Strange autumn-winter break obliges, TrashTalk is looking this year at… 74 individual profiles. Why 74? Oh, nothing to do with Haute-Savoie eh, despite the adoration of some for Sainte-Raclette, but rather because these analyzes will take us quietly towards 2021. Because yes, we can confirm it to you, this sordid year 2020 will soon affect its end, it was about time. Focus today on RJ Barrett, who discovered the joys of being a Knick.
If the Knicks dreamed of Zion Williamson, it was ultimately RJ Barrett who landed at Madison Square Garden via the third pick of the 2019 Draft. Basketball mecca, it’s beautiful, but the Knicks, let’s say that this is not the ideal franchise to start an NBA career in a good mood.
RJ Barrett has already experienced a lot in the space of his first NBA season, which is moreover incomplete due to COVID. Defeats, again and again, a coach and a president who jump, noises of corridors, movements of players, James Dolan… welcome to the Big Apple kid. In the midst of it all, the Duke-trained player offered some good and some not so good. There were very encouraging beginnings and attractive performances with in particular 13 games with more than 20 points in total, but also big air pockets., the kind of meeting where he ends up at 1/9 or 2/11 and we see that he is clearly still a rookie. This irregularity, characterized in particular by mediocre shooting percentages (40.2%, 32% at 3-pointers, and a poor 61.4% on free throws), ultimately worked against him when it came time to do the accounts, and the bad collective results of New York obviously did not help anything, nor its ten failed matches for a sore ankle. We remind you, RJ was not selected in one of the two All-Rookie Teams of the season, and this despite a line of stats that remains correct with 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2 , 6 assists and 1.0 steals on average in 30.4 minutes. He had to be content with the Rising Stars Challenge in Chicago last February, where he also finished top scorer. Snub or not, so Barrett made a mixed copy, but he still showed good maturity for a 19-year-old youngster in the New York spotlight. He makes the effort, he has a great potential to two-way player, after the results are what they are.
R.J. Barrett’s last game before the season ended: 26 points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals.
Was averaging 18.7 ppg on 45% shooting in March. Can’t wait to see the work he puts in the off-season. pic.twitter.com/L82XC29SqA
— New Era Knicks (@NewEraKnicks) May 7, 2020
His last performances just before the interruption of the season (18.7 points on average in March) can in any case give hope to Knicks fans for the future. A suite with a new coach, and a workforce that could be very different. RJ will now learn under the orders of Tom Thibodeau, already seduced by the Canadian. We can count on Thibs to push him to the maximum.
“I want him to focus on his progress. He’s a young player. The first step is to work. To work on the physical condition, on his shoot, there are a lot of things that he can do well ”declared Thibs via CUT.
It will be interesting to see how Thibodeau uses Barrett, and it will obviously depend on which pieces are lined up around the youngster. Sometimes used to lead by David Fizdale during his rookie campaign, RJ was not really helped by the team profile version 2019-20. When you are associated with players who are far from being references to the shoot and who like to monopolize the ball (hello Julius Randle), it does not make things easier knowing that RJ’s best offensive weapon is left hand penetration (which is his strong hand, well we believe). Suddenly, the Knicks will try to build better around the Canadian for next season in order to facilitate his development in the different phases of the game, in scoring as in playmaking. According to CUT, New York franchise now led by Leon Rose will consider complementarity with Barrett for each potential transaction (via the Free Agency, a transfer, or to the Draft). Proof that he’s seen as an important part of the Knicks’ rebuilding.
- Hype gauge upon arrival in the League: 75%
- Current Hype Gauge: 50%
- Hall of Fame entry level: 0.9%
- The one he would like to become: his godfather Steve Nash for the charts
- The one he hopes not to become: Andrew Wiggins for his record (and everything in between)
Entry into the NBA not easy for RJ Barrett, but the talent and the potential are obviously still there. He is one of the important pieces of the Knicks “project”, we just hope that they will not find a way to ruin his career.
