Gilbert McGregor makes the case for the Knicks’ newest great hope…
At Duke, Barrett averaged 4.3 assists per game, a mark that was second on the team and sixth among all players in the ACC. With even more talented players around him in the NBA, Barrett will continue to be able to create for others.
In Summer League, Barrett’s playmaking ability was on full display in one game as he flirted with a triple-double by recording 21 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.
Thanks to his rebounding and ball-handling ability, Barrett will have plenty of opportunities to lead the break in transition with a team full of young athletes capable of running the floor.
In these instances, there will be no shortage of highlights as Barrett’s assist numbers are sure to benefit.
In half-court situations, Barrett has shown the ability to be patient in pick-and-roll situations. During the Blue Devils NCAA Tournament win over Virginia Tech, he was aggressively hedged and trapped after high ball screens on multiple possessions.
His response? Calmly escape, finding the open men for easy buckets
Is it mostly wishcasting? Yeah, probably, but the big thing is that Barrett is the first Knick since Porzingis that you reasonably could wishcast a superstar career on, and this is the first wing that we could do this about since…uhmmm…Bernard King? It’s been quite a while!
So I’m all in on Barrett being a great playmaker and a transformative player! You sort of have to to have any hope for this particular Knicks team.
103 replies on “NBA.com Canada: How RJ Barrett can impact the New York Knicks in his rookie season”
I don’t think it’s wishcasting to hope RJ develops into a good playmaker in the NBA.
Damnit, the Mets are starting to pull me back in. Its all a trap to break my heart again, but I am a hopeless romantic.
before i forget – could someone please share the code for embedding a url into a word or phrase?
wanted to reply to jowles’ story with a gif:
https://i.giphy.com/media/D3OdaKTGlpTBC/giphy.webp
just inserting the link itself though looks messy…
they certainly are looking pretty amazing at the moment…maybe 6 or 7 teams with a really good shot at one of those two NL spots…and, the mets have the best staff probably of any of them…
The Mets have a chance against anybody with our starting rotation. It’s been a long road back into the playoff picture, and now we have a big weekend ahead of us. I’m just enjoying the ride we’ve been on, and hopefully we get into the playoffs and do some damage.
And RJ Barrett has a good chance of being a 5 assist guy early on. The problem is he, Smith Jr, and Randle are all best with the ball in their hands. It’s going to be an interesting season for sure.
Emphasis on “hopeless.”
three games over .500 and among five teams vying for a wild card, and a sense that they are playing at least somewhat over their heads.
But, hey, the Yankees have seven former all stars on the IL and they have the best record in baseball, so who know?
If RJ and Mitch share the court for a healthy 20 minutes per game, 3 assists is a veritable floor for that duo alone.
There is only one man who has ever known how to do that
I hope RJ averages 5 assists per game this year and plays lights out defense. Then I won’t need to sweat the fact he can’t shoot free throws too much.
The Mets are right at their pythag W/L while Milwaukee and Philly, two of the teams ahead of them in the wildcard race, both have 4 more wins than their pythag W/L and both of those teams have a negative run differential.
Of course, Cincinnati and especially Arizona are way underperforming. If they get their shit together we’re doomed.
I think RJ will have a very good career and I’m interested in seeing if he can become a point forward. He has good court vision.
Plus one of the easiest remaining schedules in the league.
Word. But if I know them they’ll shit the bed against the Nationals just to fuck with us for believing again.
Their upcoming schedule isn’t actually that great now. They have run through a bunch of bad teams….
From Twitter
@15
Kind of seems like the 2-7 from the field would undermine anything positive we’re supposed to take from that
5 assists and two steals in 18 mins is still pretty good. Still have hope for Frank.
The Mets can’t afford another injury to any of their position players. They have seven non-replacement level position players active right now and are already at replacement level at one position. Another injury to any of those seven and it starts getting difficult to put together reasonable lineups.
I don’t think 2 for 7 from the field is that bad if he got seven points out of it. That’s actually kind of Melo-like. If he can score with Melo’s efficiency on low volume but defends, gets assists and gives us a flowing offense, I think people here might consider him a nice player to have.
I guess, but defense wasn’t Frank’s issue. His general unplayability on offense was. 5 assists is nice, but I would feel a lot more hopeful if he was scoring at the clip he should against inferior competition.
Let’s not get too excited. France defeated Tunisia 94-56. It wasn’t a good game.
Link to the box score
Frank went 2-7. 2Pt: 1-4, 3pt: 1-3.
….and he played 22:36
Geo it’s not too hard.
