After an early struggle for Harrison Barnes on his new team, he managed to turn it around somewhat. However, the Mavericks have yet to find consistent success.
With all the struggle, Barnes recently discussed the problem and how he thinks he can get through it:
“A lot of the shots I was getting, they were good shots,” Barnes said of his preseason struggles. “They were open threes. They were uncontested pull-up jumpers. A lot of that for me was just saying, ‘It's mental. Just makes and misses.' Now if I had been taking really tough, contested shots, bad shots, shooting over double teams and that type of stuff, now that I could reevaluate. But in the preseason, I was just saying, ‘Look, stick with it, keep shooting, those shots will fall.'”
With Deron Williams and Dirk Nowitzki out, Barnes has been forced to score more. He has set career0highs in scoring two times, first scoring 31 points against the Houston Rockets and then 34 against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, has said he felt Barnes was the best player for the Warriors at times throughout the playoffs. He also had this to say regarding the emerging star:
“I love what I've seen. Initially, he was being deferential and trying to fit in. And with D-Will and Dirk and Devin being down, our primary scorers, it was like, he has no choice. He knew he had to be that guy and he's been phenomenal. I mean, when we played the Warriors, he was getting triple-teamed and scoring. His footwork now, his shot, he's just been able to show so many things that we had not seen before.”
Even though Barnes has yet to find a way to put the Mavs on his back, he has been able to show signs of improvement night in and night out. As long as he continues to put the time in the gym he will continue to develop. Harrison Barnes is still very raw, but should definitely finish this season with a career-high in points and rebounds with his new team.
Follow Us
Subscribe