J.J. Barea fits the mold of a guy who is going to get overpaid on his next contract based on his playoff performance right before he became a free agent.
Barea was a spark off the bench for the Mavericks on their run to a title, averaging 8.9 points per game in the post season. Mavs coach Rick Carlisle used him brilliantly — running him off high picks while big men who can shoot spread the floor, forcing opposing big men to make a choice between stopping Barea or giving up an open jumper. The Lakers Andrew Bynum got frustrated having to make that choice play after play in Game 4 and as a result Bynum will miss the first five games of next season (whenever that is).
Other teams will not use him as wisely, and maybe Barea knows that. He told ESPN Dallas he expects to return to Dallas.“If you want to go by percentages, I think 75 percent I’ll be back in Dallas and 25 percent something else happens,” Barea said, now back home in Puerto Rico after a bid to qualify for the 2012 Olympics fell painfully short with a semifinals loss to host country Argentina at the FIBA Americas Tournament. "... My first option is going to be Dallas....
“I’d probably have to be blown away by a deal to go somewhere else,” Barea said. “The team we have in Dallas, if we keep it together, I don’t mind coming off the bench and starting sometimes and doing what we have to do to win. The team we had last year was incredible. If I go somewhere else, if I’m going to start, that’s not really going to be part of the decision-making.”Barea normally would be the guy some GM would fall in love with and would blow away with an oversized offer. We’ll see if the lockout and the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (whatever it looks like) changes that.
