Is RJ Barrett a beast?

[prophet_of_rage]

Name a better two way player from the 2019 draft, matter of fact he's quickly approaching best defensive player from that draft overall. Only Thybulle and maybe Martin are on his level defensively on the wing, and they're soon to be 24 and already 25.

Agreed. We are on RJ because we see him every day. If you watch Zion regualrly you see he can't defend in space, gets outrebounded by a backup 2 guard, and doesn't score much outside of thHe paint.

If you watch Ja regularly you would see that he is scattershot and really thin for his reckless style. He doesn't defend too well yet, either and for all the ja dropping highlights he's stuck at 500.

Familiarity breeds ontempt and we do that with our players far too much.

Randle and Zion are the same animal but we covet one and hate the other.

We have young Jimmy Butler on our team and we're asking if he's a bust. A near 20 point scorer in his second year!

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[cgf]

Name a better two way player from the 2019 draft, matter of fact he's quickly approaching best defensive player from that draft overall. Only Thybulle and maybe Martin are on his level defensively on the wing, and they're soon to be 24 and already 25.

Agreed. We are on RJ because we see him every day. If you watch Zion regualrly you see he can't defend in space, gets outrebounded by a backup 2 guard, and doesn't score much outside of thHe paint.

If you watch Ja regularly you would see that he is scattershot and really thin for his reckless style. He doesn't defend too well yet, either and for all the ja dropping highlights he's stuck at 500.

Familiarity breeds ontempt and we do that with our players far too much.

Randle and Zion are the same animal but we covet one and hate the other.

We have young Jimmy Butler on our team and we're asking if he's a bust. A near 20 point scorer in his second year!

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I get what you're saying...but if Julius had Zion's athleticism, we'd be talking about an MVP candidate. He's got flaws in his game that this fanbase would obsess over just as much, if not more...because obsessing about the flaws of children is what we do best...and work to do before he matches Julius' polish, but that's still a completely different caliber of ceiling that Pels fans are waiting for.

Not disagreeing with your point about all young talents having things to learn & skills to develop, just felt like you were underselling Zion to make your point.

[Chanel Bomber]

Name a better two way player from the 2019 draft, matter of fact he's quickly approaching best defensive player from that draft overall. Only Thybulle and maybe Martin are on his level defensively on the wing, and they're soon to be 24 and already 25.

Agreed. We are on RJ because we see him every day. If you watch Zion regualrly you see he can't defend in space, gets outrebounded by a backup 2 guard, and doesn't score much outside of thHe paint.

If you watch Ja regularly you would see that he is scattershot and really thin for his reckless style. He doesn't defend too well yet, either and for all the ja dropping highlights he's stuck at 500.

Familiarity breeds ontempt and we do that with our players far too much.

Randle and Zion are the same animal but we covet one and hate the other.

We have young Jimmy Butler on our team and we're asking if he's a bust. A near 20 point scorer in his second year!

Sent from my SM-N970W using Tapatalk

Agreed with everything you said.

Which goes to show that anything is possible in this world

Spoiler:

Zion's athleticism and finishing at the rim does give him a higher ceiling though, and his style of play is more pick-and-roll oriented whereas Randle isn't a pick-and-roll player at all. I find their games to be quite different, although they do share some similarities positionally and physically.

[prophet_of_rage]

Name a better two way player from the 2019 draft, matter of fact he's quickly approaching best defensive player from that draft overall. Only Thybulle and maybe Martin are on his level defensively on the wing, and they're soon to be 24 and already 25.

Agreed. We are on RJ because we see him every day. If you watch Zion regualrly you see he can't defend in space, gets outrebounded by a backup 2 guard, and doesn't score much outside of thHe paint.

If you watch Ja regularly you would see that he is scattershot and really thin for his reckless style. He doesn't defend too well yet, either and for all the ja dropping highlights he's stuck at 500.

Familiarity breeds ontempt and we do that with our players far too much.

Randle and Zion are the same animal but we covet one and hate the other.

We have young Jimmy Butler on our team and we're asking if he's a bust. A near 20 point scorer in his second year!

