Tar Heels in the pros: Fresh faces on new NBA rosters shine early in season

Now that the 2019-20 NBA season has been underway for about a month, several former Tar Heel basketball standouts have started to lay the foundation for solid campaigns through their first 10 or so games of the season.

Harrison Barnes

The Sacramento Kings had a rough start to the new season, losing their first five games by an average of 17 points per contest. Since then, the Kings are 4-1 with impressive wins over competitive teams like the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers.

Barnes joined Sacramento in a trade with the Dallas Mavericks during the back end of last season, and the eight-year NBA veteran has been a staple of Sacramento's recent success now that he's had an offseason to adjust to his new environment.

Over his last five games, Barnes has averaged 18 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 35.5 minutes of action. The small forward has also been shooting the ball nearly as well as he ever has in the pros, knocking down 48.3 percent of his attempts from the field and 42.3 percent from beyond the arc in that span.

The former Tar Heel had his best game of the year on Nov. 6, dropping a game-high 26 points in a four-point loss to the reigning NBA champion Toronto Raptors.

The Kings will travel to Los Angeles Friday for a matchup with the Lakers, a matchup that will pit Barnes against another former UNC player, Danny Green.

Danny Green

The last 16 months have been very kind to Green.

The shooting guard was traded from the San Antonio Spurs to the Raptors in July 2018, a move that paired him with Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam and Kawhi Leonard on a Toronto roster that would go on to win the franchise's first NBA title that season.

After earning the second ring of his career, Green moved for the second summer in a row in 2019, joining LeBron James, Anthony Davis and a Lakers squad that has started the season strong at 9-2.

Green opened the new year with a bang when the sharpshooter nailed seven of his nine 3-pointers against the Clippers en route to scoring 28 points during his first game for the Lakers, the most points in a debut for any player in the franchise's impressive history.

Outside of the season-opener, Green hasn't been one of the more noteworthy names in the Lakers' box scores this year. Adjusting to a new roster and having to share the rock with two of the most dominant players in the NBA has presented a challenge, but the former Tar Heel has proved his efficiency. Green has started every game this season and only finished with a negative plus/minus once.

Coby White

One of the biggest surprises leading up to the 2019 NBA draft was White's steady climb up mock draft boards. In his brief stint at North Carolina, White rose from a player many considered not worthy of a first-round draft pick to a top-10 lottery selection.

The No. 7 overall pick has been streaky in his outings off the bench for the Chicago Bulls during his rookie year. White racked up 42 points, nine assists and nine rebounds in his first two games for the Bulls, but only tallied 31 total points in his next five games.

His struggles caught the eye of his former coach at North Carolina, Roy Williams, to such an extent that Williams flew to Chicago to support White in person as the Bulls took on the Knicks.

With Williams in attendance, White erupted for 27 points and drained seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, a franchise record for most 3-pointers in a quarter and an NBA record for 3-pointers in a quarter by a rookie.

After the game, Williams joined White on the court during a postgame interview to embrace his former player because, as White said during the interview, "(their) relationship goes deeper than basketball."

@McMastersJ

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