When Harrison Barnes somewhat replicated his opening night downpour of buckets on Monday against the Hawks, questions rose to the surface.
All such questions essentially revolved around the potential reason behind it. After all, all fans and spectators familiar with this team experienced the same astounding surprise. But it wasn’t like a bump in the night, prompting an all-night tango with paranoia. Rather, it was like hearing the unexpected jingle of a set of keys when a loved one who’s often away comes home.
Barnes is the second-longest tenured Kings player behind De’Aaron Fox, and through his time in Sacramento, he’s earned a lot of support from fans and built a lot of equity in the organization.
However, focusing mostly in the Mike Brown years, Barnes is that distant loved one. He peppers in noticeably good games here and there in the stat sheet, but he primarily pieces together forgettable nights regarding production, often finishing games with only a handful of shot attempts.
Of course, these observations and qualms center mostly around his offensive production. Barnes, to his credit, provides a versatile body on the defensive end, contributes on the boards, maintains ball security when it is in his hands, and helps space the floor.
Even with that, we’re talking about a starting forward on a playoff team equipped with both ambition and a believable pathway to the apex of success in this league. Scoring production matters, consistency matters. If the Kings are going to go where they want to go, they need the threat of a punch at all five starting spots.
Of course, he has shown he can hurt opposing teams, but that statement is more true of the other four starters. He needs to amend that or—more likely—Sacramento will be forced to upgrade.
Barnes too often assumes that nickname “Silent Night.”
But why? Why is there such sporadic production?
Malik Monk was adamant about his opinion, repeating multiple times that it was the “three days off” between the Pacers game on Thursday and the Hawks game on Monday. He added that the media members should pass that along to head coach Mike Brown, inferring the veteran starter needs more rest.
The question of giving Barnes more rest this season was a primary question at the start of training camp. Given his horrible playoff showing last April—in spite of his championship experience—and his age, it seemed like a no-brainer.
Coach Brown, though, doesn’t necessarily agree. That is implied by the fact he hasn’t yet rested his vet, but it was also made explicitly clear in the head coach’s postgame comments on Monday.
There, he laughed off the idea the extra rest helped Barnes out, even refusing to say he had that sort of rest at all because of the practices between games.
In his mind, a few factors explained exactly why Barnes had the night he did. For one, the forward “popped” early, as Brown put it, and was aggressive out of the gate. Sacramento’s top three scorers also combined for just 14 of 38 (36.8%) from the field. And with Barnes still going, they just decided to keep calling more plays for Barnes, which is why he had just his second game as a King with at least 20 field goal attempts.
Furthermore, Brown offered one more assessment, that not only explains his struggle to have more big games production-wise.
Of course, Barnes’ role is such that he doesn’t get very many play calls night to night and he has to sort of wait for things to come to or be generated for him. While Brown admitted that that role can be tough in terms of the ability to consistently put up significant numbers in the scoring column, he added another nugget of information relating to Barnes’ inconsistency.
"If you think about most of HB’s career, a spent a lot of time getting the ball — like he did down the stretch — you know, get him into the post or get him at the nail, so it was a lot of play calls that he had," Brown explained before pivoting to the present situation.
"And we have a lot of guys on this team that can score, especially scoring (within) the flow. We want to play fast, so I can’t manipulate from the sidelines because if I do … then it’s going to slow us down, and that’s not how we want to play."
What that appears to be is an admission that Harrison Barnes is not a fit for this Kings team, at least not in a circumstance where championship contention is realistic.
That contention may be realistic in a year or two, but it’s not right now. Not with the overall inconsistency of the team, not with the lack of defensive mettle, and not with a handful of question marks filling in some of the most vital rotational roles.
That’s why the Kings re-signed Barnes. Why go all-in on a risk—or at least, something that’s far from a certainty—when you can extend Barnes on a reasonably priced and movable deal, bide a little time, and take a crack at the right guy when the moment’s ripe?
If Brown’s saying that, the front office must be on the same page. Running it back with Harrison Barnes was indeed a lateral move, and that was clear in July, but now it’s even more apparent. After all, the head coach laid it out clearly on Monday.
Barnes is here as a stopgap, upholding a bridge—as the front office imagines it—that leads to another dynamic talent that can help the Kings take their desired leap. That’s not even a question at this point.
What is a question is when the Kings actually follow through with the move or moves that will really get them to the echelon they long to reside in.
It feels like it has to happen at this trade deadline or by the end of this upcoming offseason.
If the Kings start next season with Barnes as their starter, then they’ll be in the same position they are now this season: stuck with Barnes and lacking much hope to make it past the Conference Semifinals while desperately trying to locate and execute the right move. The desperation will be higher, the options may be more sparse, and the clock will really begin ticking on Sacramento’s perceived championship window.
It was clear and it’s even clearer now that, while he’s a quality player and a consummate professional, Harrison Barnes is not the answer to start as the other forward alongside Keegan Murray for a Kings team that wants to compete for a title sooner than later.
Again, it’s all a matter of when.
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Agree with this sentiment completely, I just feel HB is the odd man out...given his age too, but not that he's really old or anything, lol. Nothing against him, as he's a really efficient scorer and has been a great professional, leader & teammate. I just think, as most of us do, for a 4th or 5th option, Kings need a guy who can really clamp down on D, crash the boards & do the dirty work. I'm hoping we can get Caruso, Herb Jones or Thybulle. They'd be really good fits with the starters. Even Caruso being a shooting guard or point guard, could start alongside Fox, then start Trey or Huerter at forward with Murray.