"The Season's Lost; but Obi Won" - NYK '22 Thread

Was talking to the homie on the Knicks

Dude basically said R.J. Barrett should not be in a Donovan Mitchell trade

Said he’s the best Knicks prospect since Patrick Ewing

Seeing a lot of Knicks pages dikk riding dude too

I get it he’s a good kid, works hard, fans finally feel they have that wing with star appeal, been a touted prospect since high school, seems loyal and committed to the org

But as far as his game goes I just don’t see it at all and I was initially high on him

Help me see it brehs

 

Bro he is a good player. Inefficient, yes but a lot of that is the team is not designed to make his life easy. Thibs offense for the starters is iso heavy for this era of basketball too. Eye test he is his own player which is cool, like we say Jimmy this, or Derozan that, but RJ is developing into his own style.

The main issue is NY hasn’t had a homegrown all star since Ewing and Ewing was two years older than RJ when the Knicks drafted him. This team we have is something we don’t have a reference for in NY. RJ is a All star player, and a season or two away from averaging 25+ if he gets enough touches.

Don’t stress RJ, stress Randle. They are bringing that knucklehead back and we got to hope he comes back with a edge to him.

 

To me this was a crazy statement considering during his time here Immanuel Quickley has been the better player

To me it can only be boiled down to his appeal as a potential star wing player with pedigree dating back to high school

As an actual on court player I felt guys like Porzingis, Gallo, and Wilson Chandler all looked better at the same stage of development

 

How do you not see anything in RJ ?

 

Only Porzingis did.

 

I remember being more impressed by them

Feel like with this eras spacing and pace if given the green light they’d be more productive players than Barrett currently is

 

I wasn't as high on RJ out of college because his game doesn't really have that "it" factor about it, so I do get that. But he's one of the most obvious hoopers I've ever seen. I know a lot of heads that don't put much into intangibles but I do. Him and IQ especially stand out for just being straight up hoopers, and those are the types of dudes that keep improving and can blow past whatever lid you put on their games. RJ gets the numbers, he's took this squad over at 21, and that's been the story everywhere he's gone (even starting to happen with team Canada).

IQ too though. Dude couldn't watch Christmas basketball without running to the gym to work on his game. You could see him taking bits of the players around him to add to his bag. Kemba's shovel dribble is elite...IQ started doing it before the first month of the season was over and had it perfected by new year. That's the type of shyt I mean by a hooper. Same with RJ asking Derozan to workout with him midgame. And by the end of this season, it feels like Obi might be too but just doesn't get enough playing time for us to enjoy watching him add to the bag in real time.

What's dope too is that I think Grimes and McBride fit the profile. But only time will tell.

 

That’s fair.

 

I just think your a hater for rj . We all have players we irrationally dislike . In the last two years you keep moving the goal post

 

Don’t see it. He was at 54 touches a game this year with 17 field goals and about 6 free throw attempts a game in 34.5 minutes to get 20 points on a putrid 51% TS.

It would take a lot for him to average that 25 a game a season or two from now. It would take a significant leap as a shooter and shot creator and those are not things that are easy to improve on.

 

I never moved the goal posts.

Through 3 seasons dude has not been good.

Knicks fans need to be objective instead of going head over heels for dude because he is likable. He is up for a big $ extension and star guys will be available.

 

I don't see why we would need to help you see anything. Donovan Mitchell couldn't get out the first round with a healthy Gobert and shooters. The fukk is he gonna come here and do with Julius Scam-dle

 

lmao you need to relax. for a guy with "no moves" he somehow has a higher career high than every single one of the players you named as a 3rd year player. at least kp made an all star game...but availability is the best ability.
oddly enough for a guy touted with an nba ready body his skillset development has to make him be viewed as a project. he may never be a superstar but he'll be a consistent 20ppg guy as long as his efficiency increases. he's gonna be a slow burn....him at 21 compared to him at 25 will probably be a different animal. the worker in him is gonna get those shooting splits up. the stiffness in his game is slowly dissipating...just looking at him from his rookie year tape til now
unless you think iq is steph curry reincarnated im not sure you can say he's a better prospect. his skillset is more modern basketball ready ...but as a shooter he hasnt shot over 40 percent from the field thus far in his career....but the splash plays he makes tells your brain his ceiling might be higher. man we thought alonzo trier was NICE but theres more to basketball than isolation ability.
we have done rj zero justice with how he's used and the players he plays next to.
boy spent 98 percent of the time with non-spacing center, a pf that cant really shoot either, multiple terrible point guards. shoutout to elfrid payton....and we're supposed to believe he's been put in a position to succeed.
IQ and RJ's game compliment each other extremely well but our coach never played them together.
RJ is amongst league leaders(and everyone in the top 20 are all allstars or fringe all stars with 1 or 2 exceptions..rj being one) in fastbreak points while we play literally the 2nd slowest pace in the league while always having a traditional rim runner in the game and a ball stopper like julius randle while also playing with a non-point guard that walks the ball up in alec burks that he's played 90 percent of his minutes with.
rj is gonna average 22+ next year on better splits. you just gotta let the aesthetic bias go for a moment and just let rj be who he is.
there are obvious holes in his game....but development isnt linear.
rj vs the heat is just a flash to what he might be in the future with a more consistent jumper and hunting mismatches so he can use his physicality and that was against a healthy top 5 defense.

 

That Utah team peaked with the core they have they are a second round exit at best with the talent level they have. Lol at Gobert and shooters as if that’s a championship level supporting cast.

Barrett will never be as good as Mitchell is now period.

 

I hesitate to debate with people who speak like they have a crystal ball, so that's one

Gobert was defensive player of the year last year and runner up this year. Utah Jazz defense was basically "Rudy save us." I know it's easier to shyt on him because he's easy to game plan for, but on a team with more defenders (or a better number one), they go far with him as the second best player. That's two

RJ doesn't really have that far to go to have a similar statline to Mitchell. I ran a comparison of their stats from Jan 1 on: On/Off Court Compare Traditional

Not really seeing anything definitive that tells me that RJ will never be in Donovan's league. He's 6'1 and 25 years old. He's not going to have the longevity that other star guards his size has unless his defense improves significantly. He's not a superstar yet. He couldn't beat a Dallas team with Jalen Brunson as it's best player more than once in 3 games. What is the allure here to trade RJ who at the very least can accomplish that same feat of losing to a Luka-less Maverick team (which I personally don't think he would do if you swapped them)?

RJ has 4 years to be the same age as Donovan now and accomplish more. You want to trade that for a guy who's never proven to be anything more than a big fish in a small pond?

My last thing: when are you gonna learn from past history? Trading for Donovan Mitchell and giving up our highest upside young talent is the Melo trade again. Been there, done that. Get stars to play next to the young talent we already have. Periodt