First a housekeeping note: I apologize for the terrible title of this post, but From the Logo tries to keep things lively during the long regular season.
Points per shot attempt (PSA), which accounts for both field goal and free throw attempts, is a reasonable measure for a player’s scoring efficiency. Not surprisingly, Kevin Durant leads all above-median usage forwards with 1.37 per Cleaning the Glass.1 In second place is Harrison Barnes with a career high 1.31, topping last season’s high of 1.25. Barnes has been the Sacramento Kings’ best player so far this season even as his usage has ticked up to levels he last attained in Dallas three seasons ago. Unlike then, his efficiency has not taken a hit; he is shooting a career high 59% eFG% on above-average accuracy from most areas of the floor.
Even as some of the league’s more prominent names have struggled to adjust to the rule changes, Barnes draws fouls at a high rate. He gets a foul call on 17.2% of his shot attempts, in the 97th percentile for all forwards per CTG. Always a solid free throw shooter (86% this season), Barnes is strong and able to finish through contact and earn extra points at the line.
In addition to being capable of creating his own shot off the dribble, Barnes is a reliable threat off the ball as well. He has shot 42% on catch and shoot threes during his time in Sacramento per NBA Second Spectrum data. Nor does Barnes just wait for catch and shoot opportunities off ball; he knows when to catch his man napping with a well timed back cut.
Both Barnes and his coach Luke Walton have carried over some of the lessons from their Golden State Warriors days. For instance, they use Barnes in screening actions that leverage Buddy Hield’s shooting threat; when two men follow Hield, it creates an open rim look for Barnes (ignore the fact that Barnes actually missed both layups):
Here’s the Warriors running something similar for Juan Toscano-Anderson last season; just sub in Draymond Green for De’Aaron Fox at the top of the key and Steph Curry for Buddy Hield:
There is good reason to think that Barnes’ scoring efficiency is sustainable: his shot profile is virtually identical to last season’s and he isn’t unsustainably hot on jumpers. Barnes takes virtually no long mid rangers, with 40% of his attempts coming at the rim and nearly as many coming from three per CTG. He is shooting marginally better on threes than he did last year (42% vs. 39%), drawing a few more fouls, and shooting slightly better on free throws. Each of those improvements is within the margin of error from last season’s marks; even if Barnes were to regress to that, he would still be scoring a very efficient 1.25 points per shot attempts.
A lot of small increments can add up to something meaningful and that seems to be the case with Barnes. Even as Sacramento has blown hot and cold, Barnes has been a bright spot in Kings Landing.
Cleaning the Glass gives PSA in total points scored per 100 shot attempts, so technically the number is 137. The 1.37 number is for all forwards with above median usage as defined by CTG.