Warriors Analysis: Is Harrison Barnes Worth More Than Draymond Green?

If your employer decided to bump up your salary to an average of $16 million a year over the next four years, you would accept it in a heartbeat, right?

Apparently, that’s not how it works in pro sports these days.

With the NBA’s salary cap rising to unprecedented amounts over the next few seasons, Golden State Warriors’ forward Harrison Barnes is looking to take full advantage and soak in as much as he can.

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A Royal Pain

More power to him, and what the 23-year-old forward does in between now and October 31st will be worth watching.

Barnes turned down the aforementioned deal, which Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported was $64 million over four years. Barnes, who changed agents last week from Jeff Wechsler to Jeff Schwartz, could be using the $16 million per year simply as a starting point.

If true, and if the Warriors are willing to negotiate and go even higher, then Barnes will be worth more than an omnipresent teammate who also received a huge contract extension recently — Draymond Green.

Green signed a five-year, $82 million extension earlier thus summer that nets him an average of $16.4 million a year. Barnes was already close at $16 million, but will very likely exceed that amount if negotiations continue.

It doesn’t seem right to pay Barnes more than Green, for Green is more valuable to the Warriors. Arguably the second most important player on the team behind Stephen Curry, Green serves as the oft-mentioned “heartbeat,” the Swiss army knife who does so many things in so many different ways that his importance is impossible to quantify. He fits in perfectly with the Warriors’ mentality, system and chemistry — a versatile, hard-working, trash-talking, gritty stretch-four who is a pain in the rear end to any opponent.

Barnes, for all the promise he displays, has just that — promise. He averaged career highs last season and showed well in his return to the starting lineup under Steve Kerr, but has yet to explode onto the scene as many predicted he would as the No. 1 prospect in the nation coming out of high school. This may not be entirely his fault — as the third or fourth option on the court on a team loaded with talent and depth, Barnes does not have many opportunities to shine and cannot pad his stats as he might on a lesser franchise.

But still, he can be criticized for being too passive, for not using his incredible athleticism to drive to the rim or create plays. Look at Kawhi Leonard — a player Barnes has been compared to — who established himself as one of the Spurs’ key players despite the looming shadows of Duncan, Parker and Ginobli. Leonard also signed an extension this summer worth $18.9 million annually for five seasons, and it’s fair to say Barnes does not deserve to make more than Leonard at this point.

“I’m guessing the turn-down won’t last long, and if it does . . . well, nothing lasts forever,” writes Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea. “Even common sense.”

Sixteen million a year would actually make Barnes the highest-paid player on the Warriors’ roster for the 2015-2016 season — even more than Klay Thompson ($15.5 million) and Curry ($11 million). Maybe this is a sign of current market and how the increase in cap room will skew contracts more and more as time passes by, and Curry will certainly surpass any player on the roster when he hits the market in 2017.

But as of now, with David Lee off the roster, something just seems off about once again having a third or fourth option be your highest-paid player.

Next: What Does Barnes' Rejection Mean?