RJ Barrett is Criminally Underrated

[GLF]

I know you think Scottie should be like 4th on the team in shot attempts based on your many posts about him lol but I can assure you there is no way in hell RJ will be ahead of him in the pecking order. Right or wrong. RJ may not even be apart of this team’s future. They will not prioritize him over Scottie.

I very much believe that to be true, yes.

I shouldn't have said "pecking order," I should have said "how they will be used." Like, what types of sets are run for them, what kinds of shots they are getting, etc. Because you're right, for good or for ill, the team does seem to be all in on Scottie being a relevant scoring threat.

Okay yea that makes sense. I agree, I am very interested to see that as well. A lot of things to look forward to this upcoming season

[tsherkin]

A lot of things to look forward to this upcoming season

Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic about the season. Even 60 games of BI should make a pretty big difference for us, and then having Quick back and whomever we draft and maybe some improvement from Gradey. Keen to see what comes of Agbaji, Mogbo, Walter, etc. Very much into cheering for wins again, that alone makes it a much more compelling season.

[Westside Gunn]

I think you guys are getting too fixated to this 2nd 3rd 4th option thing.

We have a lot of potential with the starting lineup, a lot of potential growth coming from Quickley, Barnes, Barrett and Ingram.

All of them are unknown to be that true first option like we had with Kawhi, but when Kawhi took over, you had others that contributed. With this unit, it may be possible that Ingram is that guy, or it can be a possibility some of them will have medicore nights which will force others to pick up the slack. And who knows all 4 of them provide the balanced attack to decimate teams

This is a good thing to have.

[canz55]

Nobody is underrating RJ. He is simply the odd man out. The current starting lineup of: Poeltl, Barnes, RJ, BI and IQ will not work. Poeltl, Barnes, BI and IQ are set in stone. RJ is the only one that can be replaced, for example a defensive player.

RJ is our only rim pressure wing though...

I don't see how he's the odd man out at all.

[dballislife]

there are many players in nba that literally mainly only take 3s, so they better shoot it in the high 30s at least...but rj is a downhill bucket getter, so many times a game a see rj get into the paint and score and im like all season, how come scottie cant do that more often? why cant he?

rj also passes it and creates well so considering the 3 ball is his 3rd option...shooting 35% on 5 attempts is good because theres very good, great, and elite, which it obviously aint but good is good like omg if scottie shot that i would wet myself happy

[tsherkin]

This is a good thing to have.

It's a thing, and we'll see how it plays out. The worry is that we haven't seen Ingram playing at that AS level for half a decade, so there's no guarantee he's going to come here and do that. Which would mean we're looking at 3 or 4 league-average efficiency (or lower) guys running the volume component of our offense. That would not be that good, all told.

The hope, of course, is that BI plays really well, and that the spacing from having a bunch of shooters on the floor (AT LAST!) coupled to the lower level of shooting volume burden on RJ's and Scottie's shoulders will help them focus more on their best options and help them play better, right? And then that our roleplayers will dig in and look good around what the main guys are creating.

It's very much a question, but there's certainly room for some optimism. Having BI along and Quick healthy should be pretty big for us, regardless of how we distribute our shots. That's two guys shooting 36, 37% from 3 in volume, threats from above the break, that's a major positive for our crap offense which was 23rd in 3P%, you know? And hopefully, they'll be taking away some of those ATB 3s Scottie was taking, which has its own benefit, and maybe freeing Scottie up to work from some different spaces which are more suited to what he can do. That'd also be nice.

[CPT]

The civility in this thread is making me want to buy an RJ jersey.

If he puts up 20/5/5 on 58%TS and the Raptors are over .500, I’ll do it!

[tsherkin]

The civility in this thread is making me want to buy an RJ jersey.

If he puts up 20/5/5 on 58%TS and the Raptors are over .500, I’ll do it!

I will do the same.

[ConSarnit]

there are many players in nba that literally mainly only take 3s, so they better shoot it in the high 30s at least...but rj is a downhill bucket getter, so many times a game a see rj get into the paint and score and im like all season, how come scottie cant do that more often? why cant he?

rj also passes it and creates well so considering the 3 ball is his 3rd option...shooting 35% on 5 attempts is good because theres very good, great, and elite, which it obviously aint but good is good like omg if scottie shot that i would wet myself happy

He’s not good at 3pt shooting. Why is this getting upvoted?

