Knickoftime wrote:

Rookie wrote:He is a black hole if you pass him the ball. He has become a really selfish player only wanting to score the ball. He doesn't rebound or do anything to support the team except score. His man and help defense is poor. He turns the ball over, sometimes, at the worst time and those lazy bone headed passes for turnovers are head slippers. He has become an inefficient volume shooter who doesn’t support the team in any other way. Very selfish player who’s head isn’t always in the game. Other than get down hill to the rim, what does he provide to help the team? Atleast Melo was an elite scorer. Neither Melo or RJ make anyone else better. RJ has become a selfish inefficient chucker and a bad version of Melo.

Per 100 possessions, Barrett's rebounding, assists and TO's are near indistinguishable from his career numbers. Nothing about them suggests he's "become" or "becoming" anything he wasn't since day 1.

But you do you...

Fair point. So then RJ ‘is’ bad Melo. The only improvement I see is he is making more shots at the basket. Last year he lead the league in getting his shot blocked

ramtour420 wrote:

Knixkik wrote:The timing of all of the RJ hate is weird. The Knicks are good and RJ has been a big reason why. I think since Randle is playing well than Barrett has to be the fall guy for the fan base now. That being said, you’re right about a lot of what you said.

You are right, there has been criticism. But it's been constructive The kid needs to go through the thorns to get to the top. Hence the nitpicking

Not sure if I would refer to the OP in this thread as nitpicking nor constructive. Seems like he and others think RJ is utter worthless trash. Here are the comments broken down for convenience.....

- He is a black hole
- He has become a really selfish player
- He doesn't rebound or do anything to support the team except score
- His man and help defense is poor.
- He turns the ball over, sometimes, at the worst time
- those lazy bone headed passes for turnovers are head slippers.
- He has become an inefficient volume shooter who doesn’t support the team in any other way.
- Very selfish player who’s head isn’t always in the game.
- Other than get down hill to the rim, what does he provide to help the team?
- RJ has become a selfish inefficient chucker and a bad version of Melo.

foosballnick wrote:

ramtour420 wrote:

Knixkik wrote:The timing of all of the RJ hate is weird. The Knicks are good and RJ has been a big reason why. I think since Randle is playing well than Barrett has to be the fall guy for the fan base now. That being said, you’re right about a lot of what you said.

You are right, there has been criticism. But it's been constructive The kid needs to go through the thorns to get to the top. Hence the nitpicking

Not sure if I would refer to the OP in this thread as nitpicking nor constructive. Seems like he and others think RJ is utter worthless trash. Here are the comments broken down for convenience.....

- He is a black hole
- He has become a really selfish player
- He doesn't rebound or do anything to support the team except score
- His man and help defense is poor.
- He turns the ball over, sometimes, at the worst time
- those lazy bone headed passes for turnovers are head slippers.
- He has become an inefficient volume shooter who doesn’t support the team in any other way.
- Very selfish player who’s head isn’t always in the game.
- Other than get down hill to the rim, what does he provide to help the team?
- RJ has become a selfish inefficient chucker and a bad version of Melo.

I think I left out - possibly low IQ player who forces the situation instead of reading it and reacting to it.

Possesses no elite skill or physical attribute.

Positives only
- needs to become a better passer
- needs to work on dribbling with his head up and reading the floor
- needs to improve rebounding
- needs to reduce turnovers
- needs to improve focus and effort for the entire time he is on the floor

We already saw that come playoff time Thibs will make changes if he thinks it will improve our chances of winning. We also saw that was the beginning of the end for Elf. If Barrett moves to the bench it is a signal that his time is short here, something none of us wants but might be inevitable

Knixkik wrote:The timing of all of the RJ hate is weird. The Knicks are good and RJ has been a big reason why. I think since Randle is playing well than Barrett has to be the fall guy for the fan base now. That being said, you’re right about a lot of what you said.

Timing isn't weird at all.

There ALWAYS HAS to be SOMEONE.

It's a need a certain fan has.

