NBA Stats Notebook: The quiet importance of Harrison Barnes, Trey Lyles

On Saturday night, the Sacramento Kings have a chance to hit 40wins for the first time since 2005-06 — also the last time theymade the playoffs — and fulfill the prophecy from the superfans inthis summer's viral video:

Tonight the Sacramento Kings go for 40 wins👀 pic.twitter.com/OgvlPN1MeC

— Cameron Salerno (@cameronsalerno1) March 11, 2023

The Kings are the feel-good team of the NBA season. De'Aaron Foxdeserves the inaugural Clutch Playerof the Year award. Domantas Sabonis has silenced doubts aboutlast year's blockbuster trade. Sacramento has the top scoringoffense in the league, and the best team True Shooting percentagein league history.

As a team, the Sacramento Kings boast a 61.4True Shooting percentage.That would go down as the highest True Shooting percentage of anyteam in NBA history. pic.twitter.com/dEW1GaPAZa

— BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) March 11, 2023

Fox and Sabonis seem to finally be receiving appropriatenational recognition. Impact rookie Keegan Murray andSixth-Man-of-the-Year dark horse Malik Monk still deserve morepraise. But I'd like to spotlight two low-usage wings who haveflown particularly under the radar in the Kings' 39-26 season.Harrison Barnes and Trey Lyles might not create highlights at thesame rate as Sacramento's stars, but they have each enjoyed acareer-year and been critical to the franchise's 7-1 surge sincethe All-Star break.

Barnes is registering the lowest three-point percentage (37.1%)of his five seasons in Sacramento, yet he's still a key cog in theoffense. Since the break, he's slumped to 34.4% from distance butis making an impressive 59.1% of his twos. His 55.9% two-point clipthis season is the second-best of his NBA career.

With guys like Fox, Sabonis, Monk and Kevin Huerter doing mostof the table-setting, Barnes' buckets are getting a bit easier.Approximately 71.7% of his made shots are coming via an assist,which is the highest since his 2015-16 season as a role-player onthe Golden State Warriors.

According to PBP Stats, Barnes in on pace to approach hiscareer-high of 206 paint touches in a season (he's at 170 rightnow). This year, he's crushing it with those touches, averagingover one point per paint touch for the first time in hiscareer.

Harrison Barnes with the slam!#BeamTeam#NBApic.twitter.com/MotBc69u6U

— NBA Highlights (@NBATransaction7) March 7, 2023

Plays like this catch-and-drive highlight Barnes' syngergy withSabonis, who can draw in defenses and make the right kick-outplays. It's important that Barnes can use his length, long stridesand touch to then attack space instead of settling because it oftenleads to higher-quality shots or extra-pass opportunities.