Can RJ Barrett handle the full pressure of Knicks fans?
By Max Hoover
Is RJ Barrett ready to handle the full pressure of the MSG lights? More importantly, are New York Knicks fans ready to view the future of the franchise through the same lens as the number one options who have come before him?
Most people reading those first two questions shouted an agitated “YES!” at their screens, but uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. After this past season’s intense back-and-forth with Julius Randle, fans are ready to make Barrett the number one guy and never look back, but there needs to be caveats applied to that sentiment.
Knicks fans think they’re ready to back RJ Barrett as the number one option but are they actually?
For starters, none of us know what will happen with Randle. Segments of the fan base were sure he’d be gone before last season…and again the minute he was able to be traded this year…and again at the deadline. And yet, the dude abides.
Randle’s presence serves as a cautionary tale for Knicks fans. In less than a year, the man went from New York’s mayor to a pariah in all five boroughs. It’s like he saw Rudy Giuliani’s career arc and thought, “I can conduct that whole symphony in eleven months.”
Randle is not above criticism. His play on the court warranted much of the flack he received this year. It’s fair for fans to expect more efficiency from their highest-paid player.
This brings us back to Barrett. He is due a maximum rookie extension of $181 million/5 years, per Marc Berman. That’s an average annual salary of $36.2 million or about $7 million more per year than what is in Randle’s contract.
That would worry me less if Barrett and Randle weren’t eerily similar players in the efficiency department. Per NBA.com, the pair were 13th and 14th respectively in Net Rating (both negative, by the way) this year, with Barrett only edging Randle by 0.3 points.
Another data point paints a much bleaker picture. NBA Math’s Total Points Added metric ranks Barrett dead last on the team. He is also one of only two players who played at least 1,000 minutes who is a negative in both Offensive Points Added and Defensive Points Saved. Evan Fournier is the other. Randle was positive in both categories.
Basketball-Reference’s PER and Win Shares data also gives the nod to Randle over Barrett. Maybe you hate this advanced data. That’s fine. Randle outperformed Barrett in the three major counting stats pieces and had a better field goal percentage.
The purpose of compiling this data is not to say that Randle should be the long-term solution for the Knicks. It is meant to demonstrate that New York fans have to be very careful what they wish for.
If Randle gets traded, the ray of hope around Barrett becomes a floodlight of expectation. Will Barrett’s play on the court be able to withstand that level of scrutiny?
Barrett then has two potential responses. He can either side with King Richard II’s lament that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, or he can take a modern-day Shakespeare’s approach:
“They say it’s lonely at the top, but this the best…ever.” If Barrett is a Big Boi fan, the Knicks will be in good hands.
