After dealing with a sophomore season coming off the bench in a sixth man role last season, Golden State Warriors small forward Harrison Barnes is having the best year of his young career.
Some may say that Coach Steve Kerr‘s decision to input Barnes into the starting lineup may be the cause of his great play this season, while others may suggest that he would still be playing this well were he still coming off the pine.
Either way, Kerr’s decision has seemed to pay off as the Warriors enter the All-Star break, holding the association’s best record at 42-9.
Statistically, Barnes is having the best season of his pro career, and his performance this season compared to last is night and day. Barnes has improved in just about every category on the stat sheet this year.
Barnes is averaging 10.3 points per game this season, nearly a point better than last year. He has also dramatically improved his rebounding this season, hauling in almost two more boards per game. While he did average 4.0 rebounds per game last year, his increased intensity and determination while crashing the glass this season is noticeable even to the casual Warrior fan.
While these improvements don’t seem like a huge leap forward, perhaps the biggest improvement that Barnes has made this season is his effectiveness when shooting. Last season Barnes shot 39.9% from the field. This season, he is making over 50 percent of all of his shots.
Shooting from behind the arc was also a struggle for Barnes in the past. During his sophomore slump, Barnes shot 34.7% from deep. This year, he is shooting the lights out, hitting 43.2 percent of his long balls.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that Barnes is currently second on the team in three-point shooting percentage, and the guy ahead of him is not Stephen Curry.
This bounce back season that Barnes is having has been huge for the Warriors. He is fifth on the team in scoring and is making an impact both offensively and defensively.
What could be causing this great play as of late? Last month at shoot around, Barnes spoke about how important the mechanics of his shot have been.
“Well for me it’s a lot of mechanics, Barnes said, “Figuring out how to come in to your shot every time, not coming in straight legged, having good flow into your shot, not just catching and shooting.”
“There’s all these little mechanics but confidence plays a big part.”
Another possible reason for the success that Barnes has seen this season could be a result of the ball fake moves he uses to keep defenders second guessing. Barnes talked to us about how important those moves are to the success he’s having.
“A lot of it comes from working with coach Ron Adams,” Barnes told LetsGoWarriors.com, “He’s an old school coach and he’s taught me that. Use these shot fakes by the rim.”
“It actually has a lot of use in games. It works, guys jump, and it gets you easier shots.”
Barnes has also mentioned to us that he may have some more moves in the works that opponents have yet to see.
“I got some more pump fakes,” Barnes told us, “Hopefully those will come out in time but just working on just trying to add different parts to your game is something that coach is always preaching about, Coach Kerr picks at.”
“I try to do that as much as I can.”
Barnes will look to continue his success as the season enters its unofficial second half.
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