Barnes’ Lack of Involvement on the Offensive End is Brown’s Decision
Harrison Barnes has been beneath the scope of a lot of Sacramento Kings fans and analysts lately. Many have become concerned or begun to lose their patience with the starting forward. And that’s more than reasonable as he continues to throw up a fair amount of quiet games.
Criticism of him has been made in this space too, where, after a five game stint in which Barnes looked particularly absent, he was said to be earning the nickname “Silent Night.”
The criticism is reasonable and it’s justified to be at the forefront of the discourse surrounding the team.
Following Monday’s in-season tournament loss to the Pelicans, Mike Brown was asked twice in a row about Barnes’ propensity for quiet performances in the stat sheet, and the head coach provided some insight.
“The one thing you guys have to understand is I don’t call any plays for HB,” Brown revealed. “Everything he does he kind of gets off of others and so that’s going to bring an amount of inconsistency too because he doesn’t get a single play call for him.”
Barnes has demonstrated—mostly last season—that he can patch up and fill in cracks like putty, but his scoring is down to 11.8 points per game from 15.0 a season ago.
So the question has to be asked: Should coach Brown call plays for Harrison Barnes?
It could very well help him, and mainly because it could facilitate better aggression and rhythm.
Barnes is not one to force himself into a lot of scoring looks as he seems to be well aware of the talent around him. He’ll take open shots that come his way, but those don’t always arise. Not only does that prevent actual scoring because he doesn’t get a volume of attempts, but it is prone to disrupt his rhythm if he’s getting sparse and sporadic opportunities.
Calling plays for him would be a helpful nudge. Players and coaches always refer to the ball as energy, so it’s reasonable to think the lack of play calls is a form of energy deprivation in some way, which could make Barnes more content to be on the periphery.
He’ll get a few dribble-handoff three-point attempts here and there, but if Brown’s not calling plays for Barnes, then those must be results of what the offense produces. But Brown calls those plays for Keegan Murray and Kevin Huerter, the latter of whom has been getting the first offensive play call of the game made for him lately.
It makes a ton of sense to try and generate those shots for the starting lineup’s two most talented shooters, but why not do that for Barnes a few times? Not only would it facilitate some useful consistency, but it may be yield results given the veteran’s track record as an outside shooter (38.6% since coming to Sacramento).
And it’s kind of bizarre that such calls for Barnes would never come up when Murray and Huerter were both cold to start the season. At the very least, wouldn’t play calls for Barnes be something to keep in the back pocket when other guys are scuffling?
Beyond shooting, one of his best strengths is getting to the free throw line when the offense gets off track or stagnates. It offers a soft reset of sorts, and often times, he’ll do it on his own accord, but there have been a handful of times where it doesn’t materialize despite how helpful that initiative would be. This could be considered a top critique.
Admittedly, it may not be a common thing, but what about a play call to try and lead to that?
That may not be a norm in the league, but the point is Barnes could probably benefit from a few play calls that would explicitly pull in his involvement. And for the amount of muted nights in the stat sheets seems, it sounds exactly like what he needs.
Brown said it himself that not calling any for a guy oftentimes leads to “inconsistency.” Maybe on a good night points production from Barnes may not be a necessity, but that’s not a consistent occurrence this season either. The aim should be to make him somewhat more consistent given the fact he’s a starter.
He’s not a terrible defender—in fact, he handles some tough assignments very well—he doesn’t turn the ball over either, and he’s a solid rebounder, but he’s the third highest paid player on the Kings. Barnes does a lot, but for a cap number like that and for a guy that just got an extension, it’s reasonable that people are saying Sacramento has just four starters.
It seems Mike Brown can help Harrison Barnes out.
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