Goobye, RJ. Goodbye, IQ.
As a pair of Knicks renowned for different reasons both head to Toronto, one last look back.
Friday night the Knicks played in Orlando. Last night it was Indiana. Next game is Monday at home against Minnesota. Three teams in different places that’ve taken similar paths to get there. The five Magic to play the most minutes this season are all 23 or younger. A few years ago the Pacers went from young to younger, trading 25-year-old Domantas Sabonis for 20-year-old Tyrese Haliburton, who now pairs with Bennedict Mathurin, Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith in leading a young, high-octane core. Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert give the league-leading Timberwolves a mix of size and skill most teams can’t match, but the straw who stirs their milk (the official beverage of the state of Minnesota!) is 22-year-old Anthony Edwards. Youth is where it’s at.
Except when it isn’t. Sometimes youth is a curse. You fall into thinking the future’s gonna look a certain way; next thing you know, it’s here and unfamiliar. Take RJ Barrett. Barrett turned 19 a couple weeks before he was drafted third in 2019. Since then, he’s played more minutes than any of his draft classmates, yet ranks just 17th in win shares, behind players like Jaxson Hayes, P.J. Washington and Coby White.
There’s nothing wrong with being Hayes, Washington or White. But none of them were drafted right behind two-time All-Star Zion Williamson and two-time All-Star Ja Morant, two spots before All-Star Darius Garland. None were the Knicks’ highest draft pick since Patrick Ewing. None carried the amateur hype RJ did. This was a name known long before his game. When he sounded in awe of being a Knick, it meant something.
Barrett didn’t walk into the same opportunity a lot of players taken as high as him do. Drafted ostensibly more for his scoring than anything else, Barrett joined a team that had Julius Randle and Marcus Morris gunning away. A year later, Derrick Rose arrived and sparked a turnaround, one which meant more shots for him and fewer for RJ. When Jalen Brunson signed, Barrett was again tertiary on offense. The most damning indictment of RJ’s Knick career is that these de facto demotions were never controversial. As much as everyone wanted to see more from him, it reached the point where nobody needed to.
By the end of his tenure, Barrett was more compelling as a Rohrschach test than as a player. The hot-shooting start to the season? Dream the dream, baby. The dizzying drop ever since? RJ’s gonna RJ. Barrett at his worst was a tour de force of frustration, like a fish stick burnt on the outside and frozen on the inside, uniquely unsatisfying on both ends. The playmaking and defense showed flashes; perhaps on a team that can give him more reps, one that appears to be on the verge of a rebuild, in a market that will love him even more than New York, he’ll show more than flashes.
It’s the Barretts of the world who highlight the exceptionality of the Ewings and, to a much lesser extent, the Porzingii. Even in the small club of NBA players to go top-four or five in the draft, almost none turn out to be franchise players. Orlando may have one in Banchero. Minnesota hopes their two-pair of Towns and Edwards, both No. 1 overall picks, is enough to beat thirty-something years of failure. The irony cuts both ways, with Haliburton an example of how sometimes the sparkliest gems come later in the draft. Like Quickley.
A flurry of 2020 draft night maneuvers from Leon Rose led to Quickley, whose contrast to Barrett could not be starker. Taken 25th, IQ has played the eighth-most minutes of his draft class and ranks fourth in win shares, ahead of the top 11 players taken. A fan favorite since his first preseason games at Madison Square Garden, Quickley was quickly regarded as the jewel of the Knicks’ 2020 draft, ahead of teammate and lottery pick Obi Toppin.
Every year, Quickley evolved. After a rookie season seen as a spark plug off the bench, earning Lou Williams comps, IQ accepted the challenge his second season of learning to play point. There were struggles. There always are, where there’s growth. Quickley’s shooting came and went. His impact never did.
Whenever he played, wherever, the Knicks played better. He added muscle. Became the team’s best perimeter defender, at least off-ball. When opportunity knocked, it found Quickley dressed, pressed and ready for any test. His evisceration of the Celtics in Boston will go down in random Knick lore, like Nate Robinson’s 40-piece in Atlanta and the Lavor Postell Game.
However OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn fare as Knicks, Barrett and Quickley will be missed, albeit in different ways, for different reasons: Barrett for who he never was, and looks unlikely to be; Quickley for who he is, even more for what he could become. Players are like family to fans: no one knows their flaws more exquisitely, while no one else sees nearly as much of the good that they do as us. Barrett and Quickley always felt like they gave their best. For that, and for many memories, they’ll be missed.