Sent from my SM-N970W using Tapatalk

I get what you're saying...but if Julius had Zion's athleticism, we'd be talking about an MVP candidate. He's got flaws in his game that this fanbase would obsess over just as much, if not more...because obsessing about the flaws of children is what we do best...and work to do before he matches Julius' polish, but that's still a completely different caliber of ceiling that Pels fans are waiting for.

Not disagreeing with your point about all young talents having things to learn & skills to develop, just felt like you were underselling Zion to make your point.

And if Zion had Julius' shooting touch the Pelicans wouldn't be 12-17 or whatever it is.

Glad yoy take the point. I'm not underselling anybody but it's funny the things we complain about in our own players ... like impact 9n winning don't apply to other players on other teams.

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[cgf]

Agreed. We are on RJ because we see him every day. If you watch Zion regualrly you see he can't defend in space, gets outrebounded by a backup 2 guard, and doesn't score much outside of thHe paint.

If you watch Ja regularly you would see that he is scattershot and really thin for his reckless style. He doesn't defend too well yet, either and for all the ja dropping highlights he's stuck at 500.

Familiarity breeds ontempt and we do that with our players far too much.

Randle and Zion are the same animal but we covet one and hate the other.

We have young Jimmy Butler on our team and we're asking if he's a bust. A near 20 point scorer in his second year!

Sent from my SM-N970W using Tapatalk

I get what you're saying...but if Julius had Zion's athleticism, we'd be talking about an MVP candidate. He's got flaws in his game that this fanbase would obsess over just as much, if not more...because obsessing about the flaws of children is what we do best...and work to do before he matches Julius' polish, but that's still a completely different caliber of ceiling that Pels fans are waiting for.

Not disagreeing with your point about all young talents having things to learn & skills to develop, just felt like you were underselling Zion to make your point.

And if Zion had Julius' shooting touch the Pelicans wouldn't be 12-17 or whatever it is.

Glad yoy take the point. I'm not underselling anybody but it's funny the things we complain about in our own players ... like impact 9n winning don't apply to other players on other teams.

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His shooting; figuring out how best to use his gravity to create for his team-mates at this level; how to use his gifts to be a game-changer on defense at this level; how to pace himself without slacking defensively; as well as a ton of more minor technical tweaks & just generally gaining more experience & chemistry with different type of NBA players. All of that is what I meant by polishing his skills; the kind of development that a lot of kids go through en route to successful NBA careers.

But no amount of experience & hardwork is going to give Julius the kind of freakish quickness & explosiveness to go with that powerful bully ball game attacking the rim, that Zion has...which makes Zion so potentially unguardable when his shot comes along. The kid is just a freak and no matter how much I like Ja, RJ, Hunter & Garland; none of them have the kind of potential-payoff that there is from waiting for Zion to reach his full potential.

He very well may never get there...though he seems like the type of "good kid", with the intelligence & maturity that I don't like betting against...but waiting for a potential top 5-10 player to figure things out is very different from waiting on a potential top 30-40 guy.

[robillionaire]

Yes

[LaCosaNostra]

Back to RealGM after a few years...what's the consensus on RJ in this thread?

I have a hard time seeing him evolve into anything more than a borderline league starter.

[DaGawd]

He’s very underwhelming to watch. Every part of his game is meh

[dakomish23]

Just a roller coaster of emotions for you guys

[thebuzzardman]

Definitely the 3rd guy drafted in a two person draft, that's for damn sure.

[LaCosaNostra]

He’s very underwhelming to watch. Every part of his game is meh

Couldn't agree more...very Andrew Wiggins-ish.

[dc]

Nowadays a wing with good but not great athleticism who doesn't shoot well is going to have a limited ceiling. He's a decent passer and rebounds his position well. He's just not a dynamic enough player to overcome his subpar/inconsistent shooting.

Guy has to shoot better, period. 50.5% TS (at least it's improved from a last year) from a "big wing" just isn't very good. If he's going to shoot with that level of efficiency, he needs to be all world at defending, rebounding or playmaking.

[BugginOut]

So after leading us to a win with clutch baskets against the wolves, RJ has one bad game and y’all ready to drop him.