Per36 stats:

RJ: 35%, 5.9 3pa

League Average SG: 37%, 7.2 3pa

So not only is RJ a below average 3pt shooter, he is also a below average volume 3pt shooter for his position.

Please stop saying RJ is a good 3pt shooter. He has positive traits you can cite. You don’t need to lie to try and improve your argument.

[tsherkin]

Please stop saying RJ is a good 3pt shooter. He has positive traits you can cite. You don’t need to lie to try and improve your argument.

He is an above-average corner 3pt shooter, is the correct way to phrase it, because that is true enough. ATB, different story, but corner 3s are still valuable.

[YogurtProducer]

The civility in this thread is making me want to buy an RJ jersey.

If he puts up 20/5/5 on 58%TS and the Raptors are over .500, I’ll do it!

I think those numbers ar every much a possibility. His late 2024 run has my hopes high that in a scaled down role he could be quite efficient

[YogurtProducer]

there are many players in nba that literally mainly only take 3s, so they better shoot it in the high 30s at least...but rj is a downhill bucket getter, so many times a game a see rj get into the paint and score and im like all season, how come scottie cant do that more often? why cant he?

rj also passes it and creates well so considering the 3 ball is his 3rd option...shooting 35% on 5 attempts is good because theres very good, great, and elite, which it obviously aint but good is good like omg if scottie shot that i would wet myself happy

He’s not good at 3pt shooting. Why is this getting upvoted?

Per36 stats:

RJ: 35%, 5.9 3pa

League Average SG: 37%, 7.2 3pa

So not only is RJ a below average 3pt shooter, he is also a below average volume 3pt shooter for his position.

Please stop saying RJ is a good 3pt shooter. He has positive traits you can cite. You don’t need to lie to try and improve your argument.

Because you can’t look at the average %’s to determine anything %’s are skewed high by the elite players who shoot more. Bad shooters don’t shoot.

A guy shooting 40% on 9 shots a game and another shooting 20% on 1 shot per game has an average of 38%.

[OhCanada]

Yeah the other day people here wanted to trade him and #9 for Cam Johnson and their late 1st round picks. People are out of their minds.

I think what happens is because most people on this board really only watch the Raptors games they really dig in deep with certain narratives and one narrative is that RJ Barrett is not a good player. In reality he is a very good player and better than most of the league, with a few tweaks to his game could be an allstar.

[ForeverTFC]

Yeah the other day people here wanted to trade him and #9 for Cam Johnson and their late 1st round picks. People are out of their minds.

I think what happens is because most people on this board really only watch the Raptors games they really dig in deep with certain narratives and one narrative is that RJ Barrett is not a good player. In reality he is a very good player and better than most of the league, with a few tweaks to his game could be an allstar.

RJ is a really good dude and is from Toronto. We all want to see him succeed here and would love nothing more than rooting for him. That does not change the fact that he's a below average defender, an average playmaker and shooter, and above average but not elite at self creation. He's not good enough at the thing he's good at for the team to prioritize it and is limited everywhere else to complement most setups.

If the FO doesn't like their options at 9 and are able to get a 2026 1st added to the package you highlighted, I'm doing the deal.

[JShuttlesworth]

I like RJ, I think a lot of the hate he gets is completely unwarranted

He's the home town kid, he plays hard, doesn't cause problems, and he gets you 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists a night

Does he have faults? Sure, I wish he was a better defender, I wish he had less tunnel vision. But overall I like having him on the roster, I'm looking forward to seeing how he plays this season next to Ingram

[tsherkin]

The civility in this thread is making me want to buy an RJ jersey.

If he puts up 20/5/5 on 58%TS and the Raptors are over .500, I’ll do it!

I think those numbers ar every much a possibility. His late 2024 run has my hopes high that in a scaled down role he could be quite efficient

There are a few things which make me a little leery of that... but let's look at a pared-down version just for fun!

Barrett was a 61.5% TS scorer for us in 32 games back after the trade in 2024. I doubt that's going to happen again.

BUT!

