Is RJ Barrett’s start to this season a fool’s gold?

You can look at RJ Barrett’s stunning start to this season as a mirage. We’re talking about a sample size of six games, which leads to random ambiguity rather than substantial development. The Toronto Raptors’ injuries to Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley have also meant that necessity is now the mother of Barrett’s development.

Even if you remember the improvement he showed after switching teams last year – he shined in the shadow of Toronto’s degrading tank job before asserting himself as Team Canada’s second-best player during the Olympics – everything we in What we’ve seen over the last few weeks is pretty shocking. Barrett has evolved from an unremarkable sidecar into a primary ball handler who always makes the right play.

After being drafted third overall by the New York Knicks in 2019 – and being touted as the most successful high school prospect since LeBron James – it would be a bit too harsh to call Barrett a disappointment. But at the same time, he was considered an expensive addition last year in the trade that sent him and Quickley to the Raptors for OG Anunoby. Up to that point, Barrett had spent most of his career in ponderous, lumpy lineups that struggled to create space or score in the halfcourt and made mediocre contributions that didn’t reveal much, if any, untapped potential beneath the surface.

What you saw was what you got: an inefficient second (and then third) option that moved up and down behind the 3-point line and only half-decently attacked the basket. The Knicks were never particularly good with Barrett on the court and tended to be better when he sat. For such a valued draft pick, his development was rarely, if ever, prioritized. However, this is not a criticism of the New York front office. More the reality of Barrett’s abilities.

Today he is on a different team and has more responsibility and greater freedom, and we are seeing longer glimpses of a much more useful player – someone who is productive and comfortable with the ball in his hands, who commands attention and help being punished too slowly will take him down.

It’s the scores that first catch your eye. In four days he dropped 31 points against the Hornets, 33 against the Lakers and then 31 against the Kings; Before that run, Barrett had never scored 30 or more points in three straight games.

He’s more aggressive – last year’s 11.4 drives per game increased to 16.8 (tied with Ja Morant) – and more decisive. Barrett’s average of 2.2 assists from these drives ranks him fourth in the entire league. Only Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis convert more baskets in the restricted area. Barrett hasn’t been efficient, but he averages more points (25.7) than Jalen Brunson, Devin Booker and Donovan Mitchell, with independent shot creation necessary in lineups with secondary forwards. And under the weight of this growing responsibility, Barrett has not pressed the issue as often as one might reasonably expect.

Even more amazing is how he has responded to an expanded role with smart, selfless maturation. It is nothing short of transformative. Barrett ranks sixth in usage rate and 12th in assist rate, averaging 7.0 assists per game and nearly doubling his potential assist average compared to last season. His actual usage rate (which more accurately reflects which players “use” each possession by accounting for playmakers). And Finishers) increased by 15.4 percentage points compared to last year, which was the largest increase in the entire league. A month ago, he had never had more than nine assists in a game. This season he recorded 12 assists against the Lakers, then 10 against the Nuggets.

If the numbers are right, Barrett will obviously be worthy of All-Star consideration. But the raw result is less meaningful than the way his consciousness has evolved to directly make everyone else’s life easier. Not only does he run a ton of pick-and-rolls, but he also analyzes different coverages in a way that was completely foreign to him just a few years ago.

On the first play shown below, Barrett drives up the middle and forces Domantas Sabonis to step forward to stop his penetration, forcing DeMar DeRozan to help the reliever and take away Jakob Poeltl’s throw. As if moving through a choreographed move in a dress rehearsal, Barrett then hits a perfect cross-court pass off the dribble with his weak hand to a wide-open Ochai Agbaji. (TL;DR: He single-handedly broke through Sacramento’s defense.) The next example came late in the fourth quarter: a stack pick-and-roll in which De’Aaron Fox had to stop Barrett from turning the corner on Sabonis , which Gradey left Dick upstairs to open the key.

And here he keeps a cool head against a lightning attack from Nikola Jokic. Barrett is immediately patient and quick, dragging Denver’s pursuer high to the ground before throwing a dart at Jonathan Mogbo as he rolls through the paint:

A few weeks can’t change a person’s reputation on the field. But Barrett’s thinking may have shifted in an encouraging direction. He’s unselfish, completes passes with a high degree of difficulty, and generally seems like someone his teammates can count on to get them the ball if they screen and cut hard enough.

If The Although the version of Barrett is real and will show greater efficiency once his current strain subsides following the return of Quickley and Barnes, this could represent the seismic breakthrough every struggling franchise craves and coincidence enough to change the future of the Raptors to clarify and turn their short-term expectations on their head. Once a sturdy but insignificant cog in a mediocre machine, Barrett is currently delivering All-Star caliber production. You may end up in a losing situation with low stakes, but if it continues like this, that could all change sooner rather than later.