RJ Barrett

[cgf]

I'm less impressed with him the more I see him. He's not an elite athlete and seems to dominate based purely on volume. He's a chucker that's for sure. He's skilled and will beat up on college players but I don't think it will translate to the pros as much. Upside DeRozan which isn't bad at all.

He is a very smart player, I dont see how he doesnt translate.

I'm not sure he'll be a superstar, but I already know that the more watch him facing higher competition, the more I'll fall in love with his craftiness/cleverness...the way I did Harden in his draft year & Manu when I first saw him play for the Spurs.

He seems to be a very good passer which I didn’t know till seein him in these games.

Yeah, I've been really intrigued by the possibilities that Duke has to run a multi-playmaker offense with the passing that RJ & Zion have shown in Reddish & Jones's absence. If they had a pure sniper to play with those 4, that'd be my starting 5 regardless of that sniper's size & "position".

[nolang1]

I'm less impressed with him the more I see him. He's not an elite athlete and seems to dominate based purely on volume. He's a chucker that's for sure. He's skilled and will beat up on college players but I don't think it will translate to the pros as much. Upside DeRozan which isn't bad at all.

He is a very smart player, I dont see how he doesnt translate.

I'm not sure he'll be a superstar, but I already know that the more watch him facing higher competition, the more I'll fall in love with his craftiness/cleverness...the way I did Harden in his draft year & Manu when I first saw him play for the Spurs.

He seems to be a very good passer which I didn’t know till seein him in these games.

Yeah, I've been really intrigued by the possibilities that Duke has to run a multi-playmaker offense with the passing that RJ & Zion have shown in Reddish & Jones's absence. If they had a pure sniper to play with those 4, that'd be my starting 5 regardless of that sniper's size & "position".

That’s would be Alex O’Connell, who should’ve played more last year.

[Duke4life831]

He is a very smart player, I dont see how he doesnt translate.

I'm not sure he'll be a superstar, but I already know that the more watch him facing higher competition, the more I'll fall in love with his craftiness/cleverness...the way I did Harden in his draft year & Manu when I first saw him play for the Spurs.

He seems to be a very good passer which I didn’t know till seein him in these games.

Yeah, I've been really intrigued by the possibilities that Duke has to run a multi-playmaker offense with the passing that RJ & Zion have shown in Reddish & Jones's absence. If they had a pure sniper to play with those 4, that'd be my starting 5 regardless of that sniper's size & "position".

That’s would be Alex O’Connell, who should’ve played more last year.

Jordan Tucker would've been perfect for this as well. But got treated like a walk on last year and transferred.

[whitehops]

i really like barrett's game and like some have mentioned, there's a lot of players he reminds me of but not really one great comparison.

he probably reminds me most of james harden, mainly because he has good/very good athletic ability but has the skill to play at a slower pace and still get to wherever he needs to go on the court. good vision and a willing passer, high ball IQ, etc.

i'm very excited to see his finishing ability around the rim when he improves his right hand. right now he is still great at finishing while primarily just using his left hand but once he gets comfortable finishing with his right hand it's going to be game over.

[The-Power]

More Butler than Harden at this point, imo.

[nybluemeadow]

The more I watch R.J. Barrett, the more that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist comes to mind, hustle, above average athlete but whose shooting form is a big problem. His shoulders are never square and he always puts the ball infront of his face just before he releases .

[Justwar]

Gilchrist was a freakier athlete and played even harder. His d has kept him a starter regardless how ridiculously bad he was shooting.

[Duke4life831]

The more I watch R.J. Barrett, the more that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist comes to mind, hustle, above average athlete but whose shooting form is a big problem. His shoulders are never square and he always puts the ball infront of his face just before he releases .

RJ is miles ahead of MKG as a scorer and MKG is miles ahead of RJ as a defender. Not saying RJ is a bad defender, MKG was just a freak defender at this age.

Also MKG was the better athlete. That man was a terror in the open court in college.

[nybluemeadow]

The more I watch R.J. Barrett, the more that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist comes to mind, hustle, above average athlete but whose shooting form is a big problem. His shoulders are never square and he always puts the ball infront of his face just before he releases .

RJ is miles ahead of MKG as a scorer and MKG is miles ahead of RJ as a defender. Not saying RJ is a bad defender, MKG was just a freak defender at this age.

Also MKG was the better athlete. That man was a terror in the open court in college.

I'm mainly talking about both guys' athleticism and awkward shooting style.

[13th Man]

I'm Canadian and have been watching RJ for a couple of years now. First of all, RJ has a champion's mindset and is an alpha dog. He's not the most talented player even at Duke, I believe that both Zion and Cam have better overall talent but RJ is more of a winner. He's won at the U-19 stage, went undefeated last year in HS, will likely help the Blue Devils win this year as well.

What does RJ excel at? Having a nose for the basket, he is Hardenesque at being able to get to the rim to either score or draw a foul. While Harden does it through uncanny timing, RJ zig-zags, Eurosteps, and kind of just slither his way to the basket. He also has long strides and gets to the rim much quicker than you'd think so he's deceptively quick.

He has ok vision and can set up some nice finishes but he often misses open passes because of his scoring first mentality. He needs to improve a bit on his decision making imo, seems to experience tunnel-vision at times.

Things that he really needs to work on his is shot, it's just not a smooth and natural stroke as you see with Cam Reddish. I don't know why he chose to shoot left-handed when he is naturally right handed everywhere else. As others have noted, his free-throws are less than impressive. FT shooting ability usually dictates your mid and long range game as well.

