National Basketball Association

Take Your Best Shot: Matt Barnes

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

This article takes a look at the offensive game of Matt Barnes and examines his best shot to exploit NBA defenders. This is the next installment in our Take Your Best Shot series.

This offseason the Sacramento Kings dipped into the free agent market to acquire Matt Barnes. They agreed to a contract of 2 years and $12 million. I recently wrote an article about if Matt Barnes was worthy of that contract. If that interests you give it a read.

Now let us examine Mister Barnes’ offensive game to find his best shot.

Barnes’s Best Shot

Barnes played for new Sacramento Kings head coach, Dave Joerger, last season in Memphis. Let us look at his shot chart courtesy of NBASavant.com from last year to see where Matt Barnes excels.

Matt Barnes' Shot Chart from last season courtesy of https://t.co/cT1yVckfvX pic.twitter.com/Er1XnMgA1P

— A Royal Pain (@ARoyalPain) September 10, 2016

As you can see, Barnes shot below league average from every spot on the floor except left corner 3 pointers. It is worth noting that late in the season when the injuries piled up for the Grizzlies, Barnes was forced into a larger role than he is accustomed to. Throw in that Barnes is now 36 years old and it caused his shooting percentages to dip a little bit. Below is a highlight video of Mister Barnes producing a triple double last year, so you can get a glimpse at his offensive skill set.

For his career, Barnes has been super-efficient inside the 3 point line. According to Basketball-Reference, Barnes has connected on 52.6% of 2 pointers on 3,247 attempts for his career. That includes a massive 63.5% connect percentage from 0-2 feet from the basket. Barnes is effective and efficient at finding open space and scoring on 2 point attempts.

Summary

Matt Barnes is a fresh face on the Sacramento Kings for the 2016-2017 NBA season. Barnes is not afraid to take an open shot and has had very degrees of success from every spot on the floor in his NBA career. He is most effective on 2 point attempts. If he can get to the basket, he has historically had the most success from in close.

I would argue the Kings should let him roam on offense. Let him do the dirty work like setting screens and if he is open, give him the green light to fire away. He has a tendency to fire away from beyond the arc a little too much, but if you can convince him to attack the basket more, he could open up his 3’s and create some effective offense for the Kings.