Will Barton is exactly the kind of player one of the team’s youngsters should beat out for a starting role this season. He’s had a kind of journeyman’s career, though without much journeying — two-and-a-half seasons with the Portland Trailblazers followed by seven-and-a-half with the Denver Nuggets.
Barton first cracked average in my PPA metric at age 27 — his sixth season in the league. He followed that with an injury-plagued year in 2018-19. He appeared in just 43 games, and managed a 71 PPA — down from 113 the previous season.
PPA pegs his best season as 2019-20, which was Barton’s age 29 season.