Official RJ Barrett Thread

Raps in 4 · Post #181 » by **Raps in 4** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 12:50 pm

And1+2 wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:
And1+2 wrote:
I can't see our coaching staff fix anything. Contrary, I believe that they will encourage his bad habits.

If RJ turns it around here, I'll gladly eat crow. He's not going to, though.

Our organization is exceptional at player development. It's one of the few things we're good at. We literally just turned Scottie into an elite 3pt shooter after he entered the league unable to hit the broad side of a barn. We turned nobodies like FVV and Siakam into All-Stars.

Some players have the tangibles though. RJs issue is that he doesn't have a great feel for the game, and he has terrible court vision and he has tunnel vision.

Those issues are harder to fix than a bad shot (which is also has).

I completely agree. But it's worth a shot given his age.

Flipping him immediately wouldn't yield any kind of meaningful return. He's a bad player who is owed $107M over the next 4 years. Nobody is going to offer you assets for that.

DatHomieYouHaTe · Post #182 » by **DatHomieYouHaTe** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 2:49 pm

Maybe he can have a Tobias Harris type career.. That would be ok just don't pay him the max or anything near it and we're good

refshateRaps · Post #183 » by **refshateRaps** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 3:08 pm

So we have a team with a 'selfish problem' and from what the Knicks board says about RJ is one of his main flaws was being selfish

Will be interesting to see?

_MidNight_ · Post #184 » by **_MidNight_** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 3:23 pm

anotherhomer wrote:RJ is a good reclaimation project for Darko to work on

If they can fix Scottie's busted shot then he's in the right place to get back to the player he was in his second year in the league.

_MidNight_ · Post #185 » by **_MidNight_** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 3:26 pm

LoveMyRaps wrote:Seeing so much hate directed towards RJ.
He's going to prove a lot of folks wrong.

I believe in him.

I agree with this.

TheAlchemist23 · Post #186 » by **TheAlchemist23** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 3:33 pm

He's a well below average NBA athlete that can't shoot all that well nor use his right hand, that's the main reason for his struggles post highschool.

LastNameEver · Post #187 » by **LastNameEver** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:10 pm

This thread seems like its going to become very problematic.
Hopefully he proves the opposite.

TimeForChange · Post #188 » by **TimeForChange** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:19 pm

Read on Twitter

Brinbe · Post #189 » by **Brinbe** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:24 pm

It might be simple but it's cool to have a somewhat accredited guy on the roster who grew up a fan of the team. As long as he doesn't emulate that Calderon defense lol

PhilBlackson · Post #190 » by **PhilBlackson** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:35 pm

I'm gonna already throw out an idea which I bet more people are gonna be saying within a couple of months...

I'd consider playing RJ as a 6th man, him & Denis can dribble the air outta the ball off the bench and be that "scoring punch" lol

johanliebert · Post #191 » by **johanliebert** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:40 pm

PhilBlackson wrote:I'm gonna already throw out an idea which I bet more people are gonna be saying within a couple of months...

I'd consider playing RJ as a 6th man, him & Denis can dribble the air outta the ball off the bench and be that "scoring punch" lol

How about making an assessment after he plays. RJ isnt even a ball pounder thats more IQ.

johanliebert · Post #192 » by **johanliebert** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:43 pm

Bball discourse here is about worshipping men like AAU parents and being the first to call a bust. I never thought a local player woud get this type of reception.

It reminds me of the lowry trade everyone was hung on past narratives and couldn’t see the talent.

manjusaka · Post #193 » by **manjusaka** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:49 pm

I would bet RJB grew up as a DDR fan.

carlosey · Post #194 » by **carlosey** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:52 pm

For the long term fans it's a special moment.

Its rowens kid and now we're starting to see young raptors fans become pros and show interest in playing here.

Boardbreaker · Post #195 » by **Boardbreaker** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 4:54 pm

manjusaka wrote:I would bet RJB grew up as a DDR fan.

I believe he's stated before he's wanted to work with him in the offseason, not sure if Demar ever took him up on that.

Watch on YouTube

raincityraptors · Post #196 » by **raincityraptors** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 5:07 pm

I think it is nice when any Canadian joins Canada's team.

The reason why I think people are more down on this side of the deal is because there is even more overlap of skillset and spacing issues in the combo of Pascal, Scottie and RJ than there was with OG in the mix.

