompson) that the first one is the hardest one. Once you get that first one to fall, the floodgates are open. But you want to get that easy one – whether it’s in transition or an iso(lation) or a spot-up shot.”
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How tough is it to find easy shots while playing with the second unit?: “They’ve changed a little bit. I don’t really get the shots off Stephen Curry double teams, but you just have to make it work.”
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group filed this report today:
Struggling Warriors forward Harrison Barnes was asked to describe or grade his overall performance this season heading into the All-Star break and replied that it was a tough question.
“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.
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“We lost some games we should have won, but overall, we’re still doing well. We’re still battling. I think this team still has a great shot to accomplish our goals.”
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While exclusively playing off the bench this month, Barnes has shot 35 percent from the field and averaged 6.7 points per game. Coach Mark Jackson has indicated Barnes, in his second season, is fully healthy.
Finally, Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group summarized it best:
Putting Barnes in the starting lineup to get him back on track isn’t going to happen. (Coach Mark Jackson says injury is the only reason he’d change his starting five.) Trading Barnes for bench help isn’t going to happen, and it shouldn’t. Playing him at power forward isn’t going to happen, not as a steady diet, not as long as David Lee is around.
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The solution for Barnes is a long-term one, which means patience is in order. The first step is accepting that Barnes’ performance in the playoffs was not a breakthrough to stardom but a confluence of extraordinary circumstances that played to his advantage.
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Once Lee tore his hip flexor in the opening game of the playoffs, Barnes had unlimited minutes and all number of touches. The pressure of trying find his shots among the plethora of scorers, the worry over getting yanked if not effective, all were gone by Game 2 in the first round.
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On top of that, the Warriors were forced to play with a small lineup: three guards with Barnes as the power forward. If defenses kept a traditional power forward in, Barnes had a quickness advantage. It also kept the floor spread wide, giving him room to work.
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What’s more, Stephen Curry’s shooting streaks resulted in teams putting a bigger player on him, leaving a smaller player to guard Barnes. Defended by point guards such as Ty Lawson and Tony Parker, the 6-foot-8 Barnes feasted.
Was Barnes’s production in the playoffs last season, and even that of the USA Men’s National Select team during the summer, a flash in the pan? Has he gone over that proverbial cliff?
When we asked Mark Jackson after practice on January 16th if Barnes was having trouble adjusting to other teams’ adjustments to him, Jackson answered that very question.
“Nah, he’s that good where it doesn’t matter. Teams in the playoffs adjusted and he still showed that he’s a big time player, so it’s just about getting a rhythm,” Jackson said, “He was also out ten, twelve, or so games, missed a big chunk, and it’s an adjustment period for him. Also he’s good enough to still have an impact even when teams adjust and we believe that he’s truly gonna do that.”
Yet Jackson admitted, “Harrison hasn’t been the Harrison that we expect. We know that’s gonna happen and he’s a big time scorer off the bench. I think it has to do with the other guys around him. They haven’t played their best basketball and it’s scary to think just how good we are when we click on all cylinders. It’s fun now, but it’s gonna be a whole lot of fun. It makes us even that much tougher.”
As the games piled on and Barnes remained mired with poor shooting while defenders sagged, Jackson has remained steadfast and resolute on his evaluations of Barnes.
Since that post-practice interview, Jackson has said on more than one occasion, “He’ll be fine.”
During Wednesday’s game, Barnes was wearing a protective leg wrap, leading to speculation that he might be playing injured. Barnes addressed that today at practice.
“You don’t have to read too much into that, it got dinged up the game before,” Barnes explained.
After that particular game this past Sunday, when a reporter asked Jackson if Barnes was playing hurt, Jackson responded, “No.” There was a moment of silence before the media realized Jackson had nothing further to say about the matter.
Barnes is definitely thinking out there on the court. Is he thinking too much? Perhaps, but he is definitely sizing up the defense, be it in-game or afterwards in film sessions.
“It’s a lot of tape. A lot of bad clips of settling for jumpers against bigs over the last year and a half,” Barnes told us after practice back on January 16th, “I’m definitely replaying those clips in my mind and definitely gonna try to get to the rim (against bigger defenders).”
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