Is RJ Barrett a beast?

[knicks94]

He is Trevor Ariza with no shooting skills.

[BugginOut]

It's been four games...... ya'll were calling him an allstar after his first game and now he's a bust?

[DaGawd]

It's been four games...... ya'll were calling him an allstar after his first game and now he's a bust?

It’s pretty concerning that he still looks like exactly the same player he was in his rookie year. I don’t see one area where he clearly improved.. maybe free throw shooting that’s it

[BugginOut]

It's been four games...... ya'll were calling him an allstar after his first game and now he's a bust?

It’s pretty concerning that he still looks like exactly the same player he was in his rookie year. I don’t see one area where he clearly improved.. maybe free throw shooting that’s it

He's shooting better at the rim and his rebounding and assists have gone up while his TO's have gone slightly gone down. Plus his defense looks better. Honestly the only aspect of his game where he hasn't improved is shooting which is understandable. RJ completely reworked the shot he has been using his whole life this offseason with no 5on5 games to test it out in. It might honestly take the whole season before he gets a consistent shot.

But, while the FT improvement might not be sexy, it is important, as it shows that RJ can make a change to his form and be consistent with it. FTs were his biggest weakness and right now he is almost shooting 80% from the line. The FTs show that he has the potential for a jumpshot, even though it may not come right away.

[cgf]

[Orange Mamba]

Last week's thread: Can RJ be better than Ja
This week's thread: Is RJ a bust

I don't believe in his star potential as much as others may on here, but cmon man

[KnicksGadfly]

He passes, plays d, drives. I would encourage him to keep taking shats. Mo shats. Get it down, build confidence, don’t give up. Same with Frank, if he ever gets on the floor.

[HarthorneWingo]

He passes, plays d, drives. I would encourage him to keep taking shats. Mo shats. Get it down, build confidence, don’t give up. Same with Frank, if he ever gets on the floor.

His passing is overrated. The last two games RJ’s had 5 assists and 5 turnovers. For his career, he averages 2.6 assists and 2.2 turnovers. That sucks.

[knicks94]

Why can’t RJ go through passing drills with Steve Nash? They work in the same city.

[DaGawd]

Why can’t RJ go through passing drills with Steve Nash? They work in the same city.

Or shooting for that matter.. that’s the biggest whole in his game

[robillionaire]

nah he's not.

[TheProfessor]

Disclaimer: Not a Knicks Fan

I honestly think Barrett is a good nba player with alot of potential, just not with his mindset and the NY requirements. Barrett thinks he is an alpha (he isnt) and NYK craves a star (he is not). Instead of trying to Iggy Phi edition, he should try being Iggy GSW addition or a Richard Jefferson type. Barrett has fire complementary skills like slashing and passing, he sucks with alpha skills like shooting and dribbling.

However, with his draft position/ his nonsense hype, his "mentaliy" and NY wanting for him to be a star with the 3rd pick, I feel like he wont be sucessful. Instead of trying to primarily create, he should work off secondary motion and try to score (slashing) and pass while expending most of his effort and attention defensively.

I just do not think RJ is in a position to succeed?

Agree or Disagree?

[Kampuchea]

1) We shouldn’t be worrying about fitting a roster around any specific player since we have no star player worthy of making roster moves around
2) Regardless of star players we do need shooters at most positions, it’s the current NBA.
3) RJ isn’t a bust. His shot will improve, his FT is looking much better which is a good sign. These reactions threads are always too extreme. He’s either better than Ja or he’s headed to China. You’re a sick group of people, you know that?

[Kampuchea]

Couldn’t just post in the existing RJ thread? Your post was so important and groundbreaking it needed a new thread? ****

[knicks94]

Why can’t RJ go through passing drills with Steve Nash? They work in the same city.

Or shooting for that matter.. that’s the biggest whole in his game

I'm surprised that Nash trained Barrett throughout his life yet passing and shooting did not rub off on him.

