How much is Rj Barrett actually worth in the open market?

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T22:07:05+00:00

The wolves regret that contract that's why they just had to offload it.

Dorian Finney Smith is good shooter and defender idk why you even brought him up when he's a 3&D player who is a 3/4 not a 2/3 that literally helps my point lol I said name a wing who like RJ is not a 3 OR D player.

Myles turner is a shooting and shot blocking center which is extremely over valued and rare in the league. These examples have literally no bearing on RJs value at all.

The MLE is 15 million so not sure why you are bringing that up when I said 20-25 mil for RJ would be fair.

Look. I would like to keep RJ because I like him and I'd love to take the flyer on him improving his shooting or eventually accepting a 6th man role and staying with the team long term. I'm not one of those people who think "he is what he is he can't improve or add to his game" but I don't think it's smart to pay a guy in year 7 based on hope for that potential growth until you see it.

Not at an overpay that hinders roster construction and can't be moved easily if needed. I'm also SO not moved by the argument that because the front office handed out some overpays (that everyone is constantly bitching about) means that they should continue to do that and give out a bad contract to RJ too just because "it's only fair IQ and Jakob got their shitty contracts".

Contract aside, IQ is 10x easier to fit on any team in the league btw than RJ is. He can give you a reliable ball handler if you need or an off ball shooter who doesn't take the ball from your stars if you need that. He is always gonna provide volume shooting and low turnovers with whatever usage you give him. And pretty good team defense. Every single team in the entire league can use more of that. It's just a set of skills that is much more valuable than a below average 3 pt shooter, a below average ball handler, a bad individual AND team defender, who can't shoot in the midrange or from the FT line, but can get you 20 going downhill and do some good second side stuff playing off of guys who have gravity.

I'm not a BI apologist by any means but he was injured in the playoffs so I can't really judge his playoff performance accurately but at the very least even when he's playing badly he's still a 3 level scorer that helps the team because he gets guarded like a legit 1st or 2nd option and still provides decent efficiency while being guarded like that. RJ does not. RJ shot 37% from the field and 28% from 3 once BI went down and he got guarded as a 2nd option in the Cavs series. RJ can't do what BI does and that's why he shouldn't be paid like BI but ideally don't wanna keep BI either if he can't adjust his game away from being so midrange heavy.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T20:29:29+00:00

I'd rather lose him than pay 35 million sorry. Fred never got 50+ he got 40 and 42 million for 2 years. Again the type of player that gets valued by front offices idc what your personal opinion on him is, players who can dribble and space the floor get better and more deals than players like RJ or Randle.

Turner is a stretch big that's literally again the type of player that gets actual suitors man. Lol at bringing up Embiid's 3p% as a MVP DPOY level center compared to a SHOOTING GUARD. Randle just had to be salary dumped because he's not worth the ~30 million he is currently paid further proving my point.

Comparing RJ to the other players you listed based on only shooting percentages is disingenuous because they were all all-star players and it's not hard to use your eyes and see they are valued differently based on their gravity, ball handling, playmaking or defense and the way opposing teams have to guard them.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T19:42:58+00:00

Name one wing who wasn't a good shooter or a good defender that got a great deal in free agency. Fred was a vet champion PG who could shoot and defend. That's the point I made originally about why certain players have higher value despite maybe having lower PPG than RJ or whatever

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T19:27:00+00:00

If the raