Andre Barrett

Andre Barrett bounced back to have a much better showing than yesterday’s outing, although he’s still struggling to shake off much of the inevitable rust that accumulated from barely playing over the last two seasons.

Barrett looked much more like the pass-first point guard we remembered from college today, pushing the ball up the floor extremely well and finding all his teammates with crisp passes all over the perimeter, mostly on the drive and dish. He’s a dominant ball-handler for sure, sometimes resorting to over-dribbling, but he’s clearly an unselfish guy.

Barrett isn’t as freakishly quick as you might hope from a player his size, but he’s a phenomenal ball-handler with either hand and has great timing and smarts, which lets him get by players at this level virtually whenever he pleases. He has a nice mid-range game as well, creating separation off the dribble with a pull-up jumper quite often when he couldn’t find a teammate to pass to, and hitting most of the shots he took from that range. Like most little guys, he’d rather find a shot in the mid-range than take the ball all the way to the basket (he only attempted one free throw), but he does have some ability to finish craftily around the hoop over bigger defenders. He was a little bit hesitant to shoot the NBA 3-pointer early on in the game, but looked more aggressive trying to prove his ability to hit this shot later on in the contest. This isn’t a real strong-point of his (it looks a bit flat when rushed), but he’s not someone you can leave open, since he’s pretty reliable with his feet set.

This was Barrett’s second and last game at the D-League showcase, and we came away with some mixed feelings about him. He might be the top point guard prospect here, probably by default, but you don’t get the feeling when watching him that he’s a can’t miss NBA talent. His lack of size, perimeter shooting, freakish quickness and just average leadership skills certainly don’t make for an ideal package, even though it wouldn’t shock anyone here if he got a callup at the end of the day just to find a spot on the bench as a 3rd point guard. Considering the type of overseas offers he’s turned down this season already (one for as much as $80,000 a month from Russia reportedly), you have to hope for him that he eventually gets his wish.

The veteran point guard struggled today, despite his high level of production up to this point in the season. Barrett finished the game with 10 assists, and did find the open man on drive and dish plays numerous times. He struggled to run his team in the half-court however, and often forced the issue looking for his own shot. The forces inside led to Bakersfield taking some difficult shots at the end of the shot-clock.

Defensively, Barrett struggled at times when forced to guard bigger players, and Lamar Rice took him to the low block and scored very easily on him on one possession. Defense will also be a issue for him at the NBA level due to size, but he could do a better job of pressuring the ball.

Barrett missed most of his step-back jumpers off the dribble today, but usually scores these type of mid-range shots effectively. To maximize his potential, Barrett must look for his teammates earlier in the shot-clock as well as picking the right spots to attack the basket. The score-first mentality really hurt the team and didn’t do much for the scouts in attendance either, although it must be noted that his team didn’t do a great job helping him out in this department much either. Though it wasn’t his day, Barrett remains one of the top candidates in the D-League, and will have a chance to redeem himself later this week.