Official RJ Barrett Thread

[youngRAPZ]

And just like that... we have a 24 year old All-Star in the making.

Masai has done it again.

Chris Kaman was an all-star too. Jeff Teague too. Wally Szerbiak also. Or Theo Ratliff. Mehmet Okur. What does this mean ? Nothing. Let's talk again when he's in the All-NBA discussion. Which will never happen. Unbelievable that some posters still think being a all star means the world and means having a "superstar" lol.

Those masai fanboys really get on my nerves.

lol now RJ needs to be a superstar top 15 player in order for people to just like and acknowledge that he’s improving since coming to the team. STOP MOVING THE GOALPOSTS! Did you really think you had some gotcha moment there?

[Kingsway_fan]

Is Barrett having an Allstar Season? ...

[MiamiSPX]

Not sure why we keep focusing on what he can't do. He plays hard, is playing well, and loves playing for the Raptors. He's still so young so thinking he can improve in some areas is not irrational.

Of course he has his flaws, but if h didn't, he wouldn't have been available. He wouldn't be the first player, or last, to struggle after being an extremely high draft pick and getting a huge contract. Lucky for us, those things are irrelevant now, as they have nothing to do with the Raptors.

We have a 24-year old averaging 24/6/6 who only wants to play for us (one of maybe 5 guys in the league we can say that about) and people are still complaining. Just admit your preconceived notions were wrong. I had them also, because the few times I had seen him play I was not impressed, and because half the Knicks' fanbase hated him. There is some truth to some of the things they hated about him, but he's a really good player.

[Phezmo123]

Not sure why we keep focusing on what he can't do. He plays hard, is playing well, and loves playing for the Raptors. He's still so young so thinking he can improve in some areas is not irrational.

Of course he has his flaws, but if h didn't, he wouldn't have been available. He wouldn't be the first player, or last, to struggle after being an extremely high draft pick and getting a huge contract. Lucky for us, those things are irrelevant now, as they have nothing to do with the Raptors.

We have a 24-year old averaging 24/6/6 who only wants to play for us (one of maybe 5 guys in the league we can say that about) and people are still complaining. Just admit your preconceived notions were wrong. I had them also, because the few times I had seen him play I was not impressed, and because half the Knicks' fanbase hated him. There is some truth to some of the things they hated about him, but he's a really good player.

My issue isn’t with RJ - I like his game

It’s with people who think he’s gonna be a star

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment because he’s better suited as a #3 (and preferably a sixth man type)

[YogurtProducer]

And just like that... we have a 24 year old All-Star in the making.

Masai has done it again.

Chris Kaman was an all-star too. Jeff Teague too. Wally Szerbiak also. Or Theo Ratliff. Mehmet Okur. What does this mean ? Nothing. Let's talk again when he's in the All-NBA discussion. Which will never happen. Unbelievable that some posters still think being a all star means the world and means having a "superstar" lol.

Those masai fanboys really get on my nerves.

Wait, so you can only be excited about a player if he’s an all nba player?

What a stupid argument

[MiamiSPX]

Not sure why we keep focusing on what he can't do. He plays hard, is playing well, and loves playing for the Raptors. He's still so young so thinking he can improve in some areas is not irrational.

Of course he has his flaws, but if h didn't, he wouldn't have been available. He wouldn't be the first player, or last, to struggle after being an extremely high draft pick and getting a huge contract. Lucky for us, those things are irrelevant now, as they have nothing to do with the Raptors.

We have a 24-year old averaging 24/6/6 who only wants to play for us (one of maybe 5 guys in the league we can say that about) and people are still complaining. Just admit your preconceived notions were wrong. I had them also, because the few times I had seen him play I was not impressed, and because half the Knicks' fanbase hated him. There is some truth to some of the things they hated about him, but he's a really good player.

My issue isn’t with RJ - I like his game

It’s with people who think he’s gonna be a star

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment because he’s better suited as a #3 (and preferably a sixth man type)

Masai at his end of year PC said twice that we need "another Scottie" and "another guy like him beside him" (paraphrasing). I don't think he is under any illusion about what we have with RJ and IQ.

[Phezmo123]

Not sure why we keep focusing on what he can't do. He plays hard, is playing well, and loves playing for the Raptors. He's still so young so thinking he can improve in some areas is not irrational.

Of course he has his flaws, but if h didn't, he wouldn't have been available. He wouldn't be the first player, or last, to struggle after being an extremely high draft pick and getting a huge contract. Lucky for us, those things are irrelevant now, as they have nothing to do with the Raptors.

