Official RJ Barrett Thread

[YogurtProducer]

I don't think anyone is disputing that RJ is playing well. I think the question of his fit on a team with Scottie and IQ still remains. Even without IQ, Barrett and Barnes are a weird fit together.

With that said, I hope he continues to play well and develop his game. He may be the trade piece that gets us the missing piece down the line. He's definitely not the the negative value contract many made him out to be when the trade happened to this point.

They are a weirder fit defensively than offensively.

[ForeverTFC]

I don't think anyone is disputing that RJ is playing well. I think the question of his fit on a team with Scottie and IQ still remains. Even without IQ, Barrett and Barnes are a weird fit together.

With that said, I hope he continues to play well and develop his game. He may be the trade piece that gets us the missing piece down the line. He's definitely not the the negative value contract many made him out to be when the trade happened to this point.

Interesting, I actually think RJ fits quite well with Barnes. We've been desperately missing a slashing wing. I'm less confident RJ keeps shooting 3s at the rate he is, but that has also been a good complement next to Barnes.

Much less obvious, but I also think Barnes needs to someone to help be a leader within the team. We've seen flashes of this with both IQ and RJ, and I think it will help tremendously if it is not Barnes taking the brunt of the media onslaught every time we loose a game. We also need someone to help keep focus on the court, and I think RJ has also been helping with that.

I agree that his off the court/intangibles has been a perfect fit. It's the on-court stuff that I'm more so foucsed on: he's been a bad shooter over his career, an ok cutter, and a subpar passer/creator for others. At least that's been my impression of him over his career. And that's generally the type of player you don't want on a team centered around Barnes.

Maybe I'm wrong.

[LoveMyRaps]

He's very 1 dimensional, unless he really develops other parts of his game in a short period of time, I don't think he's a long term solution for anything. He's in his 5th year, substantial improvement is not a given, just because he's young.

Substantial improvement such as going from 18/4/2 54TS% to 21/6/4 62TS% post-trade to TO?

"RJ has rim play thats it"

Shooting 42% from behind the arc on about 4 attempts per game.

[YogurtProducer]

He's very 1 dimensional, unless he really develops other parts of his game in a short period of time, I don't think he's a long term solution for anything. He's in his 5th year, substantial improvement is not a given, just because he's young.

Substantial improvement such as going from 18/4/2 54TS% to 21/6/4 62TS% post-trade to TO?

"RJ has rim play thats it"

Shooting 42% from behind the arc on about 4 attempts per game.

Also has been throwing out 3.8APG (career high). And would be 6th in the league in TS% amongst "SGs" on basketball refernce (45th-ish overall).

[YogurtProducer]

I don't think anyone is disputing that RJ is playing well. I think the question of his fit on a team with Scottie and IQ still remains. Even without IQ, Barrett and Barnes are a weird fit together.

With that said, I hope he continues to play well and develop his game. He may be the trade piece that gets us the missing piece down the line. He's definitely not the the negative value contract many made him out to be when the trade happened to this point.

Interesting, I actually think RJ fits quite well with Barnes. We've been desperately missing a slashing wing. I'm less confident RJ keeps shooting 3s at the rate he is, but that has also been a good complement next to Barnes.

Much less obvious, but I also think Barnes needs to someone to help be a leader within the team. We've seen flashes of this with both IQ and RJ, and I think it will help tremendously if it is not Barnes taking the brunt of the media onslaught every time we loose a game. We also need someone to help keep focus on the court, and I think RJ has also been helping with that.

I agree that his off the court/intangibles has been a perfect fit. It's the on-court stuff that I'm more so foucsed on: he's been a bad shooter over his career, an ok cutter, and a subpar passer/creator for others. At least that's been my impression of him over his career. And that's generally the type of player you don't want on a team centered around Barnes.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Baring more improvement, he probably is a 6th man at his best anyways where fit is less important

[vini_vidi_vici]

This yr with the Knicks he was in the 82nd percentile in unguarded C&S Js.

Spoiler:

Now the reason thats important is because of all his Js, that was only 39% of them.

As a Rap 54% of his Js are unguarded C&Ss, and hes knocking them down in the 60th percentile. Despite the PPP down, its buoyed by the volume of good vs bad shots. If like I presume the Raps did, and took those awful creation 3s, and encouraged more wide open variety, hes not a bad shooter. I also think our offenses even in the HC are much different, and him being miscast as a PnR guy hurt him, instead of a triple threat above the break guy.

I felt it was a good fit from the stand point, the Knicks were awful at putting him in those spots. Oddly I thought the biggest boon to the team would be through D (he was good as a NYK this yr, 68th percentile), and transition offense (he was in the 83rd percentile). That was clearly wrong.

[LoveMyRaps]

Substantial improvement such as going from 18/4/2 54TS% to 21/6/4 62TS% post-trade to TO?

