From a PHX fan: Barnes will do just fine

by willthehawk on Jul 26, 2009 6:12 PM EDT

While I strongly disagree with many Orlando fans' insistence that SVG will 'magically' transform Barnes into a more disciplined player, I do believe he will do good things for your team.

I think Barnes has been playing his style of basketball for too long for you to expect SVG to somehow 'fix' him. It just ain't gunna happen.

However, I must say that "Phoenix Stan" (the frontman of BSoS) grossly misstated Barnes' impact on PHX fans.

He stated "...by the end of the season no one was sad to see him go. No one. "

I am a proud lifelong Suns fan from AZ, and dammit I'm going to miss Matty Barnes. He is an imperfect player, his reliance on his streaky three point shooting is troubeling, he is prone to force tough passes, and he is not a fantastic defender. But, quite frankly, for the 1.8 mil Orlando will be paying him, he is a fantastic player.

You know how it is, when a team loses a player, fans instantly try to rationalize the loss, explaining that he was "good-for nothing" and "too erratic" to be good. Matt Barnes is a good NBA player. His athleticism and hustle will impress you.

Don't expect him to always play 'smart', but don't listen to all the Suns fans telling you he'll disappoint. Barnes will do just fine.

This FanPost was made by a member of the Orlando Pinstriped Post community, and is to be treated as the opinions and views of its author, not that of the blogger or blog community as a whole.

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Thanks willthehawk

Can you comment on the extent of his bad decision making? How about his team chemistry?

by thermodynamic on Jul 26, 2009 7:13 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks for dropping by and providing your thoughts. We appreciate it.

I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.

"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone

by erivera7 on Jul 26, 2009 7:27 PM EDT reply actions

Bad decision making:

Again,m I strongly feel the good outweighs the bad in Barnes, but often it seemed he would try too hard to make the “BIG” play and a turnover would result.
For instance, frequently after the opposing team would make a free throw and slowly start heading back to play D, Matt Barnes would quickly whip the inbound pass down the full length of the court to find a streaking Suns player for the easy points. Naturally, with such a risky play, it failed more than we would have liked to see.

Sometimes his strong arm would overthrow, landing the ball out of bounds of through the other player’s hands.
Additionally, there were a couple of months during the season where Barnes’ shooting we absolutely terrible. He was shooting something like 27% on 3’s, yet he would still jack them up regularly.
While, ideally all of Barne’s crazy passes and 3’s would have hit their target, but quite frankly, he plays with a passion that makes up for his shortfalls. The mere fact that Barnes was willing to stick his neck out throwing these full court heaves speaks to his tenacity.
He is a streaky shooter, but he is very much worth his price tag.

by willthehawk on Jul 26, 2009 7:36 PM EDT reply actions

Thing is

Shooters have to have the confidence to take their shots, or they’ll never break out of a slump. Ray Allen was shooting worse than that for most of the playoff series against us but he backs himself to take the shots.

I’d be surprised if Barnes is doing a lot of inbounding or ballhandling in the offense for us so perhaps his tendency to go for the glory ball will be nullified a touch.

by eltharion_doa on Jul 26, 2009 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions

In terms of team chemistry

I think he was a really solid guy. I never heard of any locker room issue surrounding Barnes. He was big on emphatic high fives and the like… which obviously doesn’t really mean anything, but from what PHX fans saw, he fit in well with the team.

by willthehawk on Jul 26, 2009 7:38 PM EDT reply actions