Knicks’ RJ Barrett makes up for roller coaster offense with hustle on defense

OKLAHOMA CITY — The public opinion on the value of RJ Barrett often rises and falls with his shooting percentage. Each misfire seems to fuel another rumor of a sharpshooting wing who the Knicks could place next to Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, displacing Barrett and raising the Knicks to a new level.

Barrett, who has been with the franchise longer than almost any other player on the team, has never seemed affected by the roller coaster ride of public opinion, the criticism that comes with the lows. As much as his scoring or his defense, that ability by Barrett at 23 years old to ignore the talk is a valuable trait in the spotlight of Madison Square Garden.

The shooting may come and go, but for Barrett the benchmarks that can remain a daily part of his game are defense and hustle.

“I’m just here, you know,” Barrett said after Wednesday morning’s shootaround at Oklahoma City University. “I’m just here. I just try to help, so whatever I can do to help, I do.”

Now in his fifth season in New York, Barrett’s offense has been, for better or worse, consistent in its inconsistency. He is prone to shooting slumps, even as his scoring output has remained constant. He is averaging 18.1 points per game in his career — 18.4 points per game this season. His three-point percentage is up from last year, his effective field-goal percentage nearly identical.

But what has improved is his defense and the numbers don’t show it nearly as much as the eye test. By nearly every metric — and his own words — Barrett’s best defensive season came in his sophomore campaign, when he spoke about a desire to become a member of the NBA’s All-Defensive Team. That season he ranked 13th in the NBA in Defensive Win Shares and according to basketball-reference.com he had a defensive rating of 110.

His defensive rating jumped to 118 last season and is at 118 again this season. For a coach like Tom Thibodeau, defense is a requirement. If the numbers don’t show it, just seeing the assignments Thibodeau has given Barrett shows the trust. With the game in the balance on Christmas Day, Thibodeau reinserted Barrett into the game in the final minutes for defense.

“I think sometimes things happen in this league,” Barrett said. “Nobody is perfect all the time. So just trying to make sure that you stay conscious of things.

“Just being here for a little bit I’ve been able to kind of figure things out Thibs’ defense a little better, I also know the players I’m playing against. I have played against them for quite some years now. It makes you know people’s tendencies a little bit, and you’re kind of comfortable and familiar with that. Obviously, we have a great defensive mind in coach, so that helps, too.”

“I think at the end of the day, you just learn,” Isaiah Hartenstein said of what he’s seen from Barrett defensively. “I think he’s been in the NBA now for what, five years. I think when you play for Thibs for that long, you’re eventually going to learn how to play defense.

“He’s been good, defensively, I think he’s been taking on different matchups, sometimes on the three, sometimes on the two. And he can also guard the four if he needs to. So it’s him being on different matchups, and I think he’s been excelling and making the right rotations, one on one, been a lot better.”

Part of Barrett’s return to defensive consistency may have come from the talent around him. In his early years, Barrett was tasked with guarding the best perimeter threat — and that included at 6-6 chasing around even the likes of Trae Young or Steph Curry. But with Quentin Grimes or Donte DiVincenzo in the lineup Barrett finds himself matched with players more his size and speed.

“I think it makes us better defensively just having multiple defensive weapons out there,” Barrett said. “I think that just makes our team a lot better, and I think it shows in our record.”

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.