We have a 24-year old averaging 24/6/6 who only wants to play for us (one of maybe 5 guys in the league we can say that about) and people are still complaining. Just admit your preconceived notions were wrong. I had them also, because the few times I had seen him play I was not impressed, and because half the Knicks' fanbase hated him. There is some truth to some of the things they hated about him, but he's a really good player.

My issue isn’t with RJ - I like his game

It’s with people who think he’s gonna be a star

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment because he’s better suited as a #3 (and preferably a sixth man type)

Masai at his end of year PC said twice that we need "another Scottie" and "another guy like him beside him" (paraphrasing). I don't think he is under any illusion about what we have with RJ and IQ.

The magic have Wagner and Paolo

Okc has Shai and Chet

We have Scottie and ?

[Mattatron]

And just like that... we have a 24 year old All-Star in the making.

Masai has done it again.

Chris Kaman was an all-star too. Jeff Teague too. Wally Szerbiak also. Or Theo Ratliff. Mehmet Okur. What does this mean ? Nothing. Let's talk again when he's in the All-NBA discussion. Which will never happen. Unbelievable that some posters still think being a all star means the world and means having a "superstar" lol.

Those masai fanboys really get on my nerves.

Wait, so you can only be excited about a player if he’s an all nba player?

What a stupid argument

Well, I care about team success more than popularity awards awards.

All NBA/Defense/MVP/DPOY players are more valued, because most of them nominees had success with their team and are actual great players with an unique skillset to help winning games. While a All Star appearance is nothing more than pure popularity, every idiot can be a all star, tre mann can be a all star just because he's the coolest dude with his y2k AI3 swagger.
An All star selection never had any real meaning to me. Sure, i was happy for every raptor player, and will be when RJ would get one, that's good for him personally, for the ego of every player, meaning he has the attention of the fans.

I glorified the all star game as a young fan, as a child, I found it fun and entertaining to see all these highlighting & entertaining names on the floor. But, as i got older, i came to the conclusion, that's it's nothing more than what it actually is (i mean the nba is changing the asg system again, to make it more pupular, imo cancel this ****, and let them rest for 2 weeks for hells sake). ALL NBA Awards are more positive and a signal for a team that they have something special on their roster to compete.

[MiamiSPX]

My issue isn’t with RJ - I like his game

It’s with people who think he’s gonna be a star

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment because he’s better suited as a #3 (and preferably a sixth man type)

Masai at his end of year PC said twice that we need "another Scottie" and "another guy like him beside him" (paraphrasing). I don't think he is under any illusion about what we have with RJ and IQ.

The magic have Wagner and Paolo

Okc has Shai and Chet

We have Scottie and ?

I would kill to have either of those duos but at the end of the day, neither has done a thing in terms of winning. Paolo and Franz have exactly as many playoff series wins as Scottie.

But to answer your question, no we don't have that 2nd guy. Heck, we may not even have that 1st guy.

My only point was that we are constantly dismissing RJ because of what he can't do. We have people trading him for some fictitious star in a couple of years, and this was before he even played 30 games for the team lol. He has still only played 43 games for the team but yet that has been enough for people to make definitive statements about him.

I hate admitting with that drunk Scottie hater, but RJ is only 13 months older than Barnes. And yet the sky is the limit for Barnes and RJ is absolutely a finished product. It's irrational.

We can say RJ is a good player without that meaning we think he will be one of the top 2 guys on a contender.

[earth007]

He has been pretty efficient in the last two games. Also, he is attempting to go right instead of being predictable and driving left all the time. I have to say he has played beyond my expectations. He can be very frustrating and inefficient at times, but I think he plays more controlled when Scottie and IQ are there. Hopefully, he works on his in between game, ft shooting and decision making in the next few offseasons. We got a good team with people who care for a change, and it is crazy to think we got RJ, IQ and a pick for OG. We just need one more top 5 pick to put us over the hump though.

[PushDaRock]

My issue isn’t with RJ - I like his game

It’s with people who think he’s gonna be a star

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment because he’s better suited as a #3 (and preferably a sixth man type)

Masai at his end of year PC said twice that we need "another Scottie" and "another guy like him beside him" (paraphrasing). I don't think he is under any illusion about what we have with RJ and IQ.

The magic have Wagner and Paolo

Okc has Shai and Chet

We have Scottie and ?

Mogbo

[tsherkin]

The guy has been averaging 30 points over the last 3 games with all these flaws you guys keep talking about. So yes, when he improves his efficiency and overall game, he has the potential to be elite.