1. You press the button that says “link” right above the box where you put in your post, then you put in the url in the window that pops up, and press OK. Now you see on the screen some html stuff that you can ignore.
2. Here comes the hard part. You now have to go to the closing “>” symbol, and to its right type anything you want. For example: a gif for you.
3. Now the finishing touches: you press the same button you did in step (1). It’s now titled “/link”, and it closes the html tag.
4. You either continue to write right there, or press enter for a new paragraph. For the purpose of this tutorial press enter.
Finally here’s a polarizing daily for you, ha ha
Frank sucks real bad
this is for you Ingmarrrr
oh yea and jowles – reference the barber shop story
oh, this is sooooooo much fun 🙂
just checked the old thread – thank you very much Vincoug 🙂 holy cow – is this you Vincoug
man ya’ll are some industrious folks…i have a prayer for owen meany on a book shelf…i really enjoyed the hotel new hampshire and followed that up with the owen meany book…whew, it’s been a lot of years since i’ve read it though…
I’m going to start watching some of Frank’s games. I’ll report more detailed info when I do.
From what I gather, he’s clearly been the best PG on the team for running the offense and making plays. They are saying he’s been way more aggressive going to the basket and making plays off of penetration. His defense has been excellent as expected. However, he’s still opting to pass instead of shoot in marginal situations and has not shot the ball well so far.
I’d sum it up by saying the impression I’m getting is that he’s a much improved player running the team, but still very weak as a scorer.
Word is that Lowrie is finally about to resume baseball activities. Let’s hope he comes back healthy and able to contribute.
Lol, how did you find that? Yeah, that’s me. God, I haven’t updated that in years!
I’ve only read Cider House Rules and Prayer for Owen Meany but just based on those two I love John Irving. Really should try to read more of his books.
3 of Frank’s misses were layup attempts. Against Tunisia.
Meet the new Frank, same as the old Frank.
Watching people pretend that Frank Ntilikina isn’t a bust is pretty entertaining I have to say.
I mean, I still hope he can turn into a good player just like I hope every Knick turns into a good player. I just don’t think there’s a chance in hell of that happening.
this is a test of a link to google
It worked!
Thanks Ingmarrrr
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https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_img.asp
hmmmmm, not sure whom i trust less with that kind of info – myself, or – everyone else…leaning strongly towards myself at the moment 🙂
Edit: oh shit – just remembered we went through this exercise about a year ago(?)…thankfully – i think we concluded that you have to have admin privileges to make it work…
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first thing i noticed was the tape on his shoulders…in order to have any hope – frank’s got to find a way to stay healthy enough to even be available…
Watching the videos, I still think Frank has a chance to be a good NBA player. I hope he gets that full chance with the Knicks.
Is being in the 0 percentile for scoring good?
He should get a tonsure.
I don’t think of Owen as a meany. Except after the Melo trade…
Still angry about Melo.
I went through a big Irving phase. The World According to Garp is I think the classic gateway drug there. In the end, I think what I found most interesting about it was how underappreciated Irving felt he was. Big chip on his shoulder towards critics and even other writers.
Very entertaining writer, no doubt….
With Owen that Garp is the perfect gateway Irving. But I vastly prefer Hotel New Hampshire. Not a big fan of Cider House – it’s fine, but not as good as Garp and HNH. I’m actually reading Until I Find You now, since I was thinking, hey, just because he had a clunker or two doesn’t mean I should give up on him. So I’m looking for less-loved gems.
Should add that you can ignore Water Method Man and 158-Pound Marriage. Each has its merits, mostly some good comic scenes, but he hadn’t put it all together yet. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, is pretty good, though.
You should see the guy in the -1 percentile
I’m probably late to the party, but has anyone been able to watch the French National Team? I feel like the highlights I’ve seen are cherry-picked, but Ntilikina “looks” more aggressive on offense, and is kinda imposing his will on defense. Shot is still shit though. The kid is definitely still growing though. He looked more like a forward physically than a guard.
Ntilikina looks as terrible as ever. No burst, no offensive skill. But since according to Strat, he’ll be 7’0″ and 275 lbs soon, sure, we should keep him and his $5 mill contract around. Hopefully in the G’League, where he should have been all along.
Unless something dramatic happens in FIBA, I would be shocked if we opt in on Frank in October. Bet the under.
