RJ Barrett is the opposite of what you thought

"For years, RJ Barrett was a poster child of the Empty Stats All Stars. Rightly or wrongly, this narrative came from his days as a member of the New York Knicks. He came into the league a ball-stopping, inefficient, isolating wing player who took almost a third of his shots from the mid-range. He put up points: 14 per game in his rookie year, 17 in his sophomore, then becoming a 20-point-per-game scorer in his third year onward."

"But those points always came on more shots than would be advised. And the seasons passed, and the promise that shadows third-overall picks slowly dwindled and faded. The eyes of the league drifted to shinier objects. The conversation around Barrett ossified and calcified until it became stale and hard like dinosaur bones. Except Barrett's game didn't. Barrett's game in Toronto has slowly risen from the earth, shaken off the dirt, and started changing before our very eyes."

"He is a living zombie - the good kind (is there a good kind?!) - a man who has outrun the conversation surrounding him, outrun the chains of expectations, outrun the assumptions tethered to his every footstep on the court. This simply has not been acknowledged outside of Toronto. I was listening to the Ringer's Group Chat the other day, which I honestly love, and I like all those guys a lot, so it's unfair to pick on them."

RJ Barrett entered the NBA as a high-usage, inefficient, ball-stopping wing who relied heavily on mid-range shots and produced points on more shots than ideal. Early promise after being the third overall pick diminished as league perception hardened into a narrative of empty statistics despite scoring progression. In Toronto, Barrett's game has evolved significantly, shedding inefficiencies and becoming a stronger, more impactful player who helps drive wins for the Raptors. Media and league observers have largely failed to update their assessments, with some still comparing him to inefficient scorers and finding him difficult to analyze.

Read at Raptors Republic