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Published on: 4/9/2006
Last Visited: 11/30/2007
Jose Juan Barea
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Jose Juan Barea, 5-11, Point Guard, Dallas Mavericks, 1984
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Leading his team to a perfect 7-0 record over the Vegas and Rocky Mountain Revue Summer Leagues, showing outstanding leadership skills an impressive skill-set throughout, Jose Juan Barea might have been the MVP of our two week trip.
A waterbug point guard with incredibly pure playmaking ability, Barea made his teammates better every time he was out on the floor.His team ran pick and roll plays ad nauseam nearly every possession down the floor, and Barea again and again made the correct read to pick apart the defense and either find the open man in a variety of ways or put the ball in the basket himself.When he wasn't executing plays in the half-court, Barea was usually pushing the ball up the floor intelligently.His feel for the game is what really sets him apart from the pack, and as he gains more experience playing at the NBA level, that should begin to shine through more in the "real" games as well.
Barea's combination of quickness and outstanding ball-handling skills allow him to get into the lane almost whenever he pleases at this level.He showed great body control and an excellent knack for getting his shot off above the outstretched arms of a rotating defender with a floater or crafty layup with either hand, to compensate for his lack of size.Barea is a shifty guy with outstanding footwork who loves to use a wide of array of fakes and hesitation moves to keep his man off balance.If given a little bit of breathing room, he is more than happy to pull up off the dribble to release a high arcing mid-range jumper.
Possibly the best sign to come out of what we saw in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City was the way he's improved his outside shooting.Just a 29% 3-point shooter from NCAA range his senior season, Barea went 8-20 (40%) from beyond the NBA 3-point line in 7 games.His shooting mechanics are much better than we remember from a year ago, and he's clearly worked on his range and consistency with the very highly regarded Dallas coaching staff.Becoming a true dead-eye shooter will be huge as far as his career is concerned, and will make the unfair Steve Nash comparisons we kept hearing that much more plausible.
As far as weaknesses are concerned, Barea will always be undersized with very short arms-he measured out at just 5-10 ¾ at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, with an identical wingspan.That hurts him on the defensive end of the floor against the bigger point guards many teams sport on their roster, making it easier for them to see the floor over him or get their shot off.To his credit, Barea has gotten stronger to help compensate, but still isn't fundamentally sound enough with his footwork to avoid being considered a liability defensively at the NBA level.
Offensively, he's a throwback, for better or for worse-- a very dominant ball-handler, which doesn't quite suit playing next to many NBA guards who aren't as good playing off the ball as they are on it (such as Jason Terry, Devin Harris and Jerry Stackhouse for example).His shooting-although improved-could still stand to improve as well.
All in all, there is a place in the NBA for a point guard like Jose Juan Barea.Based off what he showed in the summer league, he is ready to get solid playing time as a backup, as early as this year.As he continues to improve his shooting range and hopefully becomes a better one on one defender, he could even become a starting point guard down the road.
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Jose Juan Barea
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