So I'm not sold on RJ being the #1 pick next year, if I was a betting man I would put money on Zion as of right now. RJ has been an winner everywhere, but the NBA is a different animal as we know. The top guys will all get drafted by garbage teams and RJ will no longer be surrounded by top tier guys the league. The NBA is where we'll likely see his deficiencies get exposed as its happened to so many lottery picks before him.

[baca]

The more I watch R.J. Barrett, the more that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist comes to mind, hustle, above average athlete but whose shooting form is a big problem. His shoulders are never square and he always puts the ball infront of his face just before he releases .

Basketball without border shirt? That is about one and half years ago photo. Even before he got FIBA U19 champion.

Barrett worked with Drew Hanlen with his stroke right now. Probably one of the most famous trainer in NBA...

[nybluemeadow]

The more I watch R.J. Barrett, the more that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist comes to mind, hustle, above average athlete but whose shooting form is a big problem. His shoulders are never square and he always puts the ball infront of his face just before he releases .

Basketball without border shirt? That is about one and half years ago photo. Even before he got FIBA U19 champion.

Barrett worked with Drew Hanlen with his stroke right now. Probably one of the most famous trainer in NBA...

You just have to watch the last three canada games to see his shot is broken or still broken. the duke canada games shows that his form has not improved the last 2-3 years. His free throw shooting in the duke preseason shows off why his form and approach is so bad. But yes, i agree with you, he will need a specialized shooting coach to fix his broken shot. Barrett will have to unlearn alot of bad things and rebuild everything. Some guys have just one or two things to fix, but Barrett has to fix his shoulders, elbows, hands, grip, and release and basically have to relearn everything before his shot is fixed.

[No-Man]

RJ has that Manu/Butler mentality, I just think he is gonna pan out, he has such a great footwork when driving and really good athletic tools, not elite but still

The shooting might take some time, it did for Evans, and for Butler, but with his IQ, and how committed he is, I just think he can be an elite wing that can be multi-faceted creator and those dudes are golden

[baca]

The more I watch R.J. Barrett, the more that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist comes to mind, hustle, above average athlete but whose shooting form is a big problem. His shoulders are never square and he always puts the ball infront of his face just before he releases .

Basketball without border shirt? That is about one and half years ago photo. Even before he got FIBA U19 champion.

Barrett worked with Drew Hanlen with his stroke right now. Probably one of the most famous trainer in NBA...

You just have to watch the last three canada games to see his shot is broken or still broken. the duke canada games shows that his form has not improved the last 2-3 years. His free throw shooting in the duke preseason shows off why his form and approach is so bad. But yes, i agree with you, he will need a specialized shooting coach to fix his broken shot. Barrett will have to unlearn alot of bad things and rebuild everything. Some guys have just one or two things to fix, but Barrett has to fix his shoulders, elbows, hands, grip, and release and basically have to relearn everything before his shot is fixed.

Here is Stepien's Cole Zwicker's article on RJ Barrett's analysis. https://www.thestepien.com/2018/08/02/early-2019-draft-thoughts-r-j-barrett/

There are tons of shooting stroke analysis and photos in this article.And most of them are from Nike hoop summit and FIBA U19 game, which is more recently pictures than you post.

And his conclusion is his shooting stroke has some problem, but improving on a streak and not bad or not fixable. He has a good pull jumper stroke and feet set shooting is OK. You are welcome to give your persuasive professional point on newest picture and show us how his stroke has so many problems.

[Alatan]

Bust.

[cgf]

Bust.

I’m no where near high on R.J. as I was harden or Doncic, but I’m pretty confident he won’t bust. May not be a perennial all star, but he’s too smart, skilled & tenacious not to be a plus-starter for a decade barring injuries.

[juanc]

Bust.

I see that you really hate those high basketball IQ players such as Doncic and RJ. Who are your favourite players from 2018 and 2019 draft if I may ask?

[UcanUwill]

Barretts shot is not nearly as bad as MKG's. I never got MKG hype, he just looked like a role player in college even, where Barrett controls the game completely in far superior fashion. I am way higher on Barrett than I am on Doncic, and I am a Euroleague fanboy.

[cgf]

Barretts shot is not nearly as bad as MKG's. I never got MKG hype, he just looked like a role player in college even, where Barrett controls the game completely in far superior fashion. I am way higher on Barrett than I am on Doncic, and I am a Euroleague fanboy.

MKG has become the go-to nightmare-scenario for wing prospects, sorta like how Kawhi has become the default best case scenario for a lot of those guys because he learned to shoot in the NBA. So RJ's shot being nowhere near as bad as MKG's doesn't matter to folks who are making those comps, neither does RJ's playmaking ability that MKG never even showed the potential for, nor does RJ's craftiness going to the hoop...they just don't rate RJ & so compare him to the go-to wing bust.

You also see it with Nassir Little -- who's shot mechanics are excellent -- yet people who want to doubt him bring up MKG comps to. It's just the default "I think this guy will bust" comp for athletic wings.

[Alatan]

Bust.

I see that you really hate those high basketball IQ players such as Doncic and RJ. Who are your favourite players from 2018 and 2019 draft if I may ask?

I dont hate high IQ players i hate overhyped average players. Barret has no elite skill yet has a lot of weaknesses. He will be an average player in the NBA and that means he will be a bust as a top pick. Same goes for Doncic. And Barret doesnt have high IQ either.