Darren Erman's work with Harrison Barnes

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Barnes just wanted to get some shots up the evening before his pre-draft workout with the Warriors. When he arrived at the practice facility in Oakland, Darren Erman, then a Warriors assistant, stopped Barnes before he released his first jumper. Erman told Barnes he rated as the worst defensive player in the draft, according to Synergy Sports. At North Carolina, his focus had been on grooming his offense. Defense became an afterthought. “We’ve got Richard Jefferson here and Brandon Rush,” Erman told him. “You’re not going to play until you learn how to play defense.” Instead of shooting, Barnes guarded Joe Boylan, an assistant coach who had played at Division III Emerson. Erman didn’t know Barnes well at the time, but he sensed that Barnes responded well to challenges placed in front of him. At one point during the session, Erman criticized Barnes for possessing elite jumping ability but not enough fire to challenge a much lesser athlete’s shot. Barnes said nothing. On the next sequence, Barnes blocked Boylan’s shot and it landed two basketball courts away. The Warriors selected Barnes seventh overall in the 2012 NBA draft.

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Erman figures that Barnes probably hated him during his first month in Golden State. “Look, you don’t play hard all the time,” Erman told Barnes. “If you’re a hard-playing guy, it’s black-or-white. If you play hard for one game and don’t play hard for four games, you’re not a hard-playing guy. Just like if you shoot the ball well for one game, but don’t shoot the ball well for four games, you’re not a good shooter.” But their relationship improved as the two continued working on Barnes’s defense, shooting, and ballhandling. They watched film together after every game. Erman would push Barnes’s buttons by telling him he’d trade Barnes for Kawhi Leonard or Chandler Parsons if he could. “He was driven, focused on what he wanted,” Erman said. “But oftentimes, [he] just needed a little bit of a path to get there. He needed a little guidance on defense or [to] always play hard. But once you pointed it out to him and you watched it on film, he got it. By the middle of his rookie year, he was a really hard-playing guy. You watch him now, he doesn’t die on screens. He pursues the ball. These are things he was willing to work on.” Barnes started 81 games as a rookie, averaging 9.2 points and 4.1 rebounds. He played his best basketball of the season when it mattered most — in the Warriors’ impressive losing effort to the Finals-bound Spurs.

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