How lessons from Jimmy Butler could help shape RJ Barrett’s career trajectory
It was a small moment in one of the tougher Knicks losses this season — Jimmy Butler took a few seconds out of his day to give RJ Barrett some advice during the game. Could lessons from Butler be the key to RJ developing into his best self?
Nothing about that Knicks game was particularly distinctive — a low-scoring, heart-pounding, ultimately-crushing one-possession loss to a good team. The type of affair to which the Knicks have become quite accustomed. Yet, that Feb. 9 contest against Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat felt rather momentous as it relates to the growth of New York’s surging sophomore, RJ Barrett.
For Barrett, that loss was especially brutal — when his last-second layup attempt to tie the game dripped painfully off of the rim, the result was official. His team had dropped its second in a row to Miami, having lost a similarly tough one to the Heat just two days prior.
But that game served as an education for the 20-year-old, a course in high-level wing play taught by one of the game’s premier experts, Jimmy Buckets. With every assist and trip to the line, Butler was certainly teaching Barrett by example, but he even took some time out of his busy and productive schedule to give his student some individual attention; an in-game training session seldom observed between opponents.
Towards the end of the second quarter, with Butler guarding Barrett, RJ executed a clever off-ball cut toward the middle of the floor, leveraging the attention Julius Randle now demands from all five defenders. Randle hit Barrett in stride, but Butler demonstrated his great defensive ability by stripping RJ clean and preventing the basket.
MSG’s cameras perceptively zoomed in on Butler after the play, enabling viewers to watch Butler generously bring RJ into his office for a quick seminar, gesturing for Barrett to initiate contact to draw the foul, seemingly telling him to “get into [his] body.” RJ responded with a stoic nod, clearly absorbing the helpful tip.
The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov recently asked Barrett about that brief encounter with Butler, and RJ confirmed that Butler had told him exactly that.
The similarities between the two are too obvious to overlook, even if Butler is a decade Barrett’s senior, and they shoot the ball with different hands. Both are 6-foot-7, burly wings weighing between 215 and 230 pounds, possess elite strength but lack elite vertical athleticism, and are hindered by unreliable jumpers (though RJ’s recent progress in that department suggests he may surpass Butler as a shooter). Butler has neared maximization of that particular skillset, reaching perennial All-Star status and having led his team to the Finals just a year ago. So how does RJ progress from promising youngster to that kind of player? RJ, self-aware as always, explained it himself postgame by citing two of Butler’s greatest attributes: foul-drawing and playmaking.
The numbers unquestionably support this. As it relates to scoring, the only reason Butler is superior to Barrett right now is due to his proficiency getting to — and scoring from — the free throw line. Consider this: Butler and Barrett have identical effective field goal percentages this season at 49.2%. For those less statistically inclined, eFG% accounts for the difference in value between 2- and 3-point shot attempts, but discounts free throws. While Butler is far more efficient than Barrett at the rim (71% to 58%, according to Cleaning the Glass), RJ catches up through his superior 3-point shooting (35% to 22%).
However, when accounting for free throw proficiency, as included in true shooting percentage, Butler jumps ahead of Barrett by six percentage points — 59% to 53%. Butler more than compensates for his relative inefficiency from the field by taking over eight free throws per game and shooting them at over an 85% clip — that is double Barrett’s attempts per game, at 12% higher a percentage.
For context, per Cleaning the Glass, Butler leads all wings in the league at both shooting fouled percentage (percentage of shot attempts fouled on) — he is fouled on a whopping 21% of his shot attempts — and floor fouled percentage (non-shooting fouls per team possession, which become particularly useful when his team is in the bonus). Plus, his free throw percentage is in the 75th percentile of all wings. In contrast, Barrett is solid — but not elite — at drawing fouls, ranking in the 80th percentile of wings in both shooting fouled percentage and floor fouled percentage. Furthermore, his 72% from the line ranks in just the 16th percentile for his position.
For Barrett to increase his trips to the charity stripe, he needs to heed the master’s advice — initiate the contact. Watch the two videos above — RJ’s last-second attempt to tie the game, and Jimmy’s strip of RJ after his cut to the basket. What stands out is that Barrett, confident in his ability to scoop the ball in with his strong hand, leans away from the defender, trying to create the ideal angle off the backboard. What RJ needs to work on, and what Jimmy was stressing, is to use his strength to bump the defender off; to initiate the contact to draw the foul, especially since he has the requisite strength to finish through the contact.
