Why Joe Lacob mentioned Harrison Barnes when praising Andrew Wiggins

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Andrew Wiggins was impressive in his first 12 games in a Warriors uniform.

The 25-year-old averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks, while shooting nearly 46 percent overall and just under 34 percent from 3-point range.

"Our coaching staff is very excited about Andrew and how he may fit here going forward," Warriors owner Joe Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on Thursday. "Very hard -- it's so hard -- to find wings right now in the NBA with good positional size and athleticism.

"He's a walking 20 points. He's gonna go out there and he's gonna get you 20 points in any game. He's capable of doing a lot more than that. But that's pretty good."

And then Lacob mentioned a former Warriors player that had to sign elsewhere once Kevin Durant decided to come to Golden State.

"When Harrison Barnes was with us -- and I loved Harrison, different kind of player a little bit -- but we would sit there and say, 'If we can just get him to get 20 points in a game it would really help,'" he said. "You know (you've got a) good chance to win a game if you got three guys scoring 20 in a game.

"And we needed that."

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Barnes averaged 10.1 points per game during Steve Kerr's first year at the helm in 2014-15, and then 11.7 points per game the following season.

Over the 2015 and 2016 NBA Playoffs combined, he scored 20 or more points only one time (Game 5 of the 2015 Western Conference finals against the Houston Rockets).

[RELATED: Lacob acknowledges Warriors could trade down in NBA draft]

Assuming the Warriors are fully healthy next season, it might be difficult for Wiggins to average 20 per game. It's probably more realistic to expect him to register 15 to 18 points per night, but on the best shooting percentages of his career.

Combine that with consistent defense and engagement and Golden State would be thrilled with those results.

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