Getty Injured Pelican Zion Williamson and Knicks star R.J. Barrett
Back in May 2019, when the Knicks entered the NBA draft lottery with a 14% chance of winning the top overall pick, it was said that Duke star Zion Williamson was “rooting” for the Knicks to grab No. 1. Williamson was a sure-shot top pick, one of the most anticipated prospects to enter the league in years, and the hope in New York was that he would be the Knicks’ next big star.
When the Pelicans, with only a 6% chance to get No. 1, beat out the Knicks, ESPN’s Marc Spears reported that Williamson was, “QUICKLY whisked out of the room.”
Zion Williamson was QUICKLY whisked out of the room after Pelicans were announced the winner of the draft lottery. Source said the former Duke star was rooting to go to New York, but now is going to New Orleans.
Knicks fans felt his pain. New York fell to No. 3 and wound up with a distant consolation prize: R.J. Barrett.
Now, more than two years later, it’s become clear that maybe the Knicks were not struck with such bad luck, after all. While Williamson has looked good when he is on the floor—he averaged 27.0 points and 7.2 rebounds last season—he has not been on the floor all that much, a matter of poor conditioning and fluke-y injuries.
Barrett, meanwhile, improved in each of his three seasons. His shooting has been stellar this year, at 47.4% to go with 40.0% from the 3-point line. He’s averaging 19.2 points and 5.8 rebounds. Some questioned his shooting efficiency early in his career—but Barrett did not.
“I knew it was gonna happen,” he said. “I worked my butt off on my shooting. We all do, on our shooting. We create the right shots for each other.”
Barrett Has Played 96 Straight Games as Williamson Sits
Barrett’s durability has been impressive, and though he does not score the way Williamson does, availability is an underrated talent in the NBA. It’s not a strength for Williamson.
In his first two NBA seasons, Williamson played in only 85 of the Pelicans’ 142 games—he missed 40.1% of the team’s games. This season, he has yet to suit up at all for New Orleans as he recovers from a foot injury. Barrett is not the raw talent that Williamson is, but he played every game last season and has not missed a game this season.
In fact, he has played 96 games in a row.
“I think it’s also just mental toughness being able to play through little things,” Barrett said, per the Daily News. “There’s always going to be little things that bother you and just being able to get the treatment and push through it.”
Thibodeau Calls Barrett ‘Elite’
That toughness has won Barrett a fan in coach Tom Thibodeau, who usually is reluctant to take a shine to young players. But, asked about Barrett this week, Thibs was uncharacteristically effusive in his praise, labeling Barrett “elite.”
He’s got a lot of talent. He’s an elite talent. And then when you start to measure his intangibles, you look at the toughness, you look at the basketball IQ, you look at the competitiveness. So those three things — he’s got a great work ethic. Those type of guys always get better.
And he has a lot of pride in what he’s doing. He’s put a lot of time into his shooting, into his defense, into finishing. You just look at what he’s done at a young age. I thought he had a terrific year last year, averaging 18 points per game on a playoff team. That’s not an easy thing to do. He got better and better as the season went along. It carried over into the summer, it carried over into the fall, and it carried over now.
That’s been big for Barrett, and big for a Knicks team that needs some internal improvement to bolster its offseason acquisitions. And it’s especially big when considering that Williamson’s recovery from his foot problem is still dragging on, and the Pelicans are not quite sure when he will play.
Winning the draft lottery is always a good thing, of course. But the Knicks’ 2019 consolation prize has been outstanding.