Originally Posted by
luvdahops
I don't think anyone views Barnes as having unlimited upside and potential anymore. General view is that he is a good but not great athlete who lacks the quickness and explosiveness to be dominant, even at the college level, but is a top tier shooter, especially for his size. From an NBA standpoint, he is seen as someone with a fairly low ceiling, but also limited downside - you know what you are getting, and it is a skill set that is immediately useful for many teams, which is not the case with a lot of other top prospects.
In hindsight, it seems very odd to me that HB was ever viewed as having such a high ceiling. The fact that he is not a great athlete, especially in terms of quickness, was obvious to me from the first time I saw him play, yet the ESPN, etc. party line remained "potential next Kobe" well past the time it was obvious that would never be the case.