Did RJ Barrett play his way into being a building block for the Knicks?
Knicks guard RJ Barrett in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Heat at Madison Square Garden. Credit: AP/Mary Altaffer
As questions surround many of the top picks from the 2019 NBA Draft — with the health of Zion Williamson and the off-court decisions of Ja Morant the most pressing — maybe RJ Barrett’s place as the third pick behind them is being reconsidered.
For whatever ups and downs he’s endured under the glare of the spotlight in New York for four seasons, at just 22 years old, Barrett is a no-drama worker, and maybe that’s enough to build on.
Searching for a piece to take them to the next level, the Knicks have the assets — young talent, draft picks and expiring contracts — to make a deal happen. But to get talent, you have to give talent, and a few weeks ago, it might have seemed that would be Barrett. And maybe it will be — or will it be Julius Randle?
When Barrett arrived at training camp and spoke with the media for the first time this season, he said, “I definitely think we’re going to shock the world.”
That became a punch line immediately — and then an accurate prediction, as the Knicks went as far in the playoffs as they had in 10 years.
But it wasn’t all that he spoke about on that day. He spent a lot of time answering for the summer — one in which he was dangled as a trade chip before finally signing a contract extension when a potential deal for Donovan Mitchell fell apart.
“Personally, anyone who is close to me will tell you, I literally didn’t pay attention to any of it,” Barrett said that day. “Just for my own sanity. I’m a big believer in whatever happens happens. I played my three years. I did everything I could for my team, did everything for myself. Put my heart and blood and tears into it. Whatever happened, I was going to be OK with. Gave everything I got. I wasn’t really worried.”
It’s hard to say if those words rang true as he struggled through portions of the regular season. His overall shooting percentage ticked upward this season, but his three-point shooting continued to descend, from 40.1% two seasons ago to 34.2% last season to 31.0% this season. The playmaking the Knicks hoped to see from his runs to the rim never seemed to come as he averaged only 2.8 assists per game.
He admitted that at times it took work to adapt to a new role — third in line offensively behind Randle and newly acquired Jalen Brunson. After talking about goals of being an All-Defensive Team member, he also took a step backward in that role, with Quentin Grimes displacing him as the player charged with guarding the opposition’s best perimeter player.
But in the postseason, Barrett provided a reminder that maybe his words were true.
After he had two poor offensive performances against Cleveland to start the playoffs, there were prominent media voices calling for him to be benched, but Barrett responded by averaging 22.5 points per game over the next eight playoff games. With Grimes sidelined for part of it, he also took on a more prominent defensive role and excelled.
And when he finished the season with a nightmarish shooting effort — 1-for-10 — in the final game last Friday night, he didn’t hide, instead taking the blame on his shoulders.
“I played terrible,” he said minutes after the game ended. “I’m very disappointed in how I played today. I don’t know. Just, it’s a lot right now. You fight for something, you want something so bad and then I personally did not — I don’t feel like I played my best. It hurts, but it’s good to have experiences like these. You can learn from them. They’re a very good team, very experienced. They’re very poised. So you can learn from that.”
You can see Barrett learning. He defended well in the playoffs against the likes of Mitchell and Jimmy Butler. He attacked mismatches offensively and passed with a vision he has rarely shown. And he showed that maybe he is a piece worth placing as a building block alongside Brunson for the long term.
“You look across and every night the playoffs are different,” coach Tom Thibodeau said after Game 6. “The intensity of the games is different. You’re not going to be great in every game, no one is. You gotta bounce back the next game. So take what we learned from it, work all summer to get better.”
The postseason successes and even the defeat might be a lesson applied for Barrett. So even if his contract makes him easier to deal this summer than at the in-season deadline, he might not be the piece to move now.
“Being my second time in the playoffs, I was a little more comfortable,” Barrett said. “But I think experience helps, for sure. Even looking at the Heat, some of the things that they were able to do during the game, you could just tell it was from the experience they had. So it helps, and it’s great to go up against a team like that. We still think that we could have won, but we came up short.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
