RJ Barrett is a worker, and with Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks you always have to start right there. With a smile, Thibodeau recently said that last year’s team reminded him of the ’90s Knicks, round-the-clock grinders who understood the commitment required to win consistently in the NBA.
Barrett would have fit right in with that ’90s group, a high Garden compliment. Even though most people his age (21) are still trying to figure out the secrets to success in life, Barrett already understands that to become a great player, you first need to develop a desire to be great.
Before the Knicks faced Toronto on Monday night, Thibodeau was asked if the absurdly young third-year wing has the makeup to be elite. Thibs is not one to offer false public praise about a player to avoid hurting his feelings, nor is he one to play along with a line of questioning just to get through the day.
This is what Thibodeau said about Barrett:
“He’s got a lot of talent. He’s an elite talent. And then when you start to measure his intangibles, you look at the toughness, you look at the basketball IQ, you look at the competitiveness. So those three things — he’s got a great work ethic. Those type of guys always get better.
“And he has a lot of pride in what he’s doing. He’s put a lot of time into his shooting, into his defense, into finishing. You just look at what he’s done at a young age. I thought he had a terrific year last year, averaging 18 points per game on a playoff team. That’s not an easy thing to do. He got better and better as the season went along. It carried over into the summer, it carried over into the fall, and it carried over now.”
Barrett made a big jump from his first season to his second, and now is trying to do the same from his second to his third. Toward that end, he just dropped 35 points in a victory over a Pelicans team playing without Barrett’s good friend and Duke teammate, Zion Williamson, who was out with yet another injury.
Knicks fans were dismayed when their loserville franchise lost its chance at the 2019 draft lottery to take Williamson with the No. 1 pick, falling to No. 3 and settling for the less dynamic Barrett. But if Williamson is almost never on the floor, hey, maybe this won’t turn out to be such a raw deal after all.
“You’ve got to be available to be great,” said Thibodeau’s former boss with those ’90s Knicks, Jeff Van Gundy, “and Barrett is available. [Julius] Randle and Barrett are both durable guys who can play big minutes game after game after game. Those two guys can play entire halves of hard-fought games, and that’s a huge advantage.”
Van Gundy said it is too early to know if Barrett can grow into a legitimate NBA star, but with Reggie Bullock in Dallas, the former Knicks coach believes Barrett’s increased defensive responsibilities will tell a lot about who he is and where his career is heading.
“Offensively, I was worried earlier about so many guys in the Knicks’ starting lineup needing the ball, and that Barrett might be the one overlooked,” Van Gundy said. “But he’s finding his places and his teammates are finding him. To see his shooting growth last season, and to see him making 3s off the dribble versus New Orleans, that big-time improvement speaks to his work ethic.
“If you’re willing to do the work and tinker with your mechanics, you’re going to get better as a shooter, and Barrett certainly has. Give him 95 percent of the credit, and then give Steve Mills some credit for taking him, because that was not an easy pick.”
The son of former St. John’s player Rowan Barrett, RJ declined a predraft workout invitation from Memphis (holding the second pick) and made it clear he wanted to play in New York. His Duke coach, Mike Krzyzewski, predicted that Barrett would “flourish” in the Garden, and that his multidimensional skills would someday allow him to post more than an occasional triple-double.
“He’s a star,” Krzyzewski said.
Stardom comes to those willing to pay a heavy behind-the-scenes price. Raptors coach Nick Nurse, who has Barrett on his Canadian national team, said he wished he would have seen more of the Toronto-born RJ over the summer. “But he just wasn’t going to leave his workouts,” Nurse said. “Give him credit for understanding that at an early age. Certainly all the work he’s put in this summer is paying off. He looks fabulous out there.”
No, there’s never been any secret to it. RJ Barrett might not end up being a great NBA player, but at least he’s giving himself the best chance to get there.