There is an inherent assumption there that he can maintain that over a reasonable sample. I don't really believe we're going to see an efficient 30 ppg scorer out of him. YMMV, but I think it's pretty aggressive to believe he can sustain that sort of volume on high efficiency without the first hint of a middle game, couple to pedestrian FT shooting.

He's got potential, but there are some skill limitations as he exists right now IMHO, particularly with efficiency so clearly tied to others setting him up. The fact that he cannot score efficiently without significant passing support while not playing as a movement shooter sort of precludes the notion that he has elite potential in my head, because it means he's considerably inferior to the other guys who are and have been doing it at an elite level across league history.

EDIT: It occurs to me that I do not know how you define "elite," so we may have some level of semantic gap here.

[tsherkin]

I hate admitting with that drunk Scottie hater, but RJ is only 13 months older than Barnes. And yet the sky is the limit for Barnes and RJ is absolutely a finished product. It's irrational.

We can say RJ is a good player without that meaning we think he will be one of the top 2 guys on a contender.

All of that makes sense to me.

Barrett's what, 24? He's a year older than rookie Knecht, and 2 years older than he would have been as a rookie in the 70s when everyone was coming out with 4 years of college. It isn't unreasonable to project some degree of improvement and adaptation from him.

There are some things he's less likely to develop at this age than others, but the general arc of a player's career tends to be upward overall into their late 20s across the span of the NBA's history, so we'll see. And now that Scottie's back, RJ does have more passing support around him, less need to take a lot of those unassisted BS shots, less need to force it. That should help a lot, and should contribute some to improved consistency and better efficiency from RJ, which is good.

[James_Raptors]

Devin Booker (6'6, age 28)
24.1|6.4|3.7
.438|.339

RJ Barrett (6'6, age 24)
23.8|6.5|6.2
.438|.338

Doesn't really mean much, but I thought it was funny when I stumbled on this last night before bed.

[tsherkin]

Devin Booker (6'6, age 28)
24.1|6.4|3.7
.438|.339

RJ Barrett (6'6, age 24)
23.8|6.5|6.2
.438|.338

Doesn't really mean much, but I thought it was funny when I stumbled on this last night before bed.

Eh. We know Booker isn't a stunner from 3. The difference is that he was an 84% FT shooter from the word go, who had a strong short game and long two, and rapidly developed his middle game. By 24, he was banging out 48.1% FG from 3-10 on 16% of his FGA, 54.2% from 10-16 on nearly a quarter of his shots, and 44.1% on those long twos. From 2019 forward, he's been a mid-range monster. And just on his career, including his first couple seasons, he has taken around a fifth of his shots from 10-16 feet at 48.5%, and about 16% from 16-23 feet at 43.2%. He's been at 54%+ from 10-16 feet in 3 of the past 5 seasons (including the active season, which is a down year so far for him at 45.7%).

There's a very, very large difference in scoring skill set between them, even if their 3pt shooting isn't stunning far apart. If Barrett suddenly turned himself into Booker, that would be incredible. Both for us (how awesome would that be?) and in terms of being a staggeringly irregular manifestation of player development.

[ItsDanger]

Masai at his end of year PC said twice that we need "another Scottie" and "another guy like him beside him" (paraphrasing). I don't think he is under any illusion about what we have with RJ and IQ.

The magic have Wagner and Paolo

Okc has Shai and Chet

We have Scottie and ?

I would kill to have either of those duos but at the end of the day, neither has done a thing in terms of winning. Paolo and Franz have exactly as many playoff series wins as Scottie.

But to answer your question, no we don't have that 2nd guy. Heck, we may not even have that 1st guy.

My only point was that we are constantly dismissing RJ because of what he can't do. We have people trading him for some fictitious star in a couple of years, and this was before he even played 30 games for the team lol. He has still only played 43 games for the team but yet that has been enough for people to make definitive statements about him.

I hate admitting with that drunk Scottie hater, but RJ is only 13 months older than Barnes. And yet the sky is the limit for Barnes and RJ is absolutely a finished product. It's irrational.

We can say RJ is a good player without that meaning we think he will be one of the top 2 guys on a contender.

Only 13 months but they do the same thing at the draft (take 19 yr olds over a 21 yr old) and I'm sure there is solid statistical support for this methodology. The thinking is that the closer you are to 25ish, the less you can improve.

[YogurtProducer]

Chris Kaman was an all-star too. Jeff Teague too. Wally Szerbiak also. Or Theo Ratliff. Mehmet Okur. What does this mean ? Nothing. Let's talk again when he's in the All-NBA discussion. Which will never happen. Unbelievable that some posters still think being a all star means the world and means having a "superstar" lol.

