This former North Carolina Tar Heels star is becoming a serious issue for this NBA team.
Former North Carolina Tar Heels star Harrison Barnes has certainly taken an interesting NBA career path.
Initially, Barnes was viewed as sort of a weak link on the Golden State Warriors. Yes, the Warriors won a championship with him in 2015 and then won 73 games the following year, but it seemed pretty obvious Golden State needed an upgrade (which it got in Kevin Durant).
Since then, Barnes has played for three different teams, spending time with the Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings and now the San Antonio Spurs.
The North Carolina product has actually developed into an incredibly efficient scorer as he has matured and entered the 2025-26 campaign having posted five straight seasons of a true-shooting percentage of well over 60 percent.
So what exactly is happening to Barnes this year?
The 33-year-old is averaging 11.3 points per game on 43.5/36.4/86.8 shooting splits in 40 games with the Spurs, good for a true-shooting percentage of 58.1 percent. He has particularly struggled over the last month, registering 11 single-digit performances in 16 contests.
That came after a stretch in which Barnes recorded 13 double-figure scoring outings in 15 games earlier in the season.
San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes. Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images.Most recently, Barnes logged just two points on 1-of-7 shooting in a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and with San Antonio having lost four of its last six games while also having gone 4-6 over its last 10, Barnes is becoming a glaring issue.
Has Barnes suddenly hit the downside of his career? He turns 34 in May, so it's entirely possible. The former No. 7 overall pick is also in the final year of his contract, so if he keeps performing at this rate, the Spurs are almost certainly not re-signing him in free agency.
Whatever the case may be, Barnes does not look remotely close to the same player he did a year ago when he tallied 50.8/43.3/80.9 shooting splits.
Barnes spent two years at UNC between the 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns, averaging 16.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game while making 43 percent of his shots and 34.9 percent of his triples.
Widely viewed as one of the best players on the collegiate landscape at the time, Barnes hasn't turned into a star o the NBA level, but he is at least established himself as a durable, reliable veteran. But now, it looks like the wheels may be coming off for the Tar Heels legend.