Harrison Barnes will enter the regular season carrying perhaps the biggest weight he’s ever had on his shoulders.

After inking a four-year $94 million contract, the versatile forward will be expected to give Dallas what it paid for this year. However, that won’t come immediately.

In an ESPN article by Tim MacMahon, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle shared what he told his new player with regards to receiving the keys to the team.

“I talked to him this summer a lot about that. The bottom line is it’s a challenge that he’s got to love taking on.”

“The important thing is an elevation in responsibility comes at the right rate. You don’t just get a guy like this and throw him out there and tell him he’s got to score 20 a night. … We’ll get it to him in what I feel will be the correct doses and we’ll go from there.”

Barnes has seen enough in his young NBA career to know what it takes to build a winning culture, and it will be very interesting to follow how his learning curve will be as the season matures.

The UNC alum was then touted as someone who’s meant to take over a team. That didn’t happen in Golden State given the amount of talent that already resided in the Bay Area. He’ll get another chance in the Big D, but Harrison Barnes now knows better than to ignore what’s really important.

“There’s going to be bigger expectations and I’ll have a larger role on this team, but the biggest thing I’ve learned in my four years I’ve been in the league is that winning is the biggest priority. I’ll do everything I can to help this team win.”