Ranking all of Steph’s teammates: #40 — Matt Barnes

During his time with the Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry has had 106 teammates who have appeared in at least one game. Some played in exactly one game, while others played in hundreds. Some never actually played in a game that Curry was active for, while others formed historically great partnerships with him.

And I’m ranking all 106 of them before a new season starts and he adds to the tally. Better get a move on.

Players are ranked — and stats are shown — based only on their time as Curry’s teammate. How good/bad they were in other organizations doesn’t matter. How good/bad they were on pre-2009-10 Warriors teams doesn’t matter.

#40 — Matt Barnes

Photo by MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images

Games: 20 (80th out of 106)
Points per game: 5.7 (T-49th out of 106)
Rebounds per game: 4.6 (T-21st out of 106)
Assists per game: 2.3 (T-22nd out of 106)

If you’ve been closely following this series then you’re probably getting tired of this disclaimer, but it’s especially important with Matt Barnes: I am only grading players based on the time in their Warriors career that overlapped with Steph Curry.

Which means that Barnes breaking onto the scene in 2006-07 to be a core member of the We Believe Warriors isn’t included, nor is his exceptional 2007-08 season.

Instead, we’re left with 20 regular season games and 12 playoff games a decade after the We Believe team, when Barnes was signed to help fill a hole left by a Kevin Durant injury.

He filled it pretty decently. He scored with good efficiency, even if he was a rather one-dimensional offensive player who graded out poorly on the advanced metrics. He rebounded the heck out of the basketball, and defended well across multiple positions. He was a leader, a glue guy who had all the intangibles, and a tough presence on a Warriors team that took everyone’s best shots every night.

And in his final NBA season, a decade after first joining the Warriors, he finally got the ring he deserved.