Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY SportsFor two seasons, the Mavericks tried to fit a square peg into a round hole by attempting to turn Harrison Barnes into something he’s not — a wing playmaker that can create offense for others.
The attempt to transform Barnes from a spot-up, isolation scoring machine was mostly due to how barren the Mavericks roster was in those two lottery seasons. Dallas didn’t really have much else of a choice outside of J.J. Barea and then later on Dennis Smith Jr. Barnes needed to pass, because there wasn’t much else going on for the Mavericks anyway. The Mavs gave Barnes a contract worthy of a number one option, so it made sense to see if they could coax it out of him while…
