J.J. Barea: What Will The Guard Provide The Dallas Mavericks?
J.J. Barea scored four points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists in the Dallas Mavericks 120-102 victory over Utah in Dallas on Thursday. The 30-year old re-joined the Mavericks on Oct. 29 , two days after negotiating a buyout of the final year of his contract with the Timberwolves.
Barea, who spent the first five seasons with the team, will be making the veteran minimum of $1.3 million this year.
"“We could not be more excited to have J.J. back in a Mavericks uniform.He was a key contributor in bringing a championship to Dallas. A player with his experience and leadership will be a great addition to our team.” — Dallas president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said."
The 6-footer posted career-high numbers his first two years in Minnesota after signing as a free agent with the Timberwolves the summer following the Mavericks only NBA title – he averaged 11.3, 4.7 assists and 2.8 rebounds (2011-13). Barea’s numbers slipped last year and he was third on the Timberwolves point guard pecking order behind Rubio and Mo Williams.
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For his career, Barea averages 8.3 points and 3.4 assists in 19.0 minutes a game.
Barea really didn’t step into a much better situation than he had with the Timberwolves in terms of playing time. As Jameer Nelson and Monta Ellis are entrenched as starters at the guard positions and veterans Devin Harris and Raymond Felton were slated to back up those two.
Felton has been out of action since spraining his ankle on Oct. 12, against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and according to reports he is at least a week away from being healthy. Once healthy, Felton must serve a four-game suspension that he received for his guilty plea on New York gin charge last season.
No matter how much playing time he receives, Barea brings several things that will aid the Mavericks this season.
First and foremost, Barea brings leadership and insurance to the point guard position. Neither Nelson, Felton or Harris have played more than 70 games in a season in several years.
Felton and Harris also can be shaky with their decision making. He will provide the Mavericks a consistent scorer off the bench along with a few assist and the ability to stay in front of most point guards on the defensive end.
Barea is very versatile and while he can play point guard, he is best suited to play shooting guard where he can take advantage of a quick first step and get to the into the lane – Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle used Barea extensively at shooting guard during the team’s championship run.
He is also one of the Mavericks, besides Felton and Ellis, adept at pushing the ball in transition. In Dallas’ first game of the season (against San Antonio), the Mavericks tallied eight fast-break point and scored 22 off of 21 Spurs’ turnovers. But against the Jazz with Barea in the lineup the Mavericks had 13 fast-break points and scored 21 points off 15 Utah turnovers.
The Mavericks waived second year guard Gal Mekel in order to make room for Barea.