For Harrison Barnes, It’s All About A First-Time Opportunity

Harrison Barnes will get a bigger role with the Dallas Mavericks in 2016-17. His success will depend on how he handles more responsibility.

Every offseason, there are a few questionable contracts that are handed out. Most of the time they’re given to players that are young, who haven’t exactly hit their full potential yet.

This summer, we saw numbers like four years, $72 million given to Bismack Biyombo and four years, $75 million given to Allen Crabbe. But perhaps the most interesting contract of the summer was issued to former Golden State Warriors swingman Harrison Barnes, who inked a four-year, $94 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks.

Barnes, who was drafted seventh overall by the Warriors in 2012, entered the league with plenty of firepower, as he averaged 16.4 points per game with North Carolina.

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His first season consisted of solid play as he averaged 9.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 25.4 minutes per game. Barnes started all 81 games that he played in the regular season and quickly began to form chemistry with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who had both made significant jumps in production from the season before.

Barnes finished off a great rookie season by averaging 16.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs, as the Warriors eventually fell to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals.

Over the course of the next three seasons, Barnes would go on to form a winning core with Curry, Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala. Barnes went on to play in what was known as the “Death Lineup” and provided steady scoring along with hard-nosed defense in the 2015 championship season and the record-breaking 2016 regular season.

Then this summer, the team successfully lured Kevin Durant to the mix and Barnes signed his max contract with the Mavs, ending the first major era of his career and opening a door for more growth in the coming years with his prime still a few seasons down the road.

But Barnes’ situation in Dallas is going to be completely different than his situation in Golden State, and there’s a few reasons for that.

A New Role

With Golden State, Barnes was more of a role player. He was a big part of the team and how much success they had during their deep runs through the playoffs, but never had too much weight on his shoulders since Curry and Thompson still anchored the team.

In Dallas, on the other hand, Barnes is going to turn into one of the top options on the team. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has this to say about his role next season (via Mavs.com):

"“I think his game is going to expand significantly,” Cuban said shortly after Barnes’ signing was made official. “You know, you can only do what you’re asked to do in the NBA, and so he’s going to get asked to do a whole lot more with us.”"

Barnes will get more touches, more chances to make an impact and more late-game opportunities with a larger role on a team that is going to rely on him to replace the scoring efforts of Chandler Parsons.

More Responsiblity

With a larger role comes more responsibility. Since his time at UNC, Barnes hasn’t really had the spotlight on his game, but he will in Dallas with many people viewing him as the player of the future after Dallas’ willingness to give him such a large contract.

That means that when things aren’t going so well, he’ll likely get a significant share of blame.

Barnes had some criticism come his way after the Finals this past season, when he struggled in Games 5 through 7, shooting just 15 percent from the field and going 0-for-8 in Game 6. He was not playing his best basketball of the season and it certainly showed on the NBA’s biggest stage.

The difference this season is that he won’t have two All-Star guards to back up his poor play. If he isn’t playing well, the entire team is going to suffer even more than they did before.

Living Up To The Hype

It’s not every day that a player of Barnes’ caliber receives a max contract worth $94 million.

While a James Harden-like breakout is not likely to happen, Barnes now has higher expectations to push his game to the next level and to get to his prime level of play as he prepares to enter some of the best years of his life — in terms of physical condition.

The Mavs are going to expect him to challenge Dirk Nowitzki as the team’s primary scoring option, which is something only one player has been able to do since 2001-02 (Monta Ellis in 2014-15). Barnes will definitely be expected to raise his level of play and become more a consistent player on both ends of the floor.

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For Harrison Barnes, the upcoming season is a great opportunity to grow his game and become a potential All-Star in the Western Conference. It all comes down to how he responds to the pressure.