Getty RJ Barrett of the Duke Blue Devils celebrates a basket against the Michigan State Spartans.
Since the NBA Draft Lottery, most analysts have assumed that the first three players off the board were a clear-cut lock. Zion Williamson, the electric forward out of Duke, is the consensus first overall pick while Murray State’s Ja Morant and Williamson’s teammate RJ Barrett have gone off mock draft boards at second and third respectively.
However, Sean Deveney of Sporting News reports the Knicks, who are picking third and expected to take Barrett, might be rethinking that decision as Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver is flying up draft boards on the back of his excellent pre-draft workouts.
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Knicks Interest in Jarrett Culver May Push RJ Barrett to Lakers in NBA Draft
Should the Knicks wind up taking Culver off the board at three, Barrett would be ripe for the picking at the Lakers at four. Especially with the Knicks already having promising young talent that shares a position (as well as being frontrunners for Kevin Durant), it makes sense as to why they might be looking for a strong off-ball shooting guard to help fill out their spotty roster.
It would certainly be a shock to see Barrett slip out of the top three altogether given his strong traditional stats at Duke. However, the NBA is evolving beyond the three-point line and with more of an emphasis being placed on the ability to reliably shoot the basketball, Barrett might see his stock take a bit of a hit. Despite his obvious skill of attacking the basket, Barrett struggled mightily with shooting the ball at Duke and didn’t flash otherworldly playmaking skills despite needing the ball in his hands almost every possession.
If those red flags are enough to scare the Knicks away from the supremely athletic Barrett, don’t be surprised if Barrett ends up dropping a few spots in the draft.
How Does RJ Barrett Fit on the Los Angeles Lakers?
Not too well. The Lakers are already loaded with two ball-dominant players in their starting lineup and if Barrett’s year at Duke was any indicator, he needs the ball in his hands quite a bit. Even in an offense with the uber-talented Zion Williamson and top recruit Cam Reddish, Barrett averaged an absurd 18.5 shots per game.
On the Lakers, that sort of volume simply won’t be available and as talented as Barrett is, he would be far from the top option on the Lakers. Moreover, Barrett played last season almost exclusively at the small forward position. That spot happens to be manned by some guy named LeBron James on the Lakers and it is unknown how comfortable Barrett would be sliding down to shooting guard. While he played point guard a bit in high school and has the physical tools to be successful in the backcourt, his game is much more suited for a score-first point forward role compared to an off-ball shooting guard.
While the old draft adage says to “always take the best available player” this might be a situation where the Lakers need to toss that to the wind. Instead, it might be better to look at some of the other talented players who could thrive within the Lakers system immediately.
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