11-Year NBA Veteran Signs to Play in Spain

An 11-year NBA veteran, the 33-year-old Barton played 40 games for the Washington Wizards and 16 games for the Toronto Raptors in the 2022-23 season. No NBA team signed him for the current season.

Barton had actually signed a little over a month ago to play in Russia but never did due to failed medical tests.

11-Year NBA Veteran Signs to Play in Spain

Barton was a Solid Scorer Both as a Reserve and Starter in the NBA

Barton was drafted 40th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers out of Memphis. He played about 2.5 seasons for Portland before he was traded to the Denver Nuggets. Barton played 28 games for Denver in 2014-15 and was on the team for each of the next seven seasons until 2021-22.

The six-five guard/forward proved to be a good scorer in the league, especially with the Nuggets. Barton played 479 games with the Nuggets, 279 with him in the starting lineup. At the beginning of his Denver tenure, he was mostly used as a reserve. Twice, he finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting and also had a fifth-place finish in Most Improved Player voting in 2015-16. He averaged at least 12.7 points each season with the Nuggets and had a career-high of 15.7 in 2017-18. That same season, Barton also reached his career-high of 37 points on November 30 against the Chicago Bulls. He mostly was a full-time starter from the 2018-19 until the 2021-22 season.

For his career, Barton played in 679 NBA regular season games (286 starts). In 25.2 minutes per contest, he has career averages of 11.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.7 assists. He has shot 43.0% from the field, 35.5% on three-point tries, and 78.7% from the free-throw line. More than two-thirds of his career games are with the Nuggets (479 of 679).

Disappointing 2022-23 Season for Barton

On July 6, 2022, Barton was traded along with Monte Morris to the Washington Wizards for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith. The trade proved to be beneficial for the Nuggets as Caldwell-Pope entered the starting lineup and the team won the NBA Championship. He didn’t even last the full season with Washington as he was waived by the team on February 21, 2023. He signed with the Raptors a week later where he finished the season.

In his 56 games with the two teams, his averages dipped to 6.8 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 17.7 minutes per outing. Barton connected on 37.9% of his field goal attempts, a career-low. It was his lowest scoring average since his first two seasons with the Trail Blazers in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Barton turned 33 years old on January 6. Perhaps a strong showing in Spain can give him another NBA opportunity next season.