Chandler wrote:Personally i think RJ is pressing too much to be a 20+/game scorer

he needs to focus on a full effort in all apsects and the scoring will be what it's supposed to be, but fans will love him.

he's been in a rough stretch but hopefully he snaps out of it

I agree, he's definitely pressing too much.

But thats the issue when you are not a 2 way player. RJ is currently 1 way right now (offense) and when that offense isn't working, you have a player thats not impacting the team on offense or defense, yet he's getting the 2nd or 3rd highest minute total on the team.

If we look at the big 3 and remove their offensive scoring impact, what else do they provide?
- JB (assists)
- Jules (rebounds)
- RJ (?????)

This is why I prefer 2-way players, since they can alwasy rely on their defense when their shot isn't going down. At least they can make sure their man isn't scoring. But our big 3, in RJ's case for sure, if he's not scoring it puts more strain on the team because his man is cooking.

What I like about Hart, and other 2-way players on the rise (Grimes, IQ, Deuce, etc..) They have their defense to lean on.

RJ needs to either, improve his defense or playmaking or both. Just being a scorer isn't enough for a 3rd wheel next to 2 solid scorers. We need that 3rd wheel to do more than just score. Which is why Hart's impact stands out so much. He impacts the game in so many different ways besides scoring. And when Hart hit those 3's it's like icing on a cake. RJ seems to start with the icing (3's or jumpers), but we need more cake (playmaking, defense, assist, etc...)

Knixkik wrote:The timing of all of the RJ hate is weird. The Knicks are good and RJ has been a big reason why. I think since Randle is playing well than Barrett has to be the fall guy for the fan base now. That being said, you’re right about a lot of what you said.

Here's the thing though... Knicks are a decent team. With Mitch we have shown to be a very good team. Lots of quality wins. Lots of young guys in the rotation as well, so there's implied upside.

However when you look at how to get better, and you look at the roster RJ's #s are painful to look at. Of all the guys in the rotation only Deuce has a lower EFG% than RJ, and he's very close to taking the same amount of shots as Brunson/Randle.

Combine that with the fact that other areas of his game say rebounding or defense are not carrying the amount of missed buckets. We all know and acknowledge he's quite the bucket getter when he's hot.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/barrerj01.html

The problem is RJ hasnt gotten better in any kind of increment at anything. That's the worrisome part about RJ here in year 4. We are hoping for the same things from him as the last 3 years

ramtour420 wrote:

blkexec wrote:

Chandler wrote:Personally i think RJ is pressing too much to be a 20+/game scorer

he needs to focus on a full effort in all apsects and the scoring will be what it's supposed to be, but fans will love him.

he's been in a rough stretch but hopefully he snaps out of it

I agree, he's definitely pressing too much.

But thats the issue when you are not a 2 way player. RJ is currently 1 way right now (offense) and when that offense isn't working, you have a player thats not impacting the team on offense or defense, yet he's getting the 2nd or 3rd highest minute total on the team.

If we look at the big 3 and remove their offensive scoring impact, what else do they provide?
- JB (assists)
- Jules (rebounds)
- RJ (?????)

This is why I prefer 2-way players, since they can alwasy rely on their defense when their shot isn't going down. At least they can make sure their man isn't scoring. But our big 3, in RJ's case for sure, if he's not scoring it puts more strain on the team because his man is cooking.

What I like about Hart, and other 2-way players on the rise (Grimes, IQ, Deuce, etc..) They have their defense to lean on.

RJ needs to either, improve his defense or playmaking or both. Just being a scorer isn't enough for a 3rd wheel next to 2 solid scorers. We need that 3rd wheel to do more than just score. Which is why Hart's impact stands out so much. He impacts the game in so many different ways besides scoring. And when Hart hit those 3's it's like icing on a cake. RJ seems to start with the icing (3's or jumpers), but we need more cake (playmaking, defense, assist, etc...)

Mmmmm, cake. (. I am on Keto right now)

No matter how bad a game RJ is having, I'm more comfortable with him shooting when they need a basket than anyone else on the team, other than Brunson. That counts for something. He also ran the offense the other night got what, 10 straight points while facilitating(he did I remember Quick playing off ball at least a few posessions).