Harrison Barnes will be doing a lot of driving at the expense of shooting this year for the Grizzlies.
Grizzlies announced today that they have officially resigned Harrison Barnes to a 4 year deal with a player option for Final Year.
‘’We are happy to have Harrison back. I really liked the way he played for us last year and provided a scoring punch off the bench. Now, armed with a new contract, we are looking for him to play a larger role.’’ - Grizzlies GM Andrei Sanzharov announced.
Barnes averaged 15.4 points and 5.9 boards in 28.7 minutes for the Grlizzlies last season mostly coming off the bench. He also shot 49% from the field and 40% from downtown. He seems to fit in well into their small high pressure lineup and looks to come back to be the team’s leading Power Forward this season.
Barnes’ career has somewhat stalled after he signed the MAX deal with the Warriors a few seasons ago. The Warriors soon switched management and the new group did not have Barnes as part of their long-term plans. Hence he got glued to the bench while injuries and disatisfaction with his role piled up. Warriors tried to trade him unsuccessfully until the Grizzlies came calling and he was included for salary purposes as part of a bigger deal.
‘’I think there are a good few GMs who will forever look at Barnes as an overpaid player on a max deal. Some even considered him an expiring throw in when we acquired him last season. But we think different. He had his challenges in Oakland sure, but they do not take away from what he is – a solid player. Not a star in this league but solid starter who can score and play defense.’’
‘’We like his fit a lot. He is an impressive inside-out scorer who can get to the line and hit some threes. He is perhaps a bit undersized for a big man but he uses his quickness and athleticism well on both ends of the court. We are looking for him to add some weight this offeason and officially move to power forward position.’’ - Andrei added
Grizzlies are still planning to be active on the free agent front and expect to have up to 15 players signed before opening the training camp later on this week (hopefully).
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