RJ Barrett’s faces critical 2022 for the New York Knicks

New York Knicks: Consistency, assertiveness are keys for RJ Barrett in 2022

You can blame external factors (the offense, the coaching, teammates) all you want, but I promise you, players with RJ Barrett’s pedigree aren’t struggling in year 3 if they’re budding stars, no matter what their circumstances are.

I bring up his pedigree because, well, RJ Barrett has been a top prospect for a long long time. He was one of the players to ever be the player of the year in his junior and senior years of high school. He was a star at Duke University. He was the 3rd overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

He isn’t some raw prospect who picked up a basketball when he was 16, he has been at the top of his competition for a long time.

Now, here we are in year 3 of his NBA career and we’re going to be talking about his 2nd contract. So far, he hasn’t been a max player.

For RJ Barrett to be that “untouchable” young player for the New York Knicks, it’s all about consistency.

Like I said, some of his struggles, no matter how bad they may look, actually seem very fixable. The shooting touch and finishing around the rim… There are times, like in the team’s last game against the Thunder, where you never would have guessed it was a weakness of his.

He needs that same assertiveness and drive every single time he touches the ball.

Right now, we actually know that Barrett is a really strong catch-and-shoot weapon. If he starts driving to the rim with more frequency and establishing himself as an actual 3-level threat, it’s going to open up his whole game.

I am not exactly sure what RJ Barrett’s value is today, on January 1st, 2022, but we’ll hopefully get a clearer picture soon enough.