Will Barton: A Big Offseason awaits

No one could have expected Will Barton to have this breakout campaign. No one. If someone tells you they did, they’re lying. From what I saw of Barton late last year, I was expecting a Corey Brewer-esque player. Someone who you want the ball with in transition and on back-cuts to the basket and little else. I was certainly surprised at what Will Barton has brought to the team this year.

He’s currently in the running for 6th man of the year and Most Improved Player, Bartons averaging 15 points and 6 rebounds off the bench so far this season. After a stellar December where he averaged 21 points and 7 rebounds, it started to get a bit tougher for Barton.

He was number one in the scouting report week after week, and for someone like Barton who’s not used to being the number 1 scoring threat he took it hard. That was the start of the questions and after the All-Star break, Barton hasn’t really proved to me that he should be our go-to guy.

This year Barton incorporated the three-point shot into his game, initially it worked well with Barton shooting just over 40 percent in his first 33 games, and since then its dropped to around 30 percent. This is due to the extra defense thats been coming his way since his hot December and his shot selection has become very poor recently.

My personal opinion is that Barton should reduce his 3pt attempts next season, he’s a slasher, so take it to the basket and put it home Will, we all know your capable of it. Barton’s provided some highlight reel dunks and layups with his ability to get to the rim,

So I think he should go back to that next season and not try and knock down as many three’s at every opportunity.

I asked the people of Twitter what they thought of Will Barton, the majority agreed with my analysis.

This tweet intrigues me, Corey Brewer was easily one of the best transition players to ever grace the hardwood at the Pepsi Center. The run and gun Nuggets of a few years ago were led by Brewer on nearly every fast break, the defense would force a turnover and due to the altitude Brewer would get out and run for easy slams and layups. Barton is a very good finisher and I agree with TJ here, Barton should base his game off of Brewer’s.

As I said before, Barton’s shot selection has been pretty poor recently, he is a very aggressive player and you need to be if your a run-and-gun player.
But sometimes he just lobs up shots from everywhere and yes the fans love the aggressiveness, but sometimes it turns into recklessness and he needs to learn to control that.

Yes. Barton needs to get back to what was working before, he needs to take it to the rim and finish strong. Work on that 3pt shot in practice for a while and maybe then start shooting some more 3’s.

BSN’s Nate Timmons also had his say

Nate brings up a good point here, Barton is more than a just a shooter, he is also an incredible rebounder for his size. He is still learning his playmaking abilities and they will come with the more time he spends out there on the court and as he adapts to Denver’s game plan. Also as Nate said Barton is only 25, so he’s still learning his craft, he has a big off-season ahead of him where he needs to begin to define what type of player he wants to be.

This off-season is pretty big for Will Barton, he should decide whether he wants to be that a slasher or a ‘greyhound’ type. Or if he wants to be that knock down 3pt shooter, either way if Will puts in a lot of work this summer, things could pay off big time for him and the Nuggets. Honestly he should become the slasher, with the defensive mind-set of Malone, transition points will pile up and there is no one better suited to lead the fast-break than Will Barton.

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