Knicks small forward RJ Barrett had a relatively strong playoff showing this year. Now, Steve Popper of Newsday wonders if the young swingman, who will be in the first year of a lucrative extension next season, is truly a building block for New York’s future.
Popper notes that Barrett’s three-point shooting has been on the decline for years now, from 40.1% two years ago to 31.0% in 2022/23. Barrett is also not quite the passer that some had hoped he would become.
Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post is convinced that Barrett is looking like more of a prize as time wears on. Vaccaro notes that the former No. 3 overall pick improved as a mid-range shooter and post scorer this season, and enjoyed a fairly strong two-way run through the first two rounds of the playoffs before the Knicks were eliminated by the Heat last week.
There’s more out of New York:
- The Knicks appear to have a bright future ahead of them following their best postseason showing in a decade. Zach Braziller of The New York Post unpacks the team’s entire roster and speculates about next steps for each player after a 47-35 season and second-round playoff showing.
- The Knicks missed out on adding a 2023 lottery draft pick when the Mavericks moved into this year’s top 10, but Braziller writes in another article that this could actually prove to be a blessing in disguise for New York. Because the pick that Dallas owes the Knicks will roll over to 2024, where it will again be top-10 protected, New York could boast up to four ’24 first-rounders that could be used in a trade for an impact player. The Knicks, who control their own 2024 first-rounder, are also owed a top-12 protected pick from the Wizards and a top-18 protected pick from the Pistons. Though a still-rebuilding Detroit team seems likely to remain in the lottery next season, Braziller believes the other two traded picks could convey.
- One big area for growth that the Knicks need to prioritize this summer is three-point shooting, opines Fred Katz of The Athletic. Katz notes that New York was able to offset its lackluster long range efficiency during the 2022/23 regular season by securing oodles of offensive rebounds and avoiding costly turnovers. Katz believes that offloading even a high-level player like Barrett, Julius Randle or Mitchell Robinson may be needed to improve the team’s shooting.
Yea… Barrett is one of the worst players overall in that draft class if you look at the metrics.
VORP, BPM, and WS last year was a combined -0.2 which is terrible for a cornerstone franchise player.
Donovan Mitchell in contrast was a combined 14.9 and league leader in all 3 categories Jokic was 28.2.
9/10 times the combined leader in those 3 metrics wins the MVP (this year being one of those years it doesnt happen).
So RJ is pretty far from being a prize.
Why are you comparing Barrett to Jokic and Mitchell? Neither one were in Barrett’s draft class and Jokic plays center. He should be compared to players like DeAndre Hunter, Culver, Herro or Reddish. You know guys that play a similar position that were actually taken in the lottery in his draft class.
Dude… you’re that dense?
I literally gave you a scale for how bad he is compared to players you’d build a franchise around and Mitchell is relevant to the RJ Barrett conversation, they wouldn’t give him up in a trade for Mitchell, who is clearly the better player.
If you really need me to spell it out for you – RJ Barrett is 53rd out of 58 in career VORP for his draft class, this is not hard to look up before you comment either. 30th in career BPM. 17th in career WS.
Check out his stats vs Jaylen Brown’s first three years. Sometimes it takes a little time. Kid has shown he can drop 20 per and play relatively well on defense. I wouldn’t say he’s one of the worst picks of his year when his teammates that were drafted barely play for various reasons.
VORP – Value Over Replacement Player (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); a box score estimate of the points per 100 TEAM possessions that a player contributed above a replacement-level (-2.0) player, translated to an average team and prorated to an 82-game season.
Among players drafted in 2019, Barrett ranks 39th in VORP (just ahead of Romeo Langford), 16th in Win Shares and 24th in Box Plus/Minus (just behind Ty Jerome). Defensively, the Knicks allowed 111.6 per 100 possessions with Barrett on the floor last season. That number dropped to 105.4 with Barrett on the bench.
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Just a stat that people who don’t play. Or don’t understand basketball is more than a 1way sport. Basically all scorers and and ast guys have high VORP stats.
A 22 yr old player has a long way to go. Before you start judging him. Then you must take responsibility as a franchise. For his progress. Analytics never takes into account. Who the other 4 players are on the court with you. Or the schemes your team, coaches use. It’s a tool like you lol.
I’d be more concerned about that defensive team stat. Cause I consider him a good defender.
