Through 66 games, the New York Knicks are in the driver’s seat for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. Though there was some level of optimism in some corners of the basketball world prior to the 2020-21 season, predicting this kind of showing from the Knicks would have drawn glazed-over stares in the preseason and, even after 37 impressive victories, not everyone is on board with New York’s performance being “real” at this juncture. Still, there have been plenty of plaudits for Julius Randle, who was rightly selected to the 2021 All-Star Game and is drawing deserved attention through the prism of All-NBA debates.
Randle is, without question, the biggest part of New York’s success on the floor, and he often shares credit with head coach Tom Thibodeau for spearheading the Knicks’ turnaround. After all, the best player and the head coach have a lot to do with the success or failure of any NBA team, which is a tale as old as time. However, New York also has supporting heroes this season, and perhaps the most prominent has been last year’s No. 3 overall pick RJ Barrett.
Barrett, the former No. 1 recruit in America, arrived with sky-high expectations coming out of Duke, and he did fill up box scores in his rookie season. Though it would be tough to argue that Barrett was a net positive as a rookie, most first-year players don’t break through that threshold, and he averaged 14.3 points per game while flashing his NBA-ready body, rebounding potential, and overall skill set — the tricky thing, of course, was having this translate into contributing to winning basketball, particularly due to some pretty rough efficiency numbers (40.2 percent from the field, 32 percent from three, 61.4 percent on free throws). Then, the lengthy offseason arrived and, while the hype train followed some of his rookie cohorts, Barrett operated in relative obscurity, at least when adjusting for the New York of it all.
This season, Barrett has been a different and better player, and the numbers bear that out. He is second on the team in scoring, averaging 17.6 points per game, with 5.7 rebounds and vastly improved shooting efficiency — 44.7/39.6/74.3 splits. As with many Thibodeau-led teams, he is getting “all you can eat” from a minutes perspective, averaging 34.7 minutes per night and appearing in all 66 games, but Barrett’s mentality and confidence also allows him to thrive in that setting.
“This year he’s just a complete—I wouldn’t say 180 [degrees], but as far as his mentality, he doesn’t let things affect him,” Randle recently told SLAM of Barrett’s development. “He’s very steady, confident and knows who he is as a player, and he’s just been proving it.”
Barrett’s season-long numbers are quite solid, and he’s been even more productive after the All-Star break. In 29 games since the March hiatus, he is averaging 18.9 points, which rises to 19.6 points per game in the last 10 contests. Barrett’s three-point shooting, currently at 45.5 percent in the last 10, is unsustainably hot in the present, but the mere fact that he is taking more threes is wholly encouraging for his development. He has gotten better as the season gone along, something that is invaluable with the postseason around the corner.
Beyond the scoring that he was best known for as a prospect, Barrett’s rebounding and overall physicality fit like a glove with New York’s current ethos. Barrett isn’t an elite defender at this stage, but he is stout and willing to engage, which is half the battle for a player with his tools. Advanced “catch-all” metrics largely paint him as a solid piece on that end of the floor but, for a 20-year-old wing with plenty of room to grow, that is encouraging at the very least.
It has to be noted that the Knicks may be catching lightning in a bottle that isn’t wholly replicable, particularly with Randle’s out-of-this-world play and Thibodeau seemingly pressing all the right buttons with a roster that isn’t overwhelmingly talented. However, there is a clear belief in New York, and Barrett, even at a young age, seems to be in the middle of it all. And the best part is that, unlike so many youngsters who have gone to the Big Apple and were eaten alive by the expectations that inherently come with that, Barrett seems to embrace the fact that he is playing under the bright lights of Broadway.
“I feel like we were the only ones that kind of believed in ourselves. No one thought we were going to be here,” Barrett told SLAM. “No one thought we were going to be in this position except for us. Even making the playoffs, we’re very excited for that. It’s not just about making the playoffs. We want to go far. We want to try to win championships. That’s what we’re about.”
Through two seasons, there are indications that Barrett may not join the tier with Zion Williamson and Ja Morant as franchise-changing entities at the top of the Draft. Within the last six months, though, Barrett has fortified his standing as one of the best prospects from the 2019 class and, in the process, he is operating as a key piece of the best Knicks team in a long time.