Rowan Barrett Jr., best 16 years old player in the World

[Stackey]

Really like his game

Watch on YouTube

[mojo13]

It's already solved:

Luka Dončić, number 1 of the draft 2018

Rowan Barrett Jr., number 1 of the draft 2019

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Barrett is going to be in the 2020 draft or 2021 even. He plays under his age which is always a warning flag (I remember hyping Shabazz to this day).

He just ripped apart the U19 World Championships, and he turned 17 a month ago.
He was playing guys two years older than him, yet you say he plays below his age?
Almost every Allstar game and elite camp the last couple years he has been one of the youngest players there (Nike Hoops Summit, Jordan Brand, Basketball Without Borders). He lead Montverde Academy one of the best high schools in the country this year as a sophomore. He was one of the leading scorers in the Nike EYBL this summer. Seems to me he is usually playing up - this ain't Shabazz and his lying Dad.

[jonjames]

Talk about hyperbole..hes definitely talented for his age but im not seeing sensational talent in him. For a kid his build he is kinda slow and lacks a quick jump around the basket. He's young but he doesn't possess any standout skill(shooting handles passing finishing ability) or athleticism right now. He looks like a michael kidd gilchrist level talent, a former #1 ranked player in his high school class.

[crows2]

Talk about hyperbole..hes definitely talented for his age but im not seeing sensational talent in him. For a kid his build he is kinda slow and lacks a quick jump around the basket. He's young but he doesn't possess any standout skill(shooting handles passing finishing ability) or athleticism right now. He looks like a michael kidd gilchrist level talent, a former #1 ranked player in his high school class.

It's not really hyperbole though. He just put up 38 points to beat Team USA and went on to win the U19 World Championship, so there's actual proof that he's clearly one of the best HS prospects in the world. Of course no one knows at this stage for sure whether he'll be successful in the NBA, but it's undeniable that he's a big-time prospect.

[GimmeDat]

*I'm going to preface by saying Barrett's a very good athlete - 6'8, long arms, very good athleticism, I'm not suggesting otherwise*

The kids all around game for his age is incredible, I think people are just put off by the good but not great athleticism - like Doncic, they don't look the part of an NBA superstar, even though the skill and feel for the game is leaps and bounds ahead of people their age or much older.

That's not to say Barrett isn't athletic, but when people talk about a player on such a crazy pedestal, the bar gets set so high in every possible metric.

Is it fair? Well if you're talking about an absolutely transcendent talent, then they probably do need to be a LBJ/Westbrook level athletic freak, but if you're looking at the bar of #1 picks, a player with the athletic ceiling of a Doncic/Barrett (not saying they're the same level athlete, just that neither are transcendent athletes) can easily live up to the 'star/1 option' hype. Guys like Booker, Hayward, Jokic, Harden, Draymond, Klay, LMA, Love, etc., as well as if you go back and look at guys like Manu, Bird, Pierce, and whoever else, you can have an exceptional ceiling without first tier explosive athleticism.

So it depends where your barometer is at. If you're on the lookout for the next LeBron, maybe your Barrett/Doncic's aren't your guy, but there's no way these guys can't be stars when so many of the aforementioned guys can have the level of success they've had.

[Peja Stojakovic]

i guarantee westbrook didn't look as freaky athletic at 17 as he did at 24 y/o. it takes time for players to grow into their bodies. it's hard to say what doncic or barrett will look like athletically when they have a couple years of strength training and plyometrics

[jonjames]

i guarantee westbrook didn't look as freaky athletic at 17 as he did at 24 y/o. it takes time for players to grow into their bodies. it's hard to say what doncic or barrett will look like athletically when they have a couple years of strength training and plyometrics

Most uber athletic players were already super athletic early on. Lebron Vince Zion Andrew Wiggins Dennis Smith jr etc. Westbrook is a freakish anomaly, a late bloomer who could barely dunk at that age 16-17 to now the most athletic player in the league. Barrett is athletic but hes not that kind of athlete.

[crazy_me_87]

Barrett, Bagley, and Williamson are somehow all the greatest prospect of all time.

Well Barrett is one of the most Well Rounded Kids we have seen in a long time.. gets compared to pre injuries Grant Hill and T-Mac
Bagley looks like a young KG
Zion looks like a more scoring/less Passing Version of Lebron.(Freak Athlete,Freight Train..)

IF(big IF) they reach their comparisons/ceilings they will be Generational Players.

No one can tell for sure if even one of them will reach their Potential.. yet all 3 have been reported to be relentless workers and ultra Competitive Kids.. Huge Talent + Great Work Ethic equals a low bust likelyhood.

[B-Ball Freak]

Canadas next big thing...hopefully he continues his awesome progression and becomes the 3rd Canadian to be picked number one overall.

