Did Matt Barnes Rub Mike Brown The Wrong Way?
If you are an NBA fan you probably know who Matt Barnes is, a current player for the Los Angeles Lakers whom they signed during the 2010 free-agency period. Barnes came to the Lakers from the Orlando Magic and immediately provided a much needed spark on both offense and defense for the Lakers second unit, which was struggling at the time. Barnes’ only goal has been to win an NBA championship after he played for 8 different teams in 8 seasons in the NBA Barnes re-signed with the Lakers this past shortened off-season hoping for a chance to win the all-elusive NBA title he’s been searching for.
When Mike Brown came to L.A to coach the Lakers no one really knew what to expect, especially the players since they could not speak with Brown due to the lockout. But once training camp and the pre-season began Brown began to implement a new defensive and offensive system while at the same time refusing to take any excuses from his players about their poor play or bad choices on and off the court. Now Barnes has been known to do some dumb things on the court, for example when Barnes shoved Blake Griffin in the Lakers pre-season game this year against the Clippers nearly starting a fight on the floor.
Now before all of this happened Brown had said that he was not sure what the parameters of the roster would look like come opening day but what he did know was that Metta World Peace would be coming off the bench and Matt Barnes would be starting. The move seemed reasonable since World Peace, formerly Ron Artest, struggled last season. Barnes also struggled but was riddled with injuries throughout the year. Well as a surprise to many Barnes did not start on opening night, in fact he didn’t play at all, and the same was true of Barnes during the Lakers game against the Jazz on Tuesday, instead giving the starting small forward spot to second year player Devin Ebanks.
Now although Ebanks is definitely a good candidate to start at small forward the fact that Barnes has not played in two of the Lakers three games seems quite odd especially since Mike Brown listed him as the favorite and called him the starter for opening day. It is not sure what Barnes did to Brown or what has happened but many people have said that an injury is causing Barnes to miss time as he was listed by the Lakers with bursitis in his left hip before the Lakers game against the Jazz. Barnes denies that he is injured and insists that he is 100% healthy.
There has also been several reports stating simply that Barnes has fallen out of the rotation, which could happen time to time unfortunately. But this simple explanation doesn’t seem right though as Barnes has been a valuable spark off the bench for the Lakers in past games. It seems to me that there’s something strange going on in Los Angeles.
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I would think that Barnes is much better suited for coming off the bench because of his energy and can score pretty well for a bench player. Don’t see him as much of a starter not efficient enough when it comes to his shooting, though he is a great defender can get under the skin of other players.
Yeah true, true. It’s just weird that Barnes would all of a sudden go from starter to not playing at all you know what I mean.