The Sacramento Kings are a franchise that exists in the National Basketball Association which is a thing I need to remind myself of at least once a week. But Harrison Barnes has started his season on fire and now I’m buying forced to write about this forgotten organization.
Let’s look at the season Barnes is having so far:
- 4 games
- 28.3 points
- 10.3 rebounds
- 26-for-52 from the field (50%)
- 15-for-27 from 3 (56%)
Harrison Barnes starts his 10TH NBA season with a career-high 36 PTS & 9 REB.
Barnes: 8/11 3PT
Blazers Starters: 10/31 3PT pic.twitter.com/dmvRw80Kh8— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 21, 2021
Guys, Harrison Barnes is the 5th highest scorer in the NBA behind only Ja Morant, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Karl-Anthony Towns. The only other time Barnes’s name was in the same sentence as Curry and Durant was when we were all roasting him after Durant replaced him in Golden State and was astronomically better than him.
Coming into the season, all of the focus was on the crowded Kings backcourt. De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton are the golden boys according to the NBA media. Davion Mitchell was selected 9th overall out of Baylor and looked like a defensive stopper in the preseason. And we all know that they’ve been desperately trying to ship Buddy Hield anywhere.
Harrison Barnes has been quietly chilling in the background of all the noise but perhaps this is something else. The Kings are 1-2 so far. They appear to be destined to lose in the play-in game.
Barnes isn’t balling out to carry the Kings on his back. He knows he has one more year on his contract and he’s not spending the rest of his prime listening to head coach Luke Walton stumble through practice.
I get the feeling Barnes is being motivated by the Lakers early season struggles. Perhaps he heard that Philadelphia wanted to swap him for Ben Simmons and he’s incentivizing Philly to pull the trigger.
Every night, Barnes is going out there and auditioning for the team he’s competing against just begging them to take him back on their team bus and free him from the Kings.
