Brian Wright’s tenure as the San Antonio Spurs General Manager has been controversial. Fans have debated whether he’s drafted or acquired the talent necessary to win in the NBA. Despite the noise this summer, the early returns of Wright’s offseason show it might have been one of the best in the NBA. New additions like Chris Paul, Stephon Castle, and Harrison Barnes have all been key to the Spurs early season successes that have them two games above .500 heading into December.

Barnes, specifically, has been a revolution for the Spurs and one of the best acquisitions for any team in the NBA. San Antonio got Barnes (and a 2031 first-round pick swap) from the Sacramento Kings in a three-way trade that sent RaiQuan Gray to the Chicago Bulls and DeMar DeRozan to the Kings. What some had called the DeRozan trade may be thought of as the Barnes deal after the season he’s having in San Antonio.

The 13-year veteran wing won his first NBA Player of the Week award on November 25th. He’s averaging 11.3 points and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 51.1% from the field and 43.1% from deep. Barnes has plugged into the starting lineup seamlessly and has been a major part of the Spurs’ offense, jumping from one of the worst in the league to an average NBA offensive attack.

Barnes has helped the Spurs tremendously by just knowing where to be on the court. Obviously, San Antonio needed a floor spacer, and having a 43% three-point shooter play the four next to Victor Wembanyama has been huge, but it’s his positioning in the offense that has really unlocked things. Barnes is a savvy veteran whose cutting has come up big on multiple occasions for San Antonio.

The synergy between Wembanyana and Barnes has been great all year. In their 303 minutes together, Barnes and Wembanyama are a +9.3 in net rating with a 114.1 offensive rating, which is the second most efficient two-man lineup (behind Paul and Wemby) that has played more than 300 minutes. The eye test backs it up, too. Wembanyama draws the attention of the defense any time he has the ball in his hands (duh.) When that happens, Barnes has the knowhow to find the soft spot in the defense and score from there. He and Wemby diced up the Warriors late in the game last week to pull away in the fourth quarter, and it was all done on smart cuts from Barnes while the defense focused on Victor.

That positional awareness hasn’t just led to scoring opportunities, but created more opportunities on the offensive glass. There is nothing more crushing than a player swooping in to grab an offensive board. Barnes isn’t necessarily banging around down low, but he’s reading the ball off of the rim and putting himself in position to create an extra opportunity. He has a career-high 1.9 offensive rebounds per game.

His IQ has jumped off the page when he’s off the ball, but Barnes is legitimately getting buckets with the ball in his hands. He’s shooting a great percentage from deep, mostly on catch and shoot opportunities, but every once in awhile he will hit a difficult shot off the dribble from deep. He’s been fantastic around the rim, shooting 70% from 0-3 feet away from the basket. Barnes has been impressive with a collection of moves around the hoop, especially his slow step, where he gets the defense to leave their feet before he goes up for the shot. His bag around the basket goes far deeper than many realized before he joined the Silver and Black.

All of that has translated to other players on the floor. The Spurs are moving the ball and cutting better than they did last season. As a whole, there has been an emphasis on player movement and making the right pass at the right time. I’m not saying Barnes is the sole reason we are seeing that, but he’s leading by example with a young team. San Antonio needed veteran leadership – Barnes and Paul are providing it in spades.

Barnes has been a perfect fit with the Spurs. Not only that, but he’s an affordable role player at $18M this season, and $19M next year. As San Antonio looks to fill out this roster moving forward, they can likely pencil Barnes in as a solid role player, at the very least moving forward. Wright nailed this trade, and got a pick swap out of the deal that could be valuable as the Spurs are in the prime years of Wembanyama’s career. It’s early, but so far it’s hard to find many players that have been more impactful for their new team than Barnes.