A pretty fair Frank scouting thread (with clips) from Spencer Pearlman, who acknowledges that the shot still needs to get much better, but points out the areas in his game (aggression, in particular) that have improved since last we saw him.
https://nypost.com/2019/08/07/kevin-durant-tell-all-it-was-never-the-knicks-always-the-nets/
Probably needs its own thread. I don’t know how the revelation that Durant never was actually considering the Knicks should be filed.
It’s not exactly a surprise. Nor was it a surprise I guess that we deluded ourselves for a long time about it. Bottom line, people don’t want to play for Dolan. They want to play for a team with a great front office. Because that’s what matters most.
#UjiriMe
Eh, Durant on Durant is…not the most reliable. Combined with the fact that “this is the only place I ever wanted to play” is classic platitude and I put basically no weight on those comments. The Knicks were pretty clearly more confident he was coming than they should’ve been, but I don’t buy at all that it was only ever going to be the Nets. Doesn’t pass the smell test to me.
I was listening to a podcast a while ago from someone fairly well connected (Simmons or Lowe or someone like that) and they were strongly implying that KD decided he didn’t want to go to the Knicks after we traded Porzingis.
The Nets did a great job finding and developing talent. Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, Jarrett Allen, and Spencer Dinwiddie probably isn’t worlds better than what we have in Mitchell Robinson, RJ Barrett, Dennis Smith Jr, and Julius Randle, but the Nets took those guys and made them valuable pieces. We still have to prove that we didn’t make a huge mistake trading Porzingis (spoiler alert: we didn’t), and that we have the right guys in place to build a winner.
It has nothing to do with James Dolan, really. As long as he continues to cut the checks and not get involved in the decision making process, the Knicks have a chance. I’d be more comfortable with Sam Presti over Steve Mills and Scott Perry (even though I like Perry), but this organization isn’t the shit show it was when Isiah Thomas was in town.
Tunisia’s best player is a 3rd string center for the Mavs who’s averaged 12min a game the past few seasons. Almost all the other players either play in the Tunisian league or the French 2nd division. It’s a squad that didn’t qualify for the last Olympics despite their qualifying tourney being held in Tunisia. They are not a good team.
So those Frank clips didn’t really show me anything. His defense is good at the POA, but all the negatives are still there. He should be able to get to the rim at will against these jobbers. He still lacks burst and his dribbling is still too high. Some of the passes were nice, but he’s flashed some of that his first 2 seasons. He’s still nowhere near being an NBA playmaker. His jump shot + finishing don’t look like they’ve improved much despite his increased strength.
He’ll make a great tank general down the stretch if the season goes off the rails. Only reason I’d keep him on the squad.
I mean, sure, a B- is better than an F. Dolan’s money can buy great management though. I want Ujiri.
Haiku:
What light through yonder
tunnel gleams? It is the Q.
I needed the B.
Woj reported that Durant and Kawhi were discussing ways to team up together. If you trust Woj (and I do), that discredits Durant’s claim that the nets were the only team he was considering leaving golden state for. That article strikes me as self serving BS.
A guy as sensitive and rabbit-eared as Durant really should avoid taking shots at the team almost all basketball fans in his city support. He seemed to resent not getting love in the Bay Area. He may get actual hate in NY.
That was last week.
According to reports this week, he broke a backboard dunking in practice. 🙂
I said it from day 1 right in the face of every media report to the contrary. Durant to the Knicks never made sense because we were a tanking piece of garbage team. Top players do not jump ship to go to garbage teams. The whole strategy was idiotic. You can rebuild from scratch with an all out tank and go on a 6-8 year journey if you want, but trying to get stars when you are tanking won’t work. To get the stars you need the space PLUS some solid ready for prime time players.
Going to the Nets was marginal because they got rid of a LOT of very good role players to make the space. If I didn’t have some faith in Nets management to get some development and find other good values, I’d expect them to be very disappointing this year.
The Durant interview shows why the Knicks should give up these pie in the sky FA fantasies as long Dolan is the owner. KD specifically mentioned the Nets creative front office as a reason for choosing them. The Knicks will never have that under Dolan.
The Knicks best shot at a superstar is in the draft or by trade. That’s why they should’ve been grabbing every asset they could with their cap space. No great players want to voluntarily play for Dolan.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/8/8/20756167/rj-barrett-new-york-knicks
I wonder if Tjarks reads knickerblogger
I’ve read almost everything he’s done.
Last Night in Twisted River brought me to tears.
Remember the Chinese phrase She bu de and for me the surprising sense that I didn’t want to say goodbye to characters like Dominic Baciagalupo. I guess any dad in love with his children will understand.
