Your welcome

ccch wrote:Thibs has a decision with the Barrett minutes. Most likely they stay pretty high - but as a coach, do you ever start dissuading the 3 point effort?

This might tell us a lot if Thibs is the right guy to turn us around.

Agree. If he is benching some that are just not getting it done in spells, he will have to do the same with RJ. Players respect when everyone is treated equally. RJ should have been sat down yesterday with such bad shooting.

Knixkik wrote:

HofstraBBall wrote:

ccch wrote:Thibs has a decision with the Barrett minutes. Most likely they stay pretty high - but as a coach, do you ever start dissuading the 3 point effort?

This might tell us a lot if Thibs is the right guy to turn us around.

Agree. If he is benching some that are just not getting it done in spells, he will have to do the same with RJ. Players respect when everyone is treated equally. RJ should have been sat down yesterday with such bad shooting.

RJ won’t be benched because of bad shooting because he does other things. This isn’t knox or Dennis smith we are talking about. Barrett is 6’7 and moves without the ball, can guard multiple positions, makes plays for others, and is a great rebounder and open floor player. He’s doing all the right things and for some reason everyone thinks he’s a bust because his high volume 3pt misses are dragging down his shooting percentage. As long as his free throw shooting holds up he’s going to settle in and be fine.

Bust? Benched? Who said that? My point was that if you are 3 for 17 a coach will go with someone who is playing better in crunch time. As coaches should do. In terms of bust, no one is a bust in just two or three years. But you know in NY that is more like 10 games. We both know that if he shoots as bad as he did last night, throughout the year, that conversation will start quickly. No matter how tall he is or what else he can do.

BRIGGS wrote:If I was RJ Id stick to downhill scoring at the basket out to short mid range for now. 1-2 good corner 3 or straight away 3s in rhythm. Id stay away from angled 3s and anything past 14 feet for now. Take good %
Have to put this the rear view mirror he started off last year the same, hes good a good ft stroke stay in that range'

Completely agree. And I feel like he’s starting to get fouls called in his favor more often now. He’s an excellent downhill players and if the free throw shooting is really going to remain at 75-80% than he’s doing himself a disservice not attacking nonstop as he’s a solid finisher and seems to be solid at drawing fouls as well. He should be a 20 ppg scorer without a 3pt shot. Obviously he needs it eventually to transcend into a star, but for now he is just dragging down his efficiency settling for so many jumpers.

Just because he has the shot doesn’t mean he should take it. Drive the ball, get him some sets in the post. Need to maximize his skills. Not having Burks out there definitely hurts him. I would like to see Quick, Burks, Knox and Randle out there with him. Will make a world of difference.

Knixkik wrote:

Jmpasq wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:If I was RJ Id stick to downhill scoring at the basket out to short mid range for now. 1-2 good corner 3 or straight away 3s in rhythm. Id stay away from angled 3s and anything past 14 feet for now. Take good %
Have to put this the rear view mirror he started off last year the same, hes good a good ft stroke stay in that range'

Completely agree. And I feel like he’s starting to get fouls called in his favor more often now. He’s an excellent downhill players and if the free throw shooting is really going to remain at 75-80% than he’s doing himself a disservice not attacking nonstop as he’s a solid finisher and seems to be solid at drawing fouls as well. He should be a 20 ppg scorer without a 3pt shot. Obviously he needs it eventually to transcend into a star, but for now he is just dragging down his efficiency settling for so many jumpers.

He reminded me a lot of Derozan when he was drafted. Derozan has built a nice career without a 3 point shot. RJ does a lot of things well just put him next to a 3 & D wing

Yeah that would be a good player to model his game after.

But the league has turned into a 3 point contest.

Teams are taking as many as 50 3 point attempts per game, with 5 players on the floor that can shoot it respectably from out there.

With respect to Lebron/Doncic, heck let's throw in Simmons and DeRozan - they do so many other good things on the floor. If Barrett's midrange shot goes in at 40% and 3pt shot goes in at 20%... well, the math says that he's better off shooting that 2pt shot. He's young, his shot is a work in progress.

I'm pretty happy with his progress thus far on his free throw shooting. It shows he's gaining more confidence and consistency. He's currently 18/23. If he can hit free throws, it bodes well for his future from the 3pt line.

I don't expect him to fully arrive until next season the earliest... but I'd like to see him mix it up more. His upside is more than that of a Bullock/Burks/Ingles. The more he mixes up the type of shots he takes the more his defenders will hesitate a little bit when gets the ball.

Knixkik wrote:

Philc1 wrote:RJ had a very good bounce back game tonight. No it's not as simple as him getting Quickley back but that definitely helped. I'm still a believer.

It just comes down to him being 20 and have to deal with good stretches and bad stretches.

Once he starts to smooth those good and bad games out, to just a little off or a little on. Then we will see progress...but I agree, only 20 and you can see stretches of dominance.....What impressed me the most since I first started researching him in college and we saw it today. Coming off a bad shooting night, he spent new years eve working on his 3pt game....while knick fans where laid out drunk all over time Square. He will be fine, but he needs help.