Official RJ Barrett Thread

[Raps in 4]

He is damn near a negative in basically every single stat imaginable. Christ almighty you love to argue, RJ is not a good player.

Horrendous efficiency, a literal 0 in EPM, 158/200 in ws/48, negative BPM, negative VORP.

All I said was people expecting him to come in here and be a good player are going to be in for a rude awakening. I never said that in comparison to this **** sack of a roster he's bad, he's below average compared to the average NBA player. Who gives a rats ass if he was a starter for the Knicks. Schroder is a starter, Jak is a starter, GTJ is a starter, there are tons of starters in the league who aren't very good.

RJ is objectively not a good player, stop being such a god damn contrarian holy ****.

raptors fans used to say the same thing about derozan

Except DD is WAY better, some of DDs worst seasons would rival the best RJ has done thus far. This is a horrific comparison.

Derozan in his age 23 season scored on 52% TS and put up a -1.4 BPM. Derozan didn't start scoring around league average efficiency until he was 26.

[Madvillainy2004]

raptors fans used to say the same thing about derozan

Except DD is WAY better, some of DDs worst seasons would rival the best RJ has done thus far. This is a horrific comparison.

Derozan in his age 23 season scored on 52% TS and put up a -1.4 BPM. Derozan didn't start scoring around league average efficiency until he was 26.

DeMar took awhile to become a useful player. I don't think it's out of the question RJ can improve to that level but it's probably unlikely.

[Raps in 4]

Except DD is WAY better, some of DDs worst seasons would rival the best RJ has done thus far. This is a horrific comparison.

Derozan in his age 23 season scored on 52% TS and put up a -1.4 BPM. Derozan didn't start scoring around league average efficiency until he was 26.

DeMar took awhile to become a useful player. I don't think it's out of the question RJ can improve to that level but it's probably unlikely.

Absolutely. He's probably a bust. But he is still only 23 and if we do one thing well as an organization, it's player development (while the Knicks are among the worst in the league at it). I'm still intrigued to see if we can salvage his development.

[Madvillainy2004]

Derozan in his age 23 season scored on 52% TS and put up a -1.4 BPM. Derozan didn't start scoring around league average efficiency until he was 26.

DeMar took awhile to become a useful player. I don't think it's out of the question RJ can improve to that level but it's probably unlikely.

Absolutely. He's probably a bust. But he is still only 23 and if we do one thing well as an organization, it's player development. I'm still intrigued to see if we can salvage his development.

Yeah these are the types of guys we should be going after since we apparently have a "development" staff. Let's bring some guys with NBA skills and see what we can get out of them. I think RJs C&S 3 is gonna make or break what he is for us though. His contract isn't the worst thing ever his EPM is neutral so I think his floor is like playable low end starter/6th man. Couldve done way worst on this trade Quckley is the real prize anything we get from RJ is a bonus.

[djsunyc]

in what universe is a guy having a career average of 18/5/3 a bust?

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

He's putting up more points than Fred is.

[LoveMyRaps]

in what universe is a guy having a career average of 18/5/3 a bust?

At the age of 23. He's no slouch defensively as well.

[Scase]

raptors fans used to say the same thing about derozan

Except DD is WAY better, some of DDs worst seasons would rival the best RJ has done thus far. This is a horrific comparison.

Derozan in his age 23 season scored on 52% TS and put up a -1.4 BPM. Derozan didn't start scoring around league average efficiency until he was 26.

I'm not saying the dude is useless, I was just saying people here thinking he's gonna be some massive impact on the team are going to be disappointed is all.

Also age 23 demar was his 4th year, RJ is 5th year. -1.4BPM vs -2.4BPM is a pretty large difference. DD had a positive VORP that season, RJ has a negative etc. DD was also the first option, RJ is like the 3rd or 4th.

He's nothing special, he's just insanely inefficient.

[Scase]

in what universe is a guy having a career average of 18/5/3 a bust?

At the age of 23. He's no slouch defensively as well.

I dont think I have EVER heard anyone praise him for his defence, like ever.

[shmoosicle]

Im pessimistic that RJ Barrett will ever be an above average player. Yes he's still young but I haven't really seen any evidence that Toronto is a great place for development as of late. And the idea that him coming home to Canada will somehow improve his game just seems delusional, unless someone can show that a player moving to their hometown has historically led to better results.

His contract isn't a Bradley Beal level albatross but I don't think he'll make it to the end of this season without the majority of fans on this site hating him since he seems to have a similar inefficient chucker profile as Precious. I think the best we can hope for is he shoots less on this team.

