Know your New Orleans Pelicans opponent: Harrison Barnes

Dec 4, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward

(1) is called for a double dribble mid-air below Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes (40) during the fourth quarter at Oracle Arena. The Golden State Warriors defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 112-85. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Weaknesses: 

The biggest weakness Harrison Barnes has it that he isn’t great at anything outside of spot-up shooting right now, making him a very limited player.

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As his shot chart shows, there isn’t any area on the floor besides that corner that Barnes really thrives at. A big part of that is Barnes inability to really create any shots. According to Synergy data, Barnes finished in the bottom 10 percentile in the league in pick-and-roll ball handling and in the 26th percentile in post-ups this season. What made it ok was that those areas made up just nine percent of Barnes total offense this year with over half of his offense coming from transition and spot-up attempts. Barnes understands his role and plays it well but if the Pelicans can force him into being a big part of the offense they will be in great shape.

On defense Barnes finished around the 40th percentile in both isolation and pick-and-roll ball handler defending this season, an important thing since the Pelicans can force the Warriors to defend Tyreke Evans with Barnes by inserting Jrue Holiday into the game. Barnes is still a bit thin so he can get stuck on screens at times and bullied in the paint, two things Evans and Omer Asik could take advantage of.

The biggest problem Barnes has comes from his lack of elite skills as he can tend to float in and out of games. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Barnes be completely ineffective a few times during the series which would probably lead to an increase in minutes from Andre Iguodala.

Next: Stand there and shoot