What Knicks wing RJ Barrett needs to improve in Year 2
By Mike Vorkunov 4h ago
5
The 2020-21 season is now just days away. Can you believe it? Next season only took nine months to get here for the Knicks.
Ahead of it,
The Athletic is taking a look at the keys to development for several of the Knicks’ young players. This spring, we took a dive into what went right and wrong last season for
RJ Barrett,
Mitchell Robinson,
Kevin Knox and
Frank Ntilikina. This part of the series focuses on what needs to get better for each of them.
The first player under the microscope is Barrett, a wing who averaged 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game as a rookie, while shooting 40.2 percent from the floor. He didn’t make either of the NBA’s All-Rookie teams — causing a small uproar among the Knicks fans who care about All-Rookie teams — which was the coda to an uneven rookie year that had been cresting high before the season shut down due to the pandemic.
• NBA preseason:
How Knicks’ rotation could look to start 2020-21
Here’s where Barrett needs to improve this upcoming season and how it would benefit him and the Knicks.
Pick-and-roll
There are a lot of places to start with Barrett — he was a rookie last season, after all, and rookies struggle — but the pick-and-roll is the primary point of emphasis. Barrett had his moments running the pick-and-roll in 2019-20 but on the whole he needs work. He finished in the 25th percentile in points per possession as the ballhandler on these plays, according to Synergy Sports. Part of this was circumstantial. Barrett was placed in a difficult position, trying to make it work in an offense with poor spacing and few shooters and often dribbling into a paint clogged with defenders and teammates. As a starting point for his career, it was sub-optimal. Barrett showed promise on the few occasions when the Knicks ran a spread pick-and-roll and gave him an open middle of the floor to work with and Robinson as a rolling partner. He also struggled turning the corner on occasion. He turned the ball over on 12.7 percent of his possessions, via Synergy. His jump shot didn’t scare defenders and he received room to shoot if he wanted. There were also things to like. He can be a savvy passer and his ability to the rim is well-chronicled. There were moments that showed off his talent.
Still, it’s unlikely that things will get significantly easier for Barrett this season, though he should benefit from Tom Thibodeau’s coaching and the presence of Obi Toppin, who should make for a more dangerous partner than Julius Randle. Barrett was drafted as a wing with All-Star potential and to reach that he’ll need to show he’s capable of carrying the burden of an offensive playmaker and become more efficient creating and scoring out of the pick-and-roll. If he can’t, then his career could go down a different trajectory. Of course, it’s too early to go down that road. Reasonable progress this season would mean a jump in efficiency and an opportunity to run pick-and-roll in less chaotic circumstances. Barrett will need to show that he can succeed in tight spaces and against defenses set on stopping him, but it doesn’t always need to be so damn hard, and it’s on Thibodeau and the Knicks coaching staff to ease the tension on him.
Jumper
Of the 72 players to take at least 150 free throws in their rookie season since the 2010-11 season, only 24 have shot less than 70 percent from the free throw line. Only seven of those 25 were guards or wings, and they are a collection of non-shooters: Dennis Smith Jr., Elfrid Payton, Josh Jackson, Emmanuel Mudiay, Ben Simmons and Barrett. Only Brandon Ingram emerged as a shooter later in his career. He went from shooting 62.1 percent from the line as a rookie — and sub-70 percent in each of his first three seasons — to a 39 percent 3-point shooter and 85 percent from the line last season.
That stat isn’t meant to close the window on Barrett eventually becoming a decent shooter, but it does show how rare it is for guards and wings to shoot that poorly as rookies but turn it around later. Barrett, who shot 61.4 percent from the line last season, was the eighth-worst shooter from that list of 72, which shows how far he has to go. For a player whose game is predicated on getting to the rim — his 4.5 free throws per game last season were the fifth-most by a rookie in the last 10 years — it would go hand-in-hand.
This isn’t just about his free throw shooting, but overall questions about his shot. He’ll need to improve in Year 2 to become a more dangerous offensive player.
The logic on this is obvious and doesn’t need to be unwound. This will be the latest indication to see if he’ll do it. It wouldn’t be unprecedented or even unlikely. Of the 115 rookies who took at least 150 3s in a season over the last 10 years, only 57 shot better than 34 percent. Barrett hit 32 percent of his 3s. Improvement, as Kristaps Porzingis, Nikola Mirotic and Kemba Walker showed it can get better.
Finishing against defenders
One of Barrett’s biggest issues as a rookie was his ability to finish plays, especially at the rim. He has a proclivity to get to the basket — he took 48 percent of his shots at the rim in non-garbage minutes, according to Cleaning The Glass, which put him in the 91st percentile among wings — but he had trouble hitting those shots. He hit 54 percent of those shots, via Cleaning The Glass, which was in the 23rd percentile.
That’s not a horrible problem to have. Getting to the rim usually leads to good things happening, warts and all. But it can get better. Of the 55 players who took at least 300 shots within 5 feet of the rim last season, Barrett had the lowest field goal percentage at 50.9 percent. (Coincidentally, Robinson had the highest.) Barrett had his shot blocked 60 times as a rookie, or on 8.3 percent of all shot attempts. But that number jumped when he shot within 5 feet of the rim, where 13.4 percent of his shots got blocked.
Barrett isn’t an elite athlete, which makes it hard for him at times. But he is also relentlessly aggressive, an admirable trait. At times, it gets him in trouble, like when he attacks big men at the rim, trying to dunk on whoever is in front of him. It’s hard to ask someone to dial down their aggressiveness, especially when it’s a feature, not a bug, of their game. But if Barrett can find a way to modify it to make him more efficient, it will help