Butler demonstrated precisely how to draw contact on a very similar move earlier in the game:
The difference is subtle, but key. Jimmy could have contorted his body and extended his arm if his absolute goal was to get the shot to go. Instead, he jumps directly into the incoming help from Reggie Bullock to ensure that he draws the foul. For Jimmy, converting the attempt is almost secondary.
The teacher schooled the student directly on this very skill later in the game:
It is easy to envision Barrett in this precise scenario, though more likely on the left side, extending his arm and leaning away from the contact in an attempt to make the difficult layup. Butler instead opts to jump directly into the backtracking Barrett, putting the pressure on the official to make the call.
If RJ substituted some of his difficult attempts at the rim with drawn fouls, he would likely increase both his eFG% percentage by missing less at the rim, and his TS% by taking more free throws. Such a reallocation would constitute a huge step in his quest for offensive efficiency. In other words, Barrett is working harder for his points, while Butler is working smarter. RJ needs to understand that the end goal isn’t always to make the shot — rather, it’s to create the most efficient scoring opportunity. Of course, with an increase in free throw attempts, it will become all the more important for Barrett to increase his free throw percentage. But, with the 12% increase in that area from just last season to this one, continued improvement would come as no surprise.
The other major separator between the two, as noted by RJ himself, is playmaking. Again, the numbers confirm the perceived chasm between the two in the passing department. Looking at the raw numbers, Butler’s 7.5 assists per game far exceed RJ’s modest three. Digging a little deeper to account for Butler’s higher usage rate (27% to 23%, per NBA.com), the difference remains obvious. Per Cleaning the Glass, Butler’s assist to usage ratio (which measures how often a player got an assist relative to his usage) is 1.23, in the 98th percentile of all wings and top 10 in the entire league. Barrett’s ratio is a meager .58, in just the 40th percentile at his position.
RJ has displayed great passing instincts in his young career, including in that Miami game. He’s shown a deft touch on lob passes all year long, as demonstrated by this look to Mitchell Robinson:
He has also developed the one-handed swing pass off pick and rolls to the weak-side wing and corner, an essential skill for any pick-and-roll ball handler.
Thus, passing instincts are not what is holding RJ back from becoming a top-flight distributor. Rather, again, the improvement lies in working smarter — making the simple play when it becomes available. Watch the difference between these two clips from that very game:
Both RJ and Jimmy turn the corner off of a screen, draw the switch, and have an available shooter stationed in the strong-side corner. RJ drives directly at his defender with no clear advantage, ignoring Bullock in the corner despite Herro digging on Barrett’s drive, and Olynyk dispossesses him. RJ also could have picked up his dribble early and found Julius Randle for an open triple. In contrast, Butler takes one hard dribble, draws Mitchell Robinson’s dig off of the corner shooter (granted, Robinson’s more aggressive help made the pass more obvious), and made the simple pass to Olynyk, earning the assist.
Again, the difference between the two players is not as much a matter of skill as it is a discrepant approach. Butler consistently drives with the intention to create a shot for a teammate. Watch here as Butler again takes his dribble to draw Bullock’s gap help, before firing an early laser to Herro for the three:
In contrast, at this early stage, Barrett remains indiscriminately predatory in his desire to get to the rim, no matter the obstacle. He is less inclined to make the early and easy pass whenever he has the opportunity to attack.
After a great hustle play to gather the loose ball, RJ literally never takes his eyes off of the rim, despite an open Alec Burks just to his right. Butler undoubtedly makes this pass, and therein lies the difference.
These two differences between these two players were on full display that night in Miami. Butler barely shot better than Barrett from the field (6-15 vs. 5-14), yet Jimmy dominated the game, while RJ struggled. How? Butler shot 13-15 from the line and had 10 assists, while Barrett shot 2-4 from the stripe with just two dimes.
The common denominator between these two areas of the game that will be key to RJ’s ascent is that he already possesses the requisite skills. He has shown that he can make all the passes, and he is already well above average at drawing fouls, all at just 20 years old!
Butler’s .61 assist to usage ratio in his second year was extremely similar to Barrett’s current one. And while Butler was elite at drawing fouls the moment he entered the league, the craftiness required to excel in that category can absolutely be developed. For example, Bradley Beal was terrible at drawing fouls until his fifth NBA season at age 23, and has slowly worked his way into the upper echelon of foul-drawers in the league.
RJ Barrett came into the league with the reputation and expectations of a scorer. It makes all the sense in the world that getting to and finishing at the rim remains his primary inclination out there on the floor. With just a slight adjustment to his approach — sometimes driving to make the early pass; sometimes finishing into contact — and continued improvement in the other areas of his game, the student may yet surpass the teacher.
