Is Harrison Barnes the Most Overlooked Player in the NBA?

The Dallas Mavericks were able to get one of the biggest steals of the offseason last year when they added Harrison Barnes without any competition. Problem is, most people don’t seem to recognize just how good he really is.

There is this weird phenomenon going on in the NBA world lately where no one seems to remember that Harrison Barnes is, in fact, a professional basketball player and a good one at that. There is not any hate or anything like that being spewed out, just complete blindness overall.

This comes from all over the place as people of Twitter and those that work for the NBA continue to leave Barnes off of their top NBA player lists. Generally remaining unlisted when talking about the top-50 current players in the league, the question has to be asked, what are people missing?

If that wasn’t enough, we have also had reports that Harrison Barnes player rating may be as low as an 80 in NBA 2K17. Seeing players like Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose, and Dwight Howard with the same or better ratings just leaves me scratching my head as to what people are missing.

Here are the only reasons I can come up with for why Barnes is still so heavily overlooked in the league currently.

1. Soft-spoken

This one is kind of interesting in my opinion, but really Harrison Barnes is never one to draw attention to himself and maybe that’s why people just overlook him? He is all basketball and doesn’t care about all the media craze and shoe deals and whatever else would take away from his time on the court.

Dallas Mavericks

That is something that coaches love undoubtedly, but definitely can affect his popularity nationwide. His following in Dallas is strong and loyal, but outside of that, people just seem to forget that he exists until he is dropping 18-20 on them every time the Mavs come visit.

2. His Game is Not Sexy

Mavs fans know very well what this is like as Dirk Nowitzki did not receive the respect he really deserved until after his championship season. He had won an MVP award, been named to numerous All-NBA teams, and developed one of the most un-defendable shots in NBA history by this time, yet still people would not give him credit he deserved.

A lot of that has to do with the lost art of the midrange that both Dirk and Barnes attack teams with so frequently. That style of play is effective and impressive but people want to see alley-oops, monster dunks, crafty finishes at the rim, and long threes. Midrange is dead in the media but lives on in a few select players.

3. Still in the Shadows

The only other reason I can think of is that people still see the Dallas Mavericks as Dirk Nowitzki’s team. You can’t really fault them for thinking that, considering how great Dirk still is, but Barnes was brought in to be the transitional player after the Dirk years have come to an end and he is already showing what he is capable of.

Although Dirk is still very good at what he does, Barnes is the best Mavs player on the court night in and night out and we will see him taking on the leadership that he needs to even more this year. Sadly, people will still miss out on this.

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Harrison Barnes looks to remain Dallas’ dirty little secret and we should be grateful for that. The more people overlook Barnes, the more he can make them pay on the court. And that will be worth every hair-pulling tweet that leaves Barnes out of the NBA’s best players.