Ahead of hitting NBA free agency, the Sacramento Kings signed veteran forward Harrison Barnes to a three-year, $54 million contract extension to keep the 31-year-old in California’s capital for the next few seasons. How did each side make out? Let’s hand out some grades for the Kings-Barnes extension.
Grades for Harrison Barnes extension with the Kings
For the Kings
The Kings had their best season in years during the 2022-23 campaign. The team made the playoffs for the first time since 2006, and at 48-34, the most wins for the franchise since the 2005-04 season.
There were a lot of factors that played into this. Getting experienced head coach Mike Brown surely helped, as did swapping out Tyrese Haliburton for Domantas Sabonis the season before. De’Aaron Fox took a leap this season winning the NBA’S Clutch Player of the Year Award, and rookie Keegan Murray was fantastic for a first-year player.
While all these things helped, so did having a veteran with a championship pedigree like Harrison Barnes. At 30, Barnes was at least four years older than the top-seven players in the Kings lineup. But being the adult on the floor wasn’t Barnes’ only value to the team.
The 6-foot-8 forward had an excellent statistical season. He averaged 15.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists while shooting 37.4% from 3-point range. He also played stellar defense all season, both on an individual and team level. Barnes also played and started 82 games, giving the team a ton of stability and continuity on the floor.
And those two words are what this Harrison Barnes contract extension is all about for the Kings. Sacramento is a young and up-and-coming team. Could they have let Barnes test the market, maybe get a slightly better deal or replace him with a younger, more explosive player? Maybe.
But continuity is key to a team growing and winning together. It’s why a team like the Golden State Warriors kept around players like Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala for so many years. And now, as Harrison was once the beneficiary of those wily veterans, so too will Barnes be that guy for his young Kings teammates.
Re-signing him was a solid move by the Kings.
Grade: A
For Harrison Barnes
On the other hand, the player also had to make a conscious decision to re-sign with the Kings before testing the open market.
Ahead of signing the Harrison Barnes contract extension, the 11-year NBA vet had to make some decisions about his future. In his decade-plus in the league, the No. 7 pick of the 2012 NBA Draft has made $166,158,501.
That’s not to say that Barnes shouldn’t pursue the biggest bag possible in NBA free agency, but he has made a good deal of money playing professional basketball. And after doing that, it seems like he’s decided that fit and happiness and mentorship trump signing the biggest deal possible.
And Barnes could have gotten a bigger deal if he really wanted to.
In the upcoming 2nd apron era, high-quality role players like Barnes, who make around $20 million per season, are only going to become more valuable. Take, for instance, the players who got paid on the first day of unofficial NBA free agency on Friday. Some of the mid-level deals that went down included:
- Jerami Grant, Portland Trail Blazers: $32 million per year
- Cameron Johnson, Brooklyn Nets: $27 million
- Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors: $25 million
- Kyle Kuzma, Washington Wizards: $25 million
- Bruce Brown, Indiana Pacers, $22 million
- Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors: $20 million
- Caris LaVert, Cleveland Cavaliers: $16 million
Overall as a player, Barnes fits somewhere within that group. Yet, his $18 million per season puts him as the second-lowest player on that list. If Barnes would have hit the open market and gone to the highest bidder, he could have been much higher on the list.
However, when you look at the teams in that group, you’ll notice that none of them (except maybe the Warriors, but are they?) are real contenders. The Kings finished third in the Western Conference last regular season, and there is no reason they can’t have another great year like that in 2023-24.
We often ask athletes to take pay cuts and stay loyal to their teams, while also criticizing them if they don’t get paid as much as other, similar players. In this case, the Harrison Barnes contract extension includes a bit of a hometown discount for Sacramento and shows that the player is committed to winning.
You can’t fully discount the money, hence the minus, but overall, this was the best situation for Barnes, and he should get a high mark for realizing that.
Grade: A-
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