How in the world do you play Pascal, RJ and Jak on the court at the same time and win minutes? I am terrified of them out there with Dennis.

We all will feel better about RJ if one or both of Pascal and Jak are gone. If we want to recoup value for his contract and Jak's, Pascal needs to be moved for shooters. That is this front offices quickest path to redemption.

RJ is like a mini-Pascal in my mind. For the people who want to see Pascal and Scottie thrive together, y'all with see a version of that with Scottie and RJ, with some welcome spacing from IQ.

iLLmatic860 · Post #197 » by **iLLmatic860** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 5:12 pm

refshateRaps wrote:So we have a team with a 'selfish problem' and from what the Knicks board says about RJ is one of his main flaws was being selfish

Will be interesting to see?

I don’t think RJ is entirely selfish. Yes he 100% have tunnel vision but I think a problem was that Pre-Brunson, Randle played iso so much and sometimes he would never pass to Rj even when he was wide open. So whenever RJ got the ball, it felt like he wanted to prove that he can score so he forced up ugly shots

Then Brunson came and thats another guy going iso all the time

Whenever Rj played with the bench, with Iq specifically, he looked like a different player

Rj does need spacing to be effective so that would be a concern if I were a Rap fans because he might run into the same problems with Siakim that he did with Randle but I guess we will see

Rj is a volume scorer, when the ball goes in, he plays extra confident. But when he misses, he just loses all confident it seems

I do think he still has some untapped potential but alot of people will disagree

The thing about RJ is, his good looks great, but his bad looks all time low lol so be prepared for some very ugly games

earth007 · Post #198 » by **earth007** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 5:13 pm

raincityraptors wrote:I think it is nice when any Canadian joins Canada's team.

The reason why I think people are more down on this side of the deal is because there is even more overlap of skillset and spacing issues in the combo of Pascal, Scottie and RJ than there was with OG in the mix.

How in the world do you play Pascal, RJ and Jak on the court at the same time and win minutes? I am terrified of them out there with Dennis.

We all will feel better about RJ if one or both of Pascal and Jak are gone. If we want to recoup value for his contract and Jak's, Pascal needs to be moved for shooters. That is this front offices quickest path to redemption.

RJ is like a mini-Pascal in my mind. For the people who want to see Pascal and Scottie thrive together, y'all with see a version of that with Scottie and RJ, with some welcome spacing from IQ.

Exactly. He is going to have the same sapcing issues he had with Randle, but worse. If Darko insists on starting Dennis, we got 4 starters who can't shoots 3s and Scottie. That's going to be a terrible SL. Also, RJ needs to trim his weight this offseason and work on his shot. I don't know who told him to bulk up, but it has backfired big time imo. He was quicker when he was slim as a rookie.

agkagk · Post #199 » by **agkagk** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 5:25 pm

Bruin wrote:
johanliebert wrote:
Bruin wrote:At worst he’s a GTJ with a more versatile skillset

At best he finds his groove and unlocks some of his potential here at home

I’ll be satisfied if he becomes a reliable enough 3rd option. His contract is practically high end role player/average starter in today’s NBA so I’m not stressing over it. Not nearly as bad as paying Jakob $20 million to sit on the bench when we need to win a game

GTJ is another wild comparison. You guys dont watch hoops.

It’s not a comparison of player types. It’s a comparison of what they provide in both ends. You can’t deny that RJ has a more versatile skillset than Gary. Gary has a very limited skillset and is as much of a chucker/ poor decision maker as RJ. I’d rather have the more talented guy chuck up bad shots.

Ideally we’d have no chucking but if I had to pick between it coming from one of them it would be RJ

Ya sounds like you were referencing rj’s tier and best role on the nba players totem pole.

Sounds about right.

Playing a similar role and having a similar impact to demar but in a more well rounded mold sounds about right to me!

Tha Cynic · Post #200 » by **Tha Cynic** » Mon Jan 1, 2024 5:28 pm

Way too much hate for a guy who has never played anywhere but New York. The guy is 23 and get you buckets. At worst he can give you scoring off the bench and more ball handling. The Raptors just added two guys who are better scorers than anything we gave up. This team needed offense and got it.

Lets see how good Jama and Darko are at helping him develop. At worst I expect him to get better from 3 and still have hope that he can. He made a big leap with his freethrow shooting this season and that's always a positive.