[Scase]

raptors fans used to say the same thing about derozan

Except DD is WAY better, some of DDs worst seasons would rival the best RJ has done thus far. This is a horrific comparison.

What about DD up to age 23 vs RJ?

Come on man. If Barrett was suxh a negative he wouldn’t be playing 32mpg and starting every game on a team trying to win.

How about instead of age, we talk years in the league, since experience is what matters and DD only is only a year older.

Year 5 vs year 5.

DD was an all star putting up 23/4/4/1/0.4 on 43/20/82 splits as a first option.
RJ so far is putting up 18/4/2.4/0.5/0.3 on 42/33/83 splits as a 3rd/4th option.

Again, for the umpteenth time. I am not saying he is an attrocious player, I'm saying a fair amount of people seem to be quite hyped for him joining, and they will be disappointed when they see him jacking up 20FGA on 42%, nights on the norm.

[Scase]

Im pessimistic that RJ Barrett will ever be an above average player. Yes he's still young but I haven't really seen any evidence that Toronto is a great place for development as of late. And the idea that him coming home to Canada will somehow improve his game just seems delusional, unless someone can show that a player moving to their hometown has historically led to better results.

His contract isn't a Bradley Beal level albatross but I don't think he'll make it to the end of this season without the majority of fans on this site hating him since he seems to have a similar inefficient chucker profile as Precious. I think the best we can hope for is he shoots less on this team.

The only thing I have ANY hope for, is that Jama can work with him like he did with Scottie to get his 3p consistently around 34-35%. Other than that, we have no real evidence to show we are anything special from a developmental perspective.

[everdiso]

Gotta agree that RJ isn't very good.

About the only plus skill he has is being able to get to the basket, but that's sabotaged by poor finish. And that poor finish has a lot to do with him not being very big - he's under 6'6" and his wingspan is under 6'9. He's not tiny but just not very long. And he's probably on the slow side, while not being especially athletic. Combine that with poor touch and he has a real tough time finishing. That lack of length also limits him defensively although apparently he's not terrible there.

That being said he is comfortable with the ball in his hands and can create his own shot and that's something that'll be refreshing for us. We can actually put a lineup out there with 5 guys that can handle and create their own shot in late clock situations which is something we havent had in forever.

But unless he can find his outside shot again i just don't see him as a guy that can be a fulltime starter on a good team.

RJ was a contract dump here. This was an OG-Quickley trade.

[Westside Gunn]

I mean, we did give up OG, Precious and Malachi. Uncertainty for uncertainty, both teams hoping the returns pan out in some way.

OG is 26, RJ is 23, Quickley is 24.

Can any of you say any of those 3 are surefire bets? OG will play defense for sure, but can you get more output from him nightly on the other end? We have had him for enough years to move on from that. It's kind of like our situation with Trent. Young, seems like there is potential, but at this stage I feel like I already know what we will get from him. F

RJ's time might also be up. At some point he ascends to that next level, or he tries very hard to stay at where he is now. Maybe being away from New York will help, but Toronto isn't exactly an easy market either.

I like RJ's fearlessness in late game situations. Maybe its a piece that will compliment Barnes and Siakam and allow him to be more efficient. For a Toronto mans it would be great to see him succeed and find a home team in his hometown.

[___Rand___]

Welcome back home to the Raptors RJ. You're the biggest Canadian star ever to be playing for home town team. We're happy to have you. (Even if we complain about you later, we're still happy you are here).

[DaGawd]

lowkey hope he finds some success for y’all back home. one of the more disappointing knicks draft picks in recent history given his hype pre duke as a potential basketball phenom. the most endearing thing for me about rj was he genuinely seemed to love being a knick and playing for nyc (maybe because his mom is from here). on the court tho… i absolutely despised watching him play for my team after 5 seasons even tho there were a few bright spots sprinkled in few and far between.

[6ixpessant]

RJ without Thibs... I'm looking forward to it. Embrace what he is and delegate what he isn't.

Quickley was probably the get as others have said and maybe that's what held a deal up......

[Tortiglioni]

The Canadian Bargnani.

[ArthurVandelay]

We’ve all been looking for shot creators and guys who can get to the FT line. RJ does that. Playing without Randle should be great for him. I’m excited to see what he does.

I’d rather RJ over Deandre Hunter fwiw

[TheAlchemist23]

Can only use his left, not athletic enough to get the rim due to both the lack of size and burst, not strong enough to bully wings in the post although he always tries, bad shooter from every zone on the court including freethrows. Same problems we saw with Canadian national team.

Dude stinks. He was a salary dump for the Knicks no doubt about that. I hope he realizes he'll never be a featured guy here and falls in line behind Scottie and Quickley.