NY Knicks: Responding to RJ Barrett being left off The Athletic’s top 125 players

NY Knicks: RJ Barrett has been a victim of analytics

I’ve already gotten to a lot of detail about this but I’ll just elaborate further on this idea that RJ Barrett is some sort of “negative” player who simply isn’t better than the “versatile defender” that plays on a contender who can’t take more than 2 dribbles or make any high-level play unless they’re wide open.

I have bad takes all of the time. I also have had some great ones. That’s what comes with analyzing athletes, teams, and predicting success and failure.

However, the thing with analytics lists like this, is that I can easily see a scenario where they double down on their takes two years from now. It already seems to be happening with Barrett despite the leap from his rookie season.

Let’s say RJ Barrett continues his trajectory towards being a great player, let’s say in year 4 he’s averaging 22-6-4, is a good wing defender, and grows into an even stronger leadership role on a playoff team. I could see someone who ranked him lowly, like in this list, saying “Yea well, the data said he was inefficient, so actually I was right”.

It’s the “THIS IS A FACT” attitude that really does plague a lot of sports conversations and debates.

^ This guy has been the poster child of “real-hoopers” talk and the butt-end of plenty of jokes because of how they act like a prophet leading an “awakening” of “real hooping”, where we ignore advanced ways of looking at the game and simply focus on “buckets”.

Like I said earlier, there’s the other side of this stubborn basketball analysis too. I’ll never forget the night that Anthony Edwards had a wild dunk, and Nate Duncan, a cap and analytics expert tweeted something of the effect of “Not impressed. What about his REAL-RAPTOR +/- PERCENTAGE?

Some serious Oscar from The Office “well actually” vibes.

He was rightfully roasted alive by all of social media that night. It makes you wonder if these guys actually enjoy discussing and watching basketball or they’re just constantly chasing the joy of being “correct”?

Bottom line is that you need to cover your bases. You need to listen to what analytics guys are saying. You need to listen to how actual NBA players and coaches are talking about the game and certain players.

RJ Barrett’s game isn’t flashy. He plays for the NY Knicks, who have been a laughing stock for the past 20+ seasons.

He took a leap in his 2nd year because he maximized his strengths and minimized his weaknesses. He’s not very fast laterally, but he began to use his ridiculous strength and length to create space and get better shots.

He was once considered a horrendous shooter and ended the season shooting over 40% from 3 and 74% from the free throw line. He struggles to defend quicker guards but has shown great flashes of defense against top NBA wings.

He is imperfect.

He is a great young talent who is already a really, really good NBA player. He’s just not a star…yet.