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The biggest problem with VORP, like any other NBA statistical rating system, is that it generally ignores the quality of a player’s man defense.
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Basketball is a 2way sport. With coaching and players who do the dirty work. That you will never see a stat for …..
Metrics are meaningless when Barrett literally destroyed Mitchell just one month ago.
Thank you. He’s not a star. He’s still young. And he’s one of us lol.
Barrett is a good player, but they need a microwave player behind him. He’s not a guy you can count on scoring. He’s your 5th option. If they can somehow swing a move to grab Gary Trent Jr or Jordan Clarkson, they would boost their offense greatly
No they wouldn’t.
Name one team that has a 20 ppg scorer as their “5th option”. Go.
I saw “shooting” in the title and I thought they were gonna talk about Ja
So are the other 3 picks the Washington, Dallas, and Knicks own pick?
Barrett’s ascendency as a player hasn’t happened as quickly or methodically as might have been expected, including by him. But he does a lot of things for the NYK, and he’s gotten better in almost every category each year. Three point shooting is the exception. He hasn’t yet been able to find any consistency with the 3 pt shot. It has to improve at least to the level of an effective floor spacer. If not, there really isn’t a path for him to become the player he aspires to be, and it will be difficult for the NYK to move forward with him as a 30 mpg starter.
I’m not sure if he got better or was it Brunson being a real point guard keeping him and Randle from doing what they really want to do. Which is run the offense thru themselves.
Either way it’s good for Randle amd RJ.
I think that’s more true of Randle. RJ’s improvement this past season is actually less than it was the prior two, year over year. RJ has played better without Brunson on the floor, but I don’t consider that a permanent state of affairs. Most of the Brunson minutes are with Randle as well, and his game and Randle’s aren’t always cohesive.
Knicks want a star up to give up as little as possible…
Barrett and Fouriner plus 2 future first for Brad Beal and Isiah Todd.
Wizards need to rebuild ready
Now call me crazy but this is what I’d do next…
Obi Toppin for Isiah Stewart
Isiah Hartenstein and Todd for RoCo
Thus leaving you to line up something like this..
Brunson Beal Hart Randle Robinson
Quickly Grimes RoCo Stewart
Beal gives them that third star and scoring option I think they lacked. Brunson was always firing but there would be nights Randle struggled and sometimes Barrett did enough but in the future Beal will not only give them that 20 that they need but more. To compensate the drop off in defence you go after Isiah Stewart and RoCo. Stewart is perfect as he can play either the 4 or 5, gets after it on defence and can occasionally shoot the deep ball too. RoCo is also great as he can play either forward spot, is a 3 and D specialist who’s just not preformed well in a limited role in LA. He would be the perfect glue guy that Thibs would love to have.
For the pistons, Obi just seems like such a perfect fit with Cade and Ivey. Think his lack of defence and rebounding gets covered by Jalen Duren they would be a perfect duo. Plus he’s got Bogi there to help did develop as a shooter.
Not to mention they don’t really need Stewart with Duren and Wiseman, plus Bagley can cover 5.
Clippers would love to get Hartenstein back and RoCo wasn’t being used much by them anywaus so that’s an easy deal
Thoughtful proposal but I think (hope) the Knicks would pass. I guess I’m just not high on Beal, especially with that contract.
I was starting to give up on RJ but this postseason showed me that he has what it takes. In two years he’ll be Beal’s equal on the court, on a much better contract with his prime still ahead of him.
The Knicks need to trade Randle, not RJ. Julius can’t handle the pressure, unfortunately. I think he’d shine in a smaller market.
This is actually a good deal for everyone involved.
RJ is an NBA starter at 22 yrs old. I’d say that’s small company while avg 20 pts a gm. He hasn’t progressed as much as I’d like. But I still see upside. Unfortunately his D has fallen off too. We only say that about players we think have talent …….
Unfortunately for NY the draft is very weak in 2024. Would have preferred any combination of 2023 picks opposed to 2024 picks.
2024 picks will change hands like trading cards is my guess.
I’d expect a lot of trades involving 2024 picks because the talent pool is very shallow.
Not the passer people thought? Could that be b/c of all the guys who need the ball in their hands he has played with, and lack of shooting around him?
Honestly, it isn’t hard to understand how certain things happen, but these people still so willingly say such wild things with so much conviction, and then they get credibility for it somehow?