What Knicks’ RJ Barrett can learn from Jimmy Butler to solve greatest weakness
Welcome to Summer Training Plan, our annual offseason series where we delve into a specific area of improvement to help specific players take the next step in their development.
Knicks forward RJ Barrett is the next player to grab the spotlight.
RJ Barrett has made huge strides this past season, and you know what? He still has plenty of room to grow.
Three years away from the Knicks, who picked him #3 in the draft, Barrett averaged 20.0 points per game in 2021-22. Not only was that an increase from 14.3 points per game in his rookie season and 17.6 points per game in his sophomore season, but it also put him a hair behind Julius Randle (20.1) for most Knicks.
The next step for Barrett is to become a more efficient goalscorer. While he made a step in the right direction in 2020-21, he shot just 40.8 percent from the field last season.
Where Barrett can improve the most: Barrett’s drives have increased every season he’s been in the NBA, but he’s still not an efficient finisher around the basket.
According to NBA.com, Barrett was one of 111 players to attempt at least 200 shots in the restricted zone during the 2021-22 season. He only made 54.9 percent of those opportunities, only Hornet guard LaMelo Ball finishing them with a worse clip.
In addition, Barrett’s shot was blocked a total of 105 times, the most in the league. Most of these ended up in the painted area.
This creates a whole lot of red on the shot table.
In Barrett’s defense, who the Knicks were surrounding him with didn’t exactly help.
According to The BBall Index, the lineups Barrett played in were rated F for distance. New York was particularly easy shooting on the apron, with neither Mitchell Robinson nor Nerlens Noel threatening to score outside the paint, and Julius Randle converted a best 41.1 percent of his 3-point attempts into his in 2020-21 Career to 30.8 percent in 2021-22.
The result? Situations like this where Barrett drove into a crowd:
That’s not to say Barrett doesn’t have room to improve as a finisher, because he does. He’s not the fastest or most explosive player at his position, so he would benefit from adding some more skill to his game.
Who Barrett can learn from: Barrett might pick up a thing or two from Heat star Jimmy Butler.
Butler isn’t a great marksman, and yet there’s not much anyone can do to stop him from reaching the edge if he wants to. What he lacks in speed and explosiveness he makes up for in strength, dexterity and balance. He’s not one whose defense can be easily sped up, and he uses every tool to give himself an advantage.
For comparison, Butler was blocked on 4.9 percent of his restricted zone attempts last season, compared to Barrett’s 14.5 percent. It wasn’t like Barrett got there much more than Butler, either. He averaged 6.3 shot attempts per game in the restricted zone compared to 5.4 for Butler and was nearly three times as likely to be sent back.
One thing Butler is particularly good at is using its size to overwhelm smaller players. It’s not uncommon for defenders to bounce off him on his forays to the basket.
And when he drives, he drives difficult.
At 6ft 6 and 214 pounds, Barrett has the size to also play through contact, but he doesn’t quite absorb it like Butler.
Bigs also have a hard time keeping up with Butler because he plays so comfortably at his own pace.
Barrett took a more predictable approach when faced with the same matchup.
Butler is also an incredibly smart player. He can be a little too picky at times, but he reads defense well and rarely forces the issue.
Barrett has since admitted that his eyes are sometimes bigger than his stomach.
“I’m going to the edge. I am stubborn. I’m a stubborn kid. I’m a stubborn kid, yes,” Barrett told The Athletic’s Fred Katz. “I’m going to the edge. Even if there’s a 7-footer down there, I can score over him. Sometimes it doesn’t work and sometimes it does. … But I have to keep improving those opportunities, just make the right play and find my shooters. Number one, find my shooter in the corner.”
It’s plays like this — attempting to score on the 7-foot Robin Lopez rather than throwing him to a wide-open Miles McBride with almost 10 seconds left on the shot clock — that he’s likely referring to:
Cross out even a few of these, and Barrett’s percentages could look very different. Probably not to the point where he’s among the top finishers in the NBA, but a little will go a long way in trying to become a more efficient scorer.