The Dallas Mavericks whiffed on their first few free agency targets. Their backup plan was Harrison Barnes. The former Golden State Warriors forward is in Dallas now and hoping to prove his worth as a max player.
Barnes’ play and contract has been a topic of debate for the past year. His success in his early years were billed to having playing with tremendous teammates. More notably, he regressed, or at least did not improve, last season. Barnes’ poor play in the postseason, especially, was used ass evidence that he was not worthy of a max deal.
Nevertheless, the Mavs gave him one and got their player. Now the question is whether Barnes can grow to become a reliable player for the Mavs. Mark Cuban certainly thinks so and told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon just that:
“You’re going to see a lot more to his game than you’ve seen in the past,” Mavs owner Mark Cuban said. “I think he can do a lot more than he’s been asked to do, and that’s what we expect to see. … Maybe not first year, but I think he’s going to grow into [the role of go-to guy]. Just because a guy hasn’t done things doesn’t mean he can’t do it.”
Cuban makes a good point. We don’t know if Barnes has anything up his sleeve now that he will have to be a primary option on a team. That said, we also haven’t seen anything from Barnes to suggest that he can grow into that role.
Only time will tell whether Harrison Barnes can become that player for the Mavs. But right now, the smart bet is to say he will not, even if Cuban believes otherwise.
