Harrison Barnes to make his season debut against Toronto

According to The Athletic’s Tim Cato, Harrison Barnes will make his season debut tonight against the Toronto Raptors.

This injury was announced back on September 27th and has lingered on for nearly a month. Barnes missed the entire preseason and has now missed the first four regular season games for the Mavericks.

In his absence Dorian Finney-Smith stepped into a starting role and performed well as a starter. This season Finney-Smith has averaged around 30 minutes per game, except in the game against the Bulls where he played nearly 40 minutes.

Finney-Smith shot 6-15 beyond the arc in the first three games before going 0-4 in Atlanta. During this stretch without Barnes, the lack of wing depth on this team has been exposed. Carlisle still doesn’t trust Ryan Broekhoff enough to play him more than four minutes a game, which leaves Wesley Matthews, Luka Doncic, and Dorian Finney-Smith as the only three wing players logging significant minutes.

With the Mavs leading scorer from last season out Wesley Matthews has taken it upon himself to step out of his role as a floor spacing catch-and-shoot guy, as seen when he took 21 shots in the loss against the Hawks.

Harrison Barnes will be limited in his debut, but his presence on the court will hopefully have a stabilizing influence on the team coming off an embarrassing loss. This team will be glad to have Barnes back on the court, no matter how many minutes he plays.