@60
NY can rebuild with a combination of drafting and free agency (and of course trades) , but you can’t get stars until you have some solid pieces already in place. We’ve learned that lesson repeatedly in recent years but somehow fans still believe in miracles. The closest we’ve ever gotten to getting a star to come to NY on a bad team was Amare and that was only because no one else was crazy enough to pay him the extra year. I practically disagree with everything this management team does, but at least we are not in a hopeless position from here. It’s still just a very long path.
Fucking exactly! Tunisia is so outmatched in this game that France beat them 94-56 and Frank still can’t do anything. He is admittedly, passing the ball pretty well with 11 assists to only 2 TO but dude still can’t hit shots going 2-10 so far and still can’t rebound only grabbing 2 total.
Watching some of the highlights of the tournament, I’m not sure many teams are even playing much defense.
And Frank doesn’t even start for France.
And while he had a few decent dishes, he’s simply not a factor in these games.
Context is everything.
Yeah, if you can’t hit shots against goddamned Tunisia, you won’t score in the NBA. I think most of us have realized by now that Frank will never be a scorer, the hope, if there’s still any hope, is that he does everything else well to compensate that. I just don’t know if there’s any level he can reach everywhere else that will compensate for a guard who can’t score at all.
That’s a good piece on RJ. There is a lot riding on whether we get GoodRJ or BadRj.
How many PGs have come into the league looking as clueless on offense as Ntilikina?
Giannis wasn’t even that bad as a rookie, despite being years away from Point Guard Shaq. His rookie highlights make him look smooth compared to the Shellshocked Tuesday Night Pickup PG known as Frank.
Nobody is gonna give a shit about Dolan if we build even a low seeded playoff team like the Nets did this year. If we somehow manage to reach just the 8th seed with our young core (in the next few years) then people will say the Knicks are back on track and that Dolan has finally figured it out. Despite him not doing anything differently at all.
How many rotation player-quality wings are there in the NBA who are truly inept scorers? I’d say none. That kind of player was not super valuable in the first place and is now essentially extinct.
Frank can’t dribble, can’t shoot, and can’t convert at the rim. He doesn’t possess the basic building blocks of offense. If you’re in year three of your NBA career and people are still saying “well maybe he’ll learn to dribble” about you it is not a real good sign.
Honest question: if you replaced Frank with any of the top-10 PGs in the G-League, would their stats have been as good or better?
Back on track suggests they were once on track.
Five playoff seasons in 18 years (this century). Four winning seasons in 18 years.
622-920
W/L%, .403
They have lost 50 or more games for the last five seasons, two of which they lost 65, averaging almost 57 games lost per season out of 82.
So, what exactly is on track for the Knicks…? lol
If he’s healthy and still inept on offense Andre Roberson.
But even Roberson is the last of a dying breed in a way, and he’s truly a very very good defender. Even so, sometimes he actively hurt OKC by being so incapable of hitting 3s specially. I don’t think there’s a place for Tony Allen type of players in the game anymore unless they have size and can hit the corner 3 at least, like PJ Tucker, who can guard forwards and even some centers, rebound and shoot some 3s. Ntilikina can’t rebound for his size and with his frame, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to keep up guarding much bigger guys like Tucker or Marcus Smart can.
You don’t have to guess, we saw it last year. And the answer is: SIGNIFICANTLY better
Mitch injured scrimmaging with team USA.
Most Dolans razor moment yet?
I think you can still get buy as a non-shooting wing but you have to be able to score from somewhere, which Frank can’t do. Also Roberson or a Tony Allen were valuable as parts of good defenses. To whatever extent a largely defensive wing is valuable I think they’re pretty useless without other good defenders. If you’re out there with Trier and Knox and you can’t score they’re just going to throw the ball to the guys guarded by Trier or Knox.
@77
Yeah, I agree. Roberson is a part of what has been a very good OKC defense on most levels, but his value for a weaker defensive team is probably a lot lower. We’re not asking for Frank to be a scorer, just for him to have one single decent offensive skill so that the game is not a 4 against 5. We’ve seen this movie with Lance Thomas, and Lance did have a stretch where he could shoot 3s well at very low volumes.
Can you verify this?
Here ya go Z-Man
fuck
That’s kind of the thing about Frank. There’s maybe one wing in the entire NBA who gets by with pitiful offensive skills, and even that player has questionable value and might not be able to crack NBA rotations that much longer.
At this point this is getting kind of silly. Frank can’t play guard because he can’t dribble or shoot, and he can’t play forward because he can’t rebound. His best position is DNP.
damn…i started choking on that one cuz i laughed so hard…
Along came Jones……
Any of our resident football geniuses have anything to say about Mr.Jones’ debut for the G-men?????
