New York Knicks: RJ Barrett should be untouchable in trade talks

New York Knicks: RJ Barrett’s Offensive production + potential

Barrett’s raw numbers and shooting percentages look great, but it becomes even more exciting when you realize that he still has so much more room to grow.

For starters, shooting off the dribble. He displayed a solid pull-up mid-range jumper much of this past year, but it was only in short bursts and that shot never ventured too far away from the rim. In fact, over 97.6% of his threes were assisted, only operating as a catch-and-shoot threat.

This isn’t inherently bad, as it allowed Barrett to shoot 40% from deep. Plus, it’s clear that he’s already developing that aspect of his game as he showed it off in Olympic qualifying games a few weeks ago.

Although Canada ultimately ended up missing out on the Olympics, Barrett performed admirably. In their four games, he averaged 20.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game on 49% shooting.

The former Duke star has room to grow in both his finishing in the paint and his passing, even though he still averaged 3.0 assists to 1.9 turnovers and shot 61% at the rim. He’s already an acceptable volume scorer but can still improve in so many places, a great problem to have.

Another major area where he can get better at is drawing fouls, one of the only parts of his arsenal that regressed this year. After taking 4.5 free throws per game as a rookie, he only shot 3.8 per contest this year.

Barrett needs to use his physicality to draw contact more often on his drives into the paint, causing the ref to blow their whistle. He’s even gotten in-game pointers about it from All-Stars.

Drew Hanlen, Barrett’s trainer, has already confirmed that the now 21-year old will heavily focus on shooting off the dribble and finishing at the rim this offseason.

Barrett still has so much offensive potential that he can realize, which is wild to think about when you remember that he just averaged nearly 18 points per game on a playoff team. The NBA is dominated by shot-creating wing players, and it seems like RJ is next in line.