The offseason is officially upon us. With the free agent frenzy all but finished and the NBA Finals firmly in the rearview mirror, we're now at the point of speculating for the next season. That includes squabbling over where NBA media outlets place your favorite New York Knicks stars on their top player lists.
The Athletic's Seth Partnow constructed his list of the top 125 players in the NBA today. The New York Knicks have six players in that top 125, which is pretty decent considering there are 150 starting spots in the NBA. Those include Julius Randle, Kemba Walker, Derrick Rose, Evan Fournier, Immanuel Quickley, and Nerlens Noel.
One Knicks player who was conspicuously off that list was arguably their second best player – RJ Barrett. This had Knicks fans up in arms on Twitter about the blatant snub of one of their best young players.
It’s just such a dumb take from a smart guy. Like I’m all for analytics but there has to be a point where you realize that not putting RJ Barrett in the top 125 players is just idiotic.
— O.R They (@FrischerSteve) August 14, 2021
His argument that RJ Barrett (who had an eFG of 49.9%) was left out of the top 125 because he was under 50% eFG was elite Knicks fan trolling.
— Brenhart (@Brenhart31) August 14, 2021
RJ Barrett gets no respect at all on these things. 20 years old, scored almost 18 a game, 40% from 3, and was a solid multi-positional defender. But I guess Alex Caruso is too big a superstar to have RJ in the top 125 players in the league.
— Chris Aubin (@YeOldBen) August 13, 2021
Some Knicks fans were extra salty about the players chosen in place of RJ Barrett, and even some selected ahead of Julius Randle.
https://twitter.com/diogoalexandrex/status/1426257442699202571?s=20
I should know better than to react to media lists of NBA players, but it does seem kinda silly that RJ Barrett — a 21-year-old two-way player who just shot 40% from 3 — is not considered a top-125 playerhttps://t.co/RkgcPVHYkz
— Scott Davis (@WScottDavis) August 12, 2021
Julius Randle behind Jerami Grant, Joe Ingles, Joe Harris.
RJ Barrett not in the top-125 but Nerlens Noel is.
Got it. https://t.co/vNvEjYPSsI
— BlamesDolan (@blamesdolan_) August 11, 2021
In all fairness, the list was constructed using a handful of objective advanced metrics. These sorts of lists obviously don't reflect everything 100% accurately. But for RJ Barrett to not even sniff the top 125 after averaging 17.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.0 assists on 44% shooting and 40% from the three-point arc, you know there's something wrong with your list.
At the end of the day, this is just a fabricated list that holds no real weight beyond offseason argument fodder. Hopefully RJ Barrett catches a glimpse of it though just for some added motivation entering his third season with the Knicks.
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