![]() The first is pure catch-and-shoot opportunities. Two play types jump off the page and screen after watching these games. Rj barrett stts skin#There is more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to become a superstar scorer in the NBA, but grinding film from those three games in January revealed some patterns about Barrett’s path to becoming a more efficient scorer. Chapter Four: Who’s guarding RJ Barrett, and how? Not all basketball shots are created equally, regardless of location. It’s not a direct mapping, but they are clearly graphics of the same player or shot profile: a bit of work in each corner and a ton of traffic moving from the paint to above the break on the right side. My gut told me that he must have had a wildly different shot diet during that week in January. It would also be organizational malpractice for the Knicks to write those games off as a lucky streak and not analyze why Barrett had the performance he did. Maybe Barrett was just on a heater, and things slowed down for him (the pace numbers from above would support that idea). Dock Ellis once threw a no-hitter on LSD. Musicians go on runs where every note comes directly from their soul. Comedians talk about situations where they spend weeks crushing in front of every audience. We’ve all hit flow states before – that feeling that we can do no wrong in our work, especially if the task has any kind of artistry to it. Something different was happening in those games, but what was it? Chapter Three: Stardom is where the shots are Barrett averaged more shots and higher usage per game, but he still only registered 23.6 points per game on 41/35/72 shooting splits for the rest of the season. Some of the RJ Hive might also point out that these three days in January aren’t anything out of the ordinary for Barrett once he took more control of the offensive after the calendar turned to 2022. Still, even a slight leap in the season-wide averages would prove his true believers right that there could be an elite scorer buried under heaps of potential. Of course, no one is arguing that Barrett is near Durant’s level as a scoring nexus. For comparison, Kevin Durant averaged 63.4% this past season. The same thing holds for the true shooting percentage. Typically, bigs who do a lot of finishing around the rim are the archetypes who score those numbers. That effective field goal percentage would be one of the best wing numbers in the league if he averaged it for an entire season. How he led the Knicks through those games sets this three-game span apart from his other 30-point outings. He scored 31, 32, and 26 points, leading the Knicks to 15-, 23-, and 9-point wins, respectively. RJ Barrett played out of his mind on Jan. Those three days in January would become the sacred tome that made a monk out of me. If I were to root out and eradicate my Barrett skepticism, the initial ember would be buried somewhere in those three games. (Randle played in all three and also played well in two of them.) Most importantly, the Knicks convincingly won all three. Something else caught my eye as well, though: a stretch of three consecutive games that put all my questions to rest. Rj barrett stts free#Or the month prior, he dropped 46 points with 14 free throws in a 15-point home loss to the Miami Heat. For example, on March 22 against the Atlanta Hawks, Barrett scored 30 points on 9-25 and 11-17 from the line in a loss. There were indeed games that supported my fears. These Doubting Thomas-type ponderings bounce right off people with true faith: How many shots did he take in those games? Did the Knicks win? Who was guarding him? Did he attempt to make an unusually high number of free throws or threes? How many did Luka or Tatum have in their third season? He’s grown from zero to one to 11 such outings in each of his three years in the NBA. Jehovah’s Witnesses with Bill Clinton charm, and their persistent proselytizing is finally wearing me down.Ī Barrett aficionado sent me a meme a few weeks ago - a virtual leaflet creased and shoved in between my door jambs - that showed Barrett’s progression of 30-point games in his career. Those Barrett true believers are pesky positive people, though. My favorite team has a 22-year-old switchable wing with a blue-chip pedigree (fresh off averaging 20 points per game, mind you), and I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep if the Knicks included him in a trade for a star player. I just don’t see it.Īnd, truthfully, that bums me out. I am simultaneously baffled and inspired by folks who take to social media daily and publicly proclaim that Barrett will be a multi-time All-Star and a fringe All-NBA-level talent. I generally hate to make any basketball writing about myself, but I have a confession to make right off the bat: I have a hard time believing in RJ Barrett. ![]()
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