[KobesScarf]

I like Carey better

[Ambrose]

I wouldn't make too much out of it until he is 17-18 years old ie/ look at how Seventh Woods is an after thought. Although one thing you can say for this kid is he does have legit height/measurements that SW lacks. Looks good so far, will obviously need to see in a year or so from now how his skill/development is coming along.

Also even as a Canadian I will say that I would be a reluctant to get to caught up in the hype when I believe Wiggins fell well short of expectations imo. Although AW should be a pretty damn good player in the league, he doesn't actually strike me as this MVP caliber/generational talent that everyone was dubbing him and now apparently they're starting with Rowan. Here's praying he does become that elite level player.

Most top prospects fall well short of the hype, not just those from Canada. That's because there's not one direction to go when you're considered a surefire superstar. Barnes,Mohammed, Randle, Parker, Okafor and Skai all fell varying degrees as well.

I love how you bundled Parker and Okafor together with Barnes, Shabazz and Randle. Okafor and Parker performed in college and are some of the better younger prospect. Okafor is the most underrated player in the league. Parker is the best prospect in his class. Clear agenda there.

Randle's development has stagnated in the NBA, but he was a solid college player. Barnes and Shabazz are massive busts relative to their high school ranking and NBA performances.

Regardless, you point is true. When you are the top, there is only one direction to go.

Compared to his high school hype yeah but compared to his draft position Barnes has been well worth the 7th pick. Certainly a much better player than Okafor.

[CptCrunch]

Most top prospects fall well short of the hype, not just those from Canada. That's because there's not one direction to go when you're considered a surefire superstar. Barnes,Mohammed, Randle, Parker, Okafor and Skai all fell varying degrees as well.

I love how you bundled Parker and Okafor together with Barnes, Shabazz and Randle. Okafor and Parker performed in college and are some of the better younger prospect. Okafor is the most underrated player in the league. Parker is the best prospect in his class. Clear agenda there.

Randle's development has stagnated in the NBA, but he was a solid college player. Barnes and Shabazz are massive busts relative to their high school ranking and NBA performances.

Regardless, you point is true. When you are the top, there is only one direction to go.

Compared to his high school hype yeah but compared to his draft position Barnes has been well worth the 7th pick. Certainly a much better player than Okafor.

Okafor is the most mistreated and most demonized young prospect in the league. In his rookie year, he put up 18/8 with no point guard while being double teamed every single game, including his first possession in his first game. In his second year, he was set aside in favor of Embiid.

Once Okafor gets his release from the 76ers, he will become a star. I really hope the 76ers don't extend Okafor his QO. The 76ers fan-base harbors an unjustified and vitriolic hatred toward him.

Fun fact: People like to ding Okafor for not playing defense, but statistically according to both Synergy camera stats and RPM stats, he is a more effective defender than Towns. Towns is actually statistically the worst defender in the league at the center position.

[Ambrose]

I love how you bundled Parker and Okafor together with Barnes, Shabazz and Randle. Okafor and Parker performed in college and are some of the better younger prospect. Okafor is the most underrated player in the league. Parker is the best prospect in his class. Clear agenda there.

Randle's development has stagnated in the NBA, but he was a solid college player. Barnes and Shabazz are massive busts relative to their high school ranking and NBA performances.

Regardless, you point is true. When you are the top, there is only one direction to go.

Compared to his high school hype yeah but compared to his draft position Barnes has been well worth the 7th pick. Certainly a much better player than Okafor.

Okafor is the most mistreated and most demonized young prospect in the league. In his rookie year, he put up 18/8 with no point guard while being double teamed every single game, including his first possession in his first game. In his second year, he was set aside in favor of Embiid.

Once Okafor gets his release from the 76ers, he will become a star. I really hope the 76ers don't extend Okafor his QO. The 76ers fan-base harbors an unjustified and vitriolic hatred toward him.

Fun fact: People like to ding Okafor for not playing defense, but statistically according to both Synergy camera stats and RPM stats, he is a more effective defender than Towns. Towns is actually statistically the worst defender in the league at the center position.

I'm really hoping you're not trying to use this as a legitimate argument. That's a one way ticket to losing any credibility you may have had. Okafor is without question the worst defensive big in the NBA.

[CptCrunch]

Compared to his high school hype yeah but compared to his draft position Barnes has been well worth the 7th pick. Certainly a much better player than Okafor.

Okafor is the most mistreated and most demonized young prospect in the league. In his rookie year, he put up 18/8 with no point guard while being double teamed every single game, including his first possession in his first game. In his second year, he was set aside in favor of Embiid.

Once Okafor gets his release from the 76ers, he will become a star. I really hope the 76ers don't extend Okafor his QO. The 76ers fan-base harbors an unjustified and vitriolic hatred toward him.

Fun fact: People like to ding Okafor for not playing defense, but statistically according to both Synergy camera stats and RPM stats, he is a more effective defender than Towns. Towns is actually statistically the worst defender in the league at the center position.

