Pre-Lottery New York Knicks Mock Draft

RJ Barrett

Believe it or not, the top-rated player out of high school was not Zion Williamson, but he did play alongside him this past year. RJ Barrett was the highest ranked recruit in the Class of 2018 and he was pretty great for Duke this past season. Even though he had a great year, he was often overlooked because everyone was talking about his teammate instead.

The Toronto native averaged 22.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game this past season and also won the Jerry West Award which is awarded to the nation’s top shooting guard.

Barrett is a fantastic playmaker, a great defender, has a high basketball IQ, and is very smart with the ball in his hands. The only flaw many have pointed out is that maybe Barrett is not clutch down the stretch. This season Duke lost three games in which Zion Williamson played more than 33 seconds in. Of those three games, Barrett was a total of 0-9 in the final minute.

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This stat doesn’t mean too much at the end of the day, but it says at least something. Being someone your team can rely on with a game on the line is important and that might not be what you get out of RJ Barrett should you draft him.

It’s worth noting that in those same three games Zion Williamson had one shot in the final minute of all three combined. That says, Coach K trusted RJ Barrett and he drew up plays in which Barrett would have the ball in his hands.

Not only that but these are three games in which they lost, you could also look at the UCF game in the round of 32 in this year’s tournament in which RJ sent home the eventual game-winning basket. Or you could look at the Florida State game from earlier in the year where Duke was going back and forth down the stretch. A large part of that was because Barrett totaled 32 points and played every second of that game.

Although this is the main flaw many point out in Barrett’s game because of three games, you can look at many other instances in which Barrett was in fact clutch and was a major reason as to why Duke won the game.

Right now it looks as if Barrett will be taken with the third overall pick, with Williamson and Morant going one and two. So if the New York Knicks fall to the third pick, which is very possible, you can expect them to use that pick on the Duke guard.

Anyone of the three players profiled would greatly upgrade the New York Knicks roster and turn the team’s fortunes around.