"RJ has rim play thats it"

Shooting 42% from behind the arc on about 4 attempts per game.

Also has been throwing out 3.8APG (career high). And would be 6th in the league in TS% amongst "SGs" on basketball refernce (45th-ish overall).

Scase clearly isn't an RJ fan

I see a lot of similarities with how people reacted after we got McDaniels, and I see a lot of people who will be disappointed again.

[Scase]

He's very 1 dimensional, unless he really develops other parts of his game in a short period of time, I don't think he's a long term solution for anything. He's in his 5th year, substantial improvement is not a given, just because he's young.

Substantial improvement such as going from 18/4/2 54TS% to 21/6/4 62TS% post-trade to TO?

"RJ has rim play thats it"

Shooting 42% from behind the arc on about 4 attempts per game.

34.7% on about 5 attempts per game. I'd rather a sample size of 323 games over 26.

[Scase]

"RJ has rim play thats it"

Shooting 42% from behind the arc on about 4 attempts per game.

Also has been throwing out 3.8APG (career high). And would be 6th in the league in TS% amongst "SGs" on basketball refernce (45th-ish overall).

Scase clearly isn't an RJ fan

I see a lot of similarities with how people reacted after we got McDaniels, and I see a lot of people who will be disappointed again.

No, I'm just realistic.

He's played much better here than previously, but I'm not about to go all Bargs on him and assume because he's stitched together some good games, he's all of a sudden a 60% TS% and 42% 3pt shooter.

[YogurtProducer]

Substantial improvement such as going from 18/4/2 54TS% to 21/6/4 62TS% post-trade to TO?

"RJ has rim play thats it"

Shooting 42% from behind the arc on about 4 attempts per game.

34.7% on about 5 attempts per game. I'd rather a sample size of 323 games over 26.

Why this energy for RJ but not for Scottie (or Siakam) earlier in the year?

So obviously biased based on whether or not you like the player

[Vampirate]

Also has been throwing out 3.8APG (career high). And would be 6th in the league in TS% amongst "SGs" on basketball refernce (45th-ish overall).

Scase clearly isn't an RJ fan

I see a lot of similarities with how people reacted after we got McDaniels, and I see a lot of people who will be disappointed again.

No, I'm just realistic.

He's played much better here than previously, but I'm not about to go all Bargs on him and assume because he's stitched together some good games, he's all of a sudden a 60% TS% and 42% 3pt shooter.

He obviously won't repeat 55/42 but next year he should be better than the 57% FT he's currently at with us.

Some regression both ways.

[Scase]

Scase clearly isn't an RJ fan

No, I'm just realistic.

He's played much better here than previously, but I'm not about to go all Bargs on him and assume because he's stitched together some good games, he's all of a sudden a 60% TS% and 42% 3pt shooter.

He obviously won't repeat 55/42 but next year he should be better than the 57% FT he's currently at with us.

Some regression both ways.

I don't think he's as good as he is showing, nor do I think he's as inefficient as he was on the Knicks. System (clearly) plays a huge part in his game, so I expect him to settle somewhere in the middle which is fine.

I just dont think RJs game lends itself to being a 2nd or 3rd option on a successful team. My hope is that he improves enough for us to flip him for something better.

[raptorforlife88]

I don't know what the Knicks were doing with his development, but I think it's fairly clear they didn't really understand how to use him.

He's not only been significantly more efficient, but he's been a much much better and willing passer than his NY numbers would have indicated.

[HKBOY]

26/7/9 on 50/33/100 with 4 starters down.

He is a mid range away from being an all star wing.

[BillNyeBballGuy]

We pretty much got our Demar DeRozan back

[BillNyeBballGuy]

We pretty much got our Demar DeRozan back

Keep building up his trade value and look for the next Kawhi Leonard trade in a few years

[mtcan]

His relentlessness and insistence on going to the basket is really refreshing. He's like Giannis without the freakish measurements and athleticism and Zion without the massive 300 pound frame.

[Basketball_Jones]

We’re just using him a lot differently here. I haven’t seen a single dribble step back 3 from him it’s all been catch and shoot. He’s finishing better as I’m presuming the left side isn’t jammed with Randle and Brunson there. The biggest change for me has been the bone head decision making. It’s been way down from what he used to do with the Knicks. Or even the first few games with the raptors he had some awful tunnel vision in crunch time. Not sure how he just got rid of that almost completely but it’s extremely impressive.

[DelAbbot]

We pretty much got our Demar DeRozan back

Damn, those guys are about to be proven right with the 2015-2019 rebuild blueprint.

[brownbobcat]

His relentlessness and insistence on going to the basket is really refreshing. He's like Giannis without the freakish measurements and athleticism and Zion without the massive 300 pound frame.

I like the aggression, but you also wonder how well that bodes for the future if he doesn't have the freak athleticism to finish. You either need that or great touch.