R.J. Barrett Takes Clear-Cut Top Scoring Role

If there is one thing we know about Tom Thibodeau, it is that he loves drawing plays up for his athletic guards and letting them have the ball when it matters most. He did it with Derrick Rose, he did it with Jimmy Butler, and now, he is going to do the same with R.J. Barrett, making the second-year guard out of Duke one of the best, young players in the league.

R.J. Barrett had a very solid rookie season last year, playing in 56 games and averaging 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and shooting 40.2% from the floor. This season, Barrett is going to take a giant step forward given his offensive attributes. He is a streaky shooter from deep, but his over playmaking abilities is what made him one of the top picks in the 2019 NBA Draft and given the lack of talent on the Knicks roster as a whole, he will be the leader of this team.

In his rookie season, R.J. Barrett averaged over 30 minutes per game on the court and was one of their key offensive players down the stretch. He scored less than 10 points in just 30% of the games he played in last season and is one of the better players in the league at shooting guard under the age of 24. 

At just 20-years of age, R.J. Barrett still has a lot of growing to do as a young player and is still improving his overall game, but the one thing that sets him apart from everyone else on the Knicks this year is that he has a pure instinct to score the basketball and can do it from anywhere on the court. Not many players in the league are gifted with the talent and offensive abilities that R.J. Barrett has and he will use this to his advantage this season, averaging over 20 points per game and improving his perimeter shooting.