His contract situation could ultimately be what compares him the most to Harden given (as you pointed out) the GS Warriors will probably have to go deep into lux tax areas to keep their core in tact and sign him to the extension he's going to demand. That could ultimately lead to them trading him to a team like Houston last year that will give him a much larger role in the future. However, they will have options in the Summer of 2016 before he becomes a free agent. They can trade David Lee or renounce his rights to let him walk in free agency that Summer, and they also can not re-sign Bogut, or sign him to a short term deal for the next 2 years to give themselves the ability to keep Barnes instead of Lee & Bogut. But, as a player.... no they are completely different basketball players. Harden is essentially a 6'5" scoring point guard, and Barnes is a versatile Swiss Army Knife Forward who do a little bit of everything. Its more likely that Barnes is almost always the 2nd or 3rd best player on his team throughout his career.
It's not like he can't develop into a great swing man tho. He has tremendous upside. It showed during playoffs. He can score off the dribble, he plays defense, is a slasher. Is he in the same level as James harden? I wouldn't say so but he has a chance to be Paul George lite.
What? Harden is a better three point shooter than Barnes. Harden is a better free throw shooter than Barnes. Harden and Barnes are close in mid range shooting. All this while Harden was covered more tightly as the number one option.
I dont see this being an issue for GS. 1) They will not be paying Bogut anywhere close to where he is currently being paid. He has not proved that he can stay healthy. 2) Lee comes off his big 15M/yr contract the year before they have to make a decison on Barnes. 3) Iggy will be in the last year of his contract the year that Barnes is extended. He can easily be traded to a team who is looking for some veteran leadership, or they can just hang on to him and pay some luxury tax for a year. My guess is that once Barnes is ready to take over in the next year or two, Iggy is traded. The entire NBA has learned from the enormous mistake that OKC made. If GS trades Barnes, it will not be because they were restricted cap-wise. it will be because they did not value him the way we all assume he will be valued in 2-3 years.
I don't know, but Harden was considered a worse pick to Tereke Evans(ROY) after his rookie season with a PER under 14 in reserve minutes. Even right before we get him, most teams around the league consider Harden as a top sixth man only(rumors have teams passed the trade proposals involving Barnes, MKG...). If Barnes can improve like Harden did in his first few years, then it could be close.
well in year one... TS% Harden .551 Barnes .526 PER Harden 14.0 Barnes 11.0 WS/48 Harden .125 Barnes .065 RAPM Harden 0.1 Barnes -1.3 so... no the next Eric Gordon (hopefully health and without a crazy contract) though maybe.
You forgot the absolute most important stat for PGs: A/TO. Lillard was 6.5/3.0 last year, which are pretty mediocre numbers. Chris Paul was at 7.8/2.3 in his rookie year, and now has a career A/TO over 4. His A/TO stats are the best in league history, rivaled only by John Stockton.
It seemed ridiculous to me Barnes dropped all the way to 7th, yet another major fail by the Cavs imho. As others already noted, the guy isnt simila to Harden at all, playing style he seems more of the Luol Deng, AK47 do it all forward than an actual 1st option. Contract wise GS bogut and lee's contract expire when he gets his extension, they csn trade Iggy as well
Jay Williams was on his way to a mediocre career before his injury. Things didn't go well as a rookie with the Bulls. His college awesomeness didn't translate to the NBA. He displayed an entitled attitude in the face of adversity. People said he was the "safe" pick instead of Yao but nothing could be further from the truth. One could argue he may have improved to become a good player but since his attitude was as big a problem as his lack of shooting and finishing ability, I doubt it.
It doesn't matter because Barnes lacks handle. His handles are below Parsons' level. Wings without handles do not become stars in the NBA.
Harrison is a stud He has the op to be a bigger, more athletic Harden that plays DEFENSE as well I wish we could trade for him
We'll see. By signing Iggy, the Warriors indicated they are more concerned about winning than with Barnes' personal development. Obviously he will be coming off the bench despite Mark Jackson being publicly non-committal. Barnes will get less minutes with Iggy on board than without him. I'm curious if he'll be good enough to push Klay Thompson for crunch-time minutes.
he's really young but at this point i don't see the harden comparison. right now he reminds me of an even more athletic Richard Jefferson without Jason Kidd feeding him for easy scores.