If he was able to shoot 69% in the RA, then he'd be around 58.5% TS. That's league-average shooting. The year prior to the trade, he shot over 64% there, so maybe with some better spacing and more transition buckets, we could get him there. That would be about +0.9% rTS this year, which would be a pretty significant shift. And that's at 70% FT and "only" 33.5% of his shots coming from 0-3 feet, while still sucking from 3-23 feet and shooting 38.0% from 3 (I'm banking on more corner 3s).

[OhCanada]

Yeah the other day people here wanted to trade him and #9 for Cam Johnson and their late 1st round picks. People are out of their minds.

I think what happens is because most people on this board really only watch the Raptors games they really dig in deep with certain narratives and one narrative is that RJ Barrett is not a good player. In reality he is a very good player and better than most of the league, with a few tweaks to his game could be an allstar.

RJ is a really good dude and is from Toronto. We all want to see him succeed here and would love nothing more than rooting for him. That does not change the fact that he's a below average defender, an average playmaker and shooter, and above average but not elite at self creation. He's not good enough at the thing he's good at for the team to prioritize it and is limited everywhere else to complement most setups.

If the FO doesn't like their options at 9 and are able to get a 2026 1st added to the package you highlighted, I'm doing the deal.

Cam Johnson is a worse defender. He's 4 years older. Hes a worse rebounder. He doesnt play hard. Hes always injured. Only thing he does better is shooting.

[ConSarnit]

there are many players in nba that literally mainly only take 3s, so they better shoot it in the high 30s at least...but rj is a downhill bucket getter, so many times a game a see rj get into the paint and score and im like all season, how come scottie cant do that more often? why cant he?

rj also passes it and creates well so considering the 3 ball is his 3rd option...shooting 35% on 5 attempts is good because theres very good, great, and elite, which it obviously aint but good is good like omg if scottie shot that i would wet myself happy

He’s not good at 3pt shooting. Why is this getting upvoted?

Per36 stats:

RJ: 35%, 5.9 3pa

League Average SG: 37%, 7.2 3pa

So not only is RJ a below average 3pt shooter, he is also a below average volume 3pt shooter for his position.

Please stop saying RJ is a good 3pt shooter. He has positive traits you can cite. You don’t need to lie to try and improve your argument.

Because you can’t look at the average %’s to determine anything %’s are skewed high by the elite players who shoot more. Bad shooters don’t shoot.

A guy shooting 40% on 9 shots a game and another shooting 20% on 1 shot per game has an average of 38%.

There are 90 rotation guards shooting equivalent or better per36 volume and on better 3pt% than RJ. If you adjust for all positions RJ ranks 247th.

Want to break it down on a per game basis to remove low volume shooters who might never get to their adjusted per 36 volume? He ranks in the bottom 30th percentile.

He is not a good 3pt shooter. This shouldn’t be debatable.

[ConSarnit]

The civility in this thread is making me want to buy an RJ jersey.

If he puts up 20/5/5 on 58%TS and the Raptors are over .500, I’ll do it!

I think those numbers ar every much a possibility. His late 2024 run has my hopes high that in a scaled down role he could be quite efficient

There are a few things which make me a little leery of that... but let's look at a pared-down version just for fun!

Barrett was a 61.5% TS scorer for us in 32 games back after the trade in 2024. I doubt that's going to happen again.

BUT!

If he was able to shoot 69% in the RA, then he'd be around 58.5% TS. That's league-average shooting. The year prior to the trade, he shot over 64% there, so maybe with some better spacing and more transition buckets, we could get him there. That would be about +0.9% rTS this year, which would be a pretty significant shift. And that's at 70% FT and "only" 33.5% of his shots coming from 0-3 feet, while still sucking from 3-23 feet and shooting 38.0% from 3 (I'm banking on more corner 3s).

We should try and play him more against bench units. He should be the first sub of any of the starters. I think his game is better suited than most on the team to take advantage of benches. RJ’s power game works better against smaller defenders and worse rim protection. I think he can get his efficiency up against other teams benches and provide a much needed buoying of our bench offense. His size also allows him to play backup 3, something which we lack. There were many times last year where he was the only guy floating our offense. I like RJ getting more touches with the bench as I feel like he’s going to get squeezed with Ingram in the starting lineup.

[GoRapstheoriginal]

I think it's RJ's bday today?