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Carmelo Anthony Calls Former Knicks Star ‘Bland’

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RJ Barrett Carmelo Anthony

Getty RJ Barrett with Carmelo Anthony.

The New York Knicks made a shocking trade with the Toronto Raptors that sent their former No. 3 overall pick RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to Toronto for defensive-minded wing OG Anunoby. While certainly the right move to make if you’re the Knicks, it was a shocking one. Barrett wasn’t expected to be traded and many Knicks fans thought that if a deal was going to happen, it would’ve been around the trade deadline.

Barrett will be missed by many, but others were happy that he was sent off in this deal. He didn’t necessarily play to the hype that he had coming out of college and that resulted in the fans being content with moving him.

In a recent “7 PM in Brooklyn” show, Carmelo Anthony’s digital series show, he spoke about Barrett’s game, indicating he wasn’t the biggest fan of it.

“He’s just a bland player, bro. That’s not a shot. That’s not disrespect. I ask a lot of people who are Knicks fans to see what they say, it’s just like, ‘He’s good, he gets it done sometimes, but he’s not an exciting player.’ You don’t know if he’s going to get 4 (points) or 26.”

Carmelo Believes Anunoby Could Do What Barrett Did

Carmelo followed up with his take, even saying that OG could do what RJ did in New York.

“OG is doing the same thing RJ doing. He just don’t demand it the way RJ demanded to be a part of the offense,” Anthony said. “Like, OG is cool sitting around on the wing and cutting and waiting for somebody to swing it to him and knock down a 3. He still will play defense. No matter what. Whereas RJ, he got to score 20.”
It’s almost impossible to compare the two players given how much different they are, but Anunoby hasn’t been a guy that can go out and score 20-plus points on a night like Barrett has been for most of his career.
In his young career, Barrett has averaged at least 17.6 points in every season besides one. That includes a 20-point season in the 2021-2022 season. With the Raptors so far, he’s averaging 21.8 points in six games played. Anunoby, in his career, has averaged more than 17 points just one time.

RJ Barrett Appreciated New York

While it didn’t work out for him in the end, Barrett was appreciative of his time in New York. He helped make the Knicks a better team in the past few seasons and although that wasn’t all just because of him, he left the organization better than he found it.

In a recent interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Barrett had the following to say:

“I helped build something in New York,” Barrett said. “When I came there we weren’t good. I left it a lot better than when it started. Definitely bittersweet, but I’m happy for those guys over there. They are happy about the trade they made and I wish nothing but the best for them.

“I grew up as a player and a person over there in New York. Those 4½ years, I will never forget.”

Jon Conahan covers the NBA and NFL for Heavy.com. Since 2019, his sports coverage has appeared at Sports Illustrated, oddschecker, ClutchPoints and Sportskeeda. More about Jon Conahan

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