But Quick who is a year older can go 1-10 for 3 games straight, shooting 39% from the field on the season, and y’all suck him off after he makes a couple step back 3s.

Smh this fan base is so fickle

[Grinditout]

Nowadays a wing with good but not great athleticism who doesn't shoot well is going to have a limited ceiling. He's a decent passer and rebounds his position well. He's just not a dynamic enough player to overcome his subpar/inconsistent shooting.

Guy has to shoot better, period. 50.5% TS (at least it's improved from a last year) from a "big wing" just isn't very good. If he's going to shoot with that level of efficiency, he needs to be all world at defending, rebounding or playmaking.

Thankfully he's still pretty young to work on that.

[Fat Kat]

RJ getting up some shots after the game

[LaCosaNostra]

So after leading us to a win with clutch baskets against the wolves, RJ has one bad game and y’all ready to drop him.

But Quick who is a year older can go 1-10 for 3 games straight, shooting 39% from the field on the season, and y’all suck him off after he makes a couple step back 3s.

Smh this fan base is so fickle

Larger sample than IQ...RJ is about 90 games into his career and it's been mostly mediocre. You're the one singling out an OK performance against the worst team in the league.

[DaGawd]

So after leading us to a win with clutch baskets against the wolves, RJ has one bad game and y’all ready to drop him.

But Quick who is a year older can go 1-10 for 3 games straight, shooting 39% from the field on the season, and y’all suck him off after he makes a couple step back 3s.

Smh this fan base is so fickle

My problem is even the good games are meh... like watching it I’m not on the edge of my seat and jumping off the couch like I would watching any other all star go off... he has a really long way to go and I don’t know if I honestly see him getting there given his limitations physically and skill wise

[BugginOut]

So after leading us to a win with clutch baskets against the wolves, RJ has one bad game and y’all ready to drop him.

But Quick who is a year older can go 1-10 for 3 games straight, shooting 39% from the field on the season, and y’all suck him off after he makes a couple step back 3s.

Smh this fan base is so fickle

Larger sample than IQ...RJ is about 90 games into his career and it's been mostly mediocre. You're the one singling out an OK performance against the worst team in the league.

He’s still averaging 16/6/3 as a 20 year old. He had a whole 20 game stretch where he averaged 20 PPG on 50/40/80

Against this same team he had his career high in points earlier this year in a W. He’s inconsistent but he’s been far from mediocre.

[BugginOut]

So after leading us to a win with clutch baskets against the wolves, RJ has one bad game and y’all ready to drop him.

But Quick who is a year older can go 1-10 for 3 games straight, shooting 39% from the field on the season, and y’all suck him off after he makes a couple step back 3s.

Smh this fan base is so fickle

My problem is even the good games are meh... like watching it I’m not on the edge of my seat and jumping off the couch like I would watching any other all star go off... he has a really long way to go and I don’t know if I honestly see him getting there given his limitations physically and skill wise

Kawhi’s game isn’t sexy too but it’s effective. Yeah he isn’t going to take step back 3’s like Dame or dunk like Zion, but he can be a great player.

He’s still shooting 60% at the rim and one of the leaders in the whole league for drives to the rim. All he needs to make some improvements in drawing fouls and shooting and he is already an allstar.

[LaCosaNostra]

So after leading us to a win with clutch baskets against the wolves, RJ has one bad game and y’all ready to drop him.

But Quick who is a year older can go 1-10 for 3 games straight, shooting 39% from the field on the season, and y’all suck him off after he makes a couple step back 3s.

Smh this fan base is so fickle

Larger sample than IQ...RJ is about 90 games into his career and it's been mostly mediocre. You're the one singling out an OK performance against the worst team in the league.

He’s still averaging 16/6/3 as a 20 year old. He had a whole 20 game stretch where he averaged 20 PPG on 50/40/80

Against this same team he had his career high in points earlier this year in a W. He’s inconsistent but he’s been far from mediocre.

36th out of 60 among his draft class in Win Shares per 48 minutes.
28th out of 60 among his draft class in Boxscore Plus/Minus.

MEDIOCRE