I'm really hoping you're not trying to use this as a legitimate argument. That's a one way ticket to losing any credibility you may have had. Okafor is without question the worst defensive big in the NBA.

That is your unsubstantiated opinion. There is actual stats indicating that Towns is by far the worst.

[Ambrose]

Okafor is the most mistreated and most demonized young prospect in the league. In his rookie year, he put up 18/8 with no point guard while being double teamed every single game, including his first possession in his first game. In his second year, he was set aside in favor of Embiid.

Once Okafor gets his release from the 76ers, he will become a star. I really hope the 76ers don't extend Okafor his QO. The 76ers fan-base harbors an unjustified and vitriolic hatred toward him.

Fun fact: People like to ding Okafor for not playing defense, but statistically according to both Synergy camera stats and RPM stats, he is a more effective defender than Towns. Towns is actually statistically the worst defender in the league at the center position.

I'm really hoping you're not trying to use this as a legitimate argument. That's a one way ticket to losing any credibility you may have had. Okafor is without question the worst defensive big in the NBA.

That is your unsubstantiated opinion. There is actual stats indicating that Towns is by far the worst.

There are actual stats substantiating Jahlil Okafor is a huge net negative player. Hasn't stopped you from calling him a star.

[CptCrunch]

I'm really hoping you're not trying to use this as a legitimate argument. That's a one way ticket to losing any credibility you may have had. Okafor is without question the worst defensive big in the NBA.

That is your unsubstantiated opinion. There is actual stats indicating that Towns is by far the worst.

There are actual stats substantiating Jahlil Okafor is a huge net negative player. Hasn't stopped you from calling him a star.

Hey Jahill is very negative on defense. He is not a plug and play garbage man. You need to run some sets for him in your offense. Every point of statistical evidence points to Towns being a less effective defender. You can claim otherwise but the numbers on NBA.com's dashboards and ESPN's RPM pages.

[Ambrose]

That is your unsubstantiated opinion. There is actual stats indicating that Towns is by far the worst.

There are actual stats substantiating Jahlil Okafor is a huge net negative player. Hasn't stopped you from calling him a star.

Hey Jahill is very negative on defense. He is not a plug and play garbage man. You need to run some sets for him in your offense. Every point of statistical evidence points to Towns being a less effective defender. You can claim otherwise but the numbers on NBA.com's dashboards and ESPN's RPM pages.

I mean I'll let you know when nba.com and RPM start mattering to me but I don't anticipate it'll be soon. I stopped trusting advanced/impact stats as soon as i started actually using them in person. I don't dislike Okafor, the main point I was originally trying to make is Barnes is a good NBA player.

[jonjames]

I love how you bundled Parker and Okafor together with Barnes, Shabazz and Randle. Okafor and Parker performed in college and are some of the better younger prospect. Okafor is the most underrated player in the league. Parker is the best prospect in his class. Clear agenda there.

Randle's development has stagnated in the NBA, but he was a solid college player. Barnes and Shabazz are massive busts relative to their high school ranking and NBA performances.

Regardless, you point is true. When you are the top, there is only one direction to go.

Compared to his high school hype yeah but compared to his draft position Barnes has been well worth the 7th pick. Certainly a much better player than Okafor.

Okafor is the most mistreated and most demonized young prospect in the league. In his rookie year, he put up 18/8 with no point guard while being double teamed every single game, including his first possession in his first game. In his second year, he was set aside in favor of Embiid.

Once Okafor gets his release from the 76ers, he will become a star. I really hope the 76ers don't extend Okafor his QO. The 76ers fan-base harbors an unjustified and vitriolic hatred toward him.

Fun fact: People like to ding Okafor for not playing defense, but statistically according to both Synergy camera stats and RPM stats, he is a more effective defender than Towns. Towns is actually statistically the worst defender in the league at the center position.

The sixers did this kid dirty last season they pretty much blackballed him partly due to emergence of joel embiid and the other due to his own doing with his crappy attitude and blase demeanor on defense. After tge jersey dropping and outside fifht incident he lost favor in the eye of the fan base and the nba public real quick. Unfortunately there are some think hes straight trash but imo theres no question the kid is offensively gifted and many nba teams could use player like him. For his own sake i hope the sixers trade him next season where he can start off on clean slate and rebuild his image.

[Johnny Firpo]

Is he similar to Ben Simmons? Big guy for his position, also a lefty, elite passing? How do they compare?

[GimmeDat]

Is he similar to Ben Simmons? Big guy for his position, also a lefty, elite passing? How do they compare?

Ben's a PF (albeit point-forward), Barrett seems like a more conventional wing prospect. Barrett's a good passer but it's not on a prolific level like Simmons, and Barretts got a jumper and generally just more advanced scoring game. I don't think there's much of a comparison there other than that they're both great prospects.