Let’s not get too cocky. But the contrast between Eli and Jones tonight was shocking. I’m so used to Eli that I thought Jonses’ TD pass was a sure pick. But Jones had enough juice to get it past the first DB and the perfect placement to get it to the WR at the pylon.
Encouraging start.
Hey, not cocky at all but some of the comments here were so NY know it all because Mel Kiper sad so foolish weak sauce fan comments. If he makes the HOF its a bad pick because they didn’t trade down nonsense.
I never saw the guy play a down before tonight but Ray Charles could see he is dripping with talent. Made ever read properly and every throw was perfectly precise with lots of pace.
He was playing with grade C athletes against grade A athletes and still excelled.
Yeah the group think thing is tedious, but par for the course.
They took him out way too soon. He was making their golden boy Eli look bad
LOL at you guys sucking each other’s dicks because dude had one good series against a hapless Jets team playing vanilla preseason defense
Manning earned everything he has received around here. It isn’t fair to call him a “golden boy.” The throw he made to Mario Manningham in the NFC Championship game after silently getting the shit beaten out of him for three quarters is one of the greatest clutch throws in NFL history. He played better than Aaron Rogers in GB and Brady twice in the biggest spots. He’s had a pretty good career…..
I am interested to see how he plays behind a competent OL for the first time in 5 years.
Eli last year threw for almost 4300 yards, completed 66% of his passes and while he only threw 21 TD he also only threw 11 int. Good luck getting Jones to put up those stats in his rookie year. Eli’s 2017 season was pretty poor especially with the stats QB’s put up nowadays but Eli was very good from 2014-2016 when he was somewhat rejuvenated after McAdoo took over the offense.
Eli is the golden boy because he won 2 Super Bowls, is the greatest QB in franchise history and to me at this point has become underrated for his career. He had a few poor seasons sprinkled throughout his career but if you actually look at his stats he’s been a very good QB for his entire career. He’s not just a mediocre QB who had 2 lucky postseason runs as his detractors would like you to believe.
No, no…. just pointing out that clearly the geniuses have’t a clue as to whether the guy could play…. and clearly he has the tools. But the ” if he makes the HOF as the 6th pick it is terrible” is just dumb.
I love what Eli has done, but he’s been washed up for years. You’re talking up Eli’s numbers from last season the way melo fans talk up his pointz. By all of the advanced metrics Eli has been garbage for years.
LOL at you guys sucking each other’s dicks because dude had one good series against a hapless Jets team playing vanilla preseason defense
I may be over excited at watching a Giants QB who can throw an accurate pass with juice.
But tell me if any of the following statements is false:
1) You’ve never seen Daniel Jones play
2) You wouldn’t know Daniel Jones if you saw him walk into your house
3) You’re basing your entire opinion of Daniel Jones on what sports writers and talking heads write/say.
Don’t get me wrong, Eli is way past his prime and it was definitely time to find his successor. Although not sure if the 6th pick in this year’s draft was the time to do so.
My thing is people love to blame Eli for how bad the Giants have been the past few years but they have had a ton of issues and Eli has been the least of their problems. I pointed out his stats because they are way better than he gets credited for, he has been far from garbage.
He had mediocre stats in a crummy conference.
I’m sure he slayed in that All-Star game doe, much like Kevin Knox crushes it at 3-on-3.
And hey, maybe Kevin Knox will turn out to be a great player! But prolly not.
I’m pretty baffled as to why there isn’t a more concerned reaction about the news that Mitch’s knee is hurt…
Because he “hurt” it and then was back on the floor in 48 hours.
Yeah, because it seems nothing happened to Mitch at all, they said it’s just a soreness in the NY post text I read, they’re just being super cautious about it.
I’m glad I can’t watch football anymore without getting super bored, cause I’d be sweating everything that happened with the Giants like I used to.
I’d love to participate in the group think, but I don’t even know who Eli is. A football player?
Also, if it’s not too late, I’d like to say that John Irving is a master and he’s never written a bad chapter in his life. Garp is up there with the great works of the 20th century, and even a lesser work like the 4th Hand is a gem.
August sucks for basketball, but it’s great for reading John Irving books.
Holy shit it’s Ted Nelson… when’s Jon Abbey coming back
That article was suuuuuuuuper full of shit (that’s why I didn’t give it its own thread. 😉 )
Ha!
It trolled me quite effectively, I can tell you that….