USA Basketball: Which Players Will Benefit The Most?
Harrison Barnes
On sheer role change, Barnes will see his numbers improve next season as he sees a bigger chunk of the offense with the Dallas Mavericks.
It should benefit Barnes to get the awful taste of his final games as a Warrior in the NBA Finals out of his mouth. Barnes went 5-of-32 in the final three games of the NBA Finals and was a major reason why the Warriors fell apart and blew a 3-1 series lead.
Barnes will be expected to share a bulk of the offensive load for the Mavericks with Dirk Nowitzki, something Barnes has never been asked to do.
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A Royal Pain
With Team USA, Barnes will get a firsthand look at some of the best players in the game and how he compares to them.
Before the USA team started dominating opponents in exhibition game, much of the talk surrounding this rendition of Team USA was about the amount of star players who opted to sit out the Olympics for one reason or another.
Even with a roster missing many stars, Barnes stood out as the weak link. He’s the only player on the roster who has neither made an All-Star team or an All-NBA team.
Barnes hasn’t been a key player throughout the first two exhibition games, confirming the belief that he’s a bit of an afterthought on the team.
However the Mavericks are just fine if his minutes are down and Barnes is taking notes on how more-established players handle themselves, create offense, and develop their games as he prepares for a larger role.
Barnes has had an odd career thus far that has clouded our judgment of him as a player.
He came to North Carolina as a phenom who was hyped up to be one of the next superstars, failed to live up to outrageous expectations, landed in Golden State and ended up taking a lesser role than expected due to the rise of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Instead of becoming a star, he became who the Warriors needed him to be. It remains to be seen if he can be anything more than that as he enters a new part of his career with the Mavericks.
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Barnes has the physical tools to be an All-Star caliber player. The Team USA experience could help him take his game to another level towards reaching that potential.