Why is Leandro Barbosa receiving less playing time?
By Danny Saeed
One of the major strengths of the Golden State Warriors is their bench, irrefutably one of the deepest in the league.
Remember when Brandon Rush was a notable offseason acquisition? He’s hardly seen the floor because of the exceptional depth and competition at the two-guard position. Playing time has fluctuated tremendously for many Warriors — not just Rush. One player in particular experienced a dramatic drop-off in minutes despite beginning the season as an every game guy, regardless of the circumstance.
That would be the Brazilian Blur, Leandro Barbosa.
The season tipped off with Steve Kerr utilizing the offensive potency of Barbosa as the backup off-guard, where the veteran mustered some minutes on a nightly basis. In one match-up in mid November against the Phoenix Suns, Barbosa played 30 minutes as the starting shooting guard due to Klay Thompson‘s absence. He was patently a part of the offense, and Kerr was not shy to use his speed and quickness, especially when the offense was showing signs of stagnancy.
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Barbosa played respectably when handed the opportunity, scoring in a variety of ways that helped bolster the offense of the second unit. However, he’s a volume shooter who displays a bit of selfishness when the ball is in his hands. This is how Barbosa has always been — a high-energy specimen who looks to score first instead of facilitate for others or move the ball around, and sometimes it disrupts the offensive game-plan considerably.
A very fitting parallel to Barbosa was the addition of Jordan Crawford last season, as both players have an exceedingly similar style of play and floor mentality. Moreover, Crawford was a proper fit in Mark Jackson‘s offense, where isolation plays were heavily glorified, yet inexplicably overused. The Barbosa and Crawford style of play simply doesn’t fit into the implementation of Kerr’s offensive system, where the goal is to incessantly rotate the ball until a high percentage shot is attempted, whether that be a bucket inside the paint or an open-jump shot.
Furthermore, regardless of Barbosa’s efforts on the floor — specifically his ability to score in a hurry — his way of handling his business on the court must have clashed with the ideologies of Kerr. Instead, the coaching staff has decided to bring in Justin Holiday off the bench ahead of Barbosa when Thompson and Curry need a quick breather. Prior to Tuesday night’s blowout win over the Sixers, where garbage time was abundant, Holiday had received more playing time than Barbosa the previous four games, and by a considerable amount. The rookie received a total of 62 minutes compared to Barbosa’s 25 in the four match-ups, which gives a strong perspective on who Kerr and the staff have leaned on as the back-up off-guard as of late.
Holiday certainly does not have the offensive talent or firepower of Barbosa, but he’s a smart young player who is not going to try to do too much, and he plays stout defense for the second unit. Barbosa’s overwhelming presence whenever he checked in was a detriment to the pass-happy Warriors offense, whereas Holiday has been a nice fit to give the Splash Brothers a breather.
In addition, Holiday has shown competence to score in this league. In Tuesday’s game against the 76ers, he logged in 15 minutes and delivered an impressive 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Holiday can maintain consistency by continuing to not “overplay” his assigned role and space the floor, because the ball is going to inevitably hop around the perimeter where players have the opportunity to knock down open shots.
With the exceptional depth of Golden State at virtually every position, Kerr is conscious that he merely has to buy a few minutes a night at the two-guard position in order to give his stars ample time to rejuvenate. Barbosa’s rash style of play was going to dissipate at some point of the season; however, I do not think he is utterly out of the equation. When the Warriors are in a desperate need for some quick buckets, expect the Brazilian Blur to make his appearance, just not nearly as frequent as at the start of the season.