Those masai fanboys really get on my nerves.

Wait, so you can only be excited about a player if he’s an all nba player?

What a stupid argument

Well, I care about team success more than popularity awards awards.

All NBA/Defense/MVP/DPOY players are more valued, because most of them nominees had success with their team and are actual great players with an unique skillset to help winning games. While a All Star appearance is nothing more than pure popularity, every idiot can be a all star, tre mann can be a all star just because he's the coolest dude with his y2k AI3 swagger.
An All star selection never had any real meaning to me. Sure, i was happy for every raptor player, and will be when RJ would get one, that's good for him personally, for the ego of every player, meaning he has the attention of the fans.

I glorified the all star game as a young fan, as a child, I found it fun and entertaining to see all these highlighting & entertaining names on the floor. But, as i got older, i came to the conclusion, that's it's nothing more than what it actually is (i mean the nba is changing the asg system again, to make it more pupular, imo cancel this ****, and let them rest for 2 weeks for hells sake). ALL NBA Awards are more positive and a signal for a team that they have something special on their roster to compete.

What exactly are you going on about?

You are upset over weird 1-off all-stars whereas the guy you are replying to obviously meant he was hoping for multipel appearances.

But yes - All-NBA is more prestigious than all-star... because there is 15 a year and not 25-30. But to say "lets talk when he is in the all-nba discussion" is **** stupid because you can be a damn good player and extremely valuable without bein all nba.

[YogurtProducer]

My issue isn’t with RJ - I like his game

It’s with people who think he’s gonna be a star

You’re setting yourself up for disappointment because he’s better suited as a #3 (and preferably a sixth man type)

Masai at his end of year PC said twice that we need "another Scottie" and "another guy like him beside him" (paraphrasing). I don't think he is under any illusion about what we have with RJ and IQ.

The magic have Wagner and Paolo

Okc has Shai and Chet

We have Scottie and ?

To be fair, I dont think Wagner or Chet is that high of a bar. In fact, RJ coudl easily be as good as Franz.

Edit: the real difference is if Scottie is as good as SGA one day. Not if our 2nd is as good as their 2nd.

[James_Raptors]

Devin Booker (6'6, age 28)
24.1|6.4|3.7
.438|.339

RJ Barrett (6'6, age 24)
23.8|6.5|6.2
.438|.338

Doesn't really mean much, but I thought it was funny when I stumbled on this last night before bed.

Eh. We know Booker isn't a stunner from 3. The difference is that he was an 84% FT shooter from the word go, who had a strong short game and long two, and rapidly developed his middle game. By 24, he was banging out 48.1% FG from 3-10 on 16% of his FGA, 54.2% from 10-16 on nearly a quarter of his shots, and 44.1% on those long twos. From 2019 forward, he's been a mid-range monster. And just on his career, including his first couple seasons, he has taken around a fifth of his shots from 10-16 feet at 48.5%, and about 16% from 16-23 feet at 43.2%. He's been at 54%+ from 10-16 feet in 3 of the past 5 seasons (including the active season, which is a down year so far for him at 45.7%).

There's a very, very large difference in scoring skill set between them, even if their 3pt shooting isn't stunning far apart. If Barrett suddenly turned himself into Booker, that would be incredible. Both for us (how awesome would that be?) and in terms of being a staggeringly irregular manifestation of player development.

"doesn't really mean much"

"you're reading too much into this"

[PushDaRock]

The magic have Wagner and Paolo

Okc has Shai and Chet

We have Scottie and ?

I would kill to have either of those duos but at the end of the day, neither has done a thing in terms of winning. Paolo and Franz have exactly as many playoff series wins as Scottie.

But to answer your question, no we don't have that 2nd guy. Heck, we may not even have that 1st guy.

My only point was that we are constantly dismissing RJ because of what he can't do. We have people trading him for some fictitious star in a couple of years, and this was before he even played 30 games for the team lol. He has still only played 43 games for the team but yet that has been enough for people to make definitive statements about him.

I hate admitting with that drunk Scottie hater, but RJ is only 13 months older than Barnes. And yet the sky is the limit for Barnes and RJ is absolutely a finished product. It's irrational.

We can say RJ is a good player without that meaning we think he will be one of the top 2 guys on a contender.

Only 13 months but they do the same thing at the draft (take 19 yr olds over a 21 yr old) and I'm sure there is solid statistical support for this methodology. The thinking is that the closer you are to 25ish, the less you can improve.

I don't think that's even so much as an age thing as it is just having more data and tape to nitpick at the flaws for older prospects than there is for the younger ones which is why coming out early is almost always the right move.