[god shammgod]

Can we at least stop saying we can’t draft/sign/trade for player x y and z because “they don’t fit with RJ”? I’m kinda done caring how they fit with RJ since 1. Nobody fits with RJ, he’s the one that doesn’t fit because he can’t shoot or do anything else really, and 2. he doesn’t even look like a starter in the nba so who cares about fit. Allowing him to start and shoot 4-19 every night sends a bad message to the rest of the young players who have been told they have to earn minutes. They need to either start RJ with Knox, Toppin, Quickley and other young guys and fully commit to youth results be damned, or nail RJ to the bench and replace him with Alec Burks who is significantly better and makes everyone else on the court better with the spacing he provides because he can shoot

yeah. i won't even get into if he's a bust or not yet, although dagawd is pretty much making a compelling as f*ck argument, but i've been saying the same thing. you can't build around him. he doesn't have nearly enough talent to be built around. how far are you ever getting with that ? all people seem to want to do is make his stats look a little better.

[robillionaire]

Can we at least stop saying we can’t draft/sign/trade for player x y and z because “they don’t fit with RJ”? I’m kinda done caring how they fit with RJ since 1. Nobody fits with RJ, he’s the one that doesn’t fit because he can’t shoot or do anything else really, and 2. he doesn’t even look like a starter in the nba so who cares about fit. Allowing him to start and shoot 4-19 every night sends a bad message to the rest of the young players who have been told they have to earn minutes. They need to either start RJ with Knox, Toppin, Quickley and other young guys and fully commit to youth results be damned, or nail RJ to the bench and replace him with Alec Burks who is significantly better and makes everyone else on the court better with the spacing he provides because he can shoot

yeah. i won't even get into if he's a bust or not yet, although dagawd is pretty much making a compelling as f*ck argument. but i've been saying the same thing. you can't build around him. he doesn't have nearly enough talent to be built around. how far are you ever getting with that ? all people seem to want to do is make his stats look a little better.

I'm not going to say he's a bust either, he's still a very young player learning the game, but I just think he gets a special coddling that other young players haven't gotten, I see very little accountability. Maybe they are afraid if they bench him it will hurt his confidence. I don't know what it is.

[god shammgod]

also, a thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is that he's often very bad at defense. that all-nba superstar norman powell was chefing him up all night. i'm not even sure because he's not trying hard, it might be a physical limitation.

[rajajackal]

Can we at least stop saying we can’t draft/sign/trade for player x y and z because “they don’t fit with RJ”? I’m kinda done caring how they fit with RJ since 1. Nobody fits with RJ, he’s the one that doesn’t fit because he can’t shoot or do anything else really, and 2. he doesn’t even look like a starter in the nba so who cares about fit. Allowing him to start and shoot 4-19 every night sends a bad message to the rest of the young players who have been told they have to earn minutes. They need to either start RJ with Knox, Toppin, Quickley and other young guys and fully commit to youth results be damned, or nail RJ to the bench and replace him with Alec Burks who is significantly better and makes everyone else on the court better with the spacing he provides because he can shoot

yeah. i won't even get into if he's a bust or not yet, although dagawd is pretty much making a compelling as f*ck argument. but i've been saying the same thing. you can't build around him. he doesn't have nearly enough talent to be built around. how far are you ever getting with that ? all people seem to want to do is make his stats look a little better.

I'm not going to say he's a bust either, he's still a very young player learning the game, but I just think he gets a special coddling that other young players haven't gotten, I see very little accountability. Maybe they are afraid if they bench him it will hurt his confidence. I don't know what it is.

i wouldn't mind benching him. i've noticed that his best basketball (according to my eyes at least) seems to happen when knox and frank (and now IQ) are sharing the floor with him. things get fast and the ball gets shared. i'm honestly somewhat surprised he's been playing like a black hole

[MaseInYourFace]

I’m not sure how high his ceiling is but his floor seems pretty high. He’s literally a solid jumper away from being a guy who realistically consistently give you something like 19-20 ppg 4-5apg 6-7rpg on decent shooting splits. Needs to master his shot of course and improve his shot selection but I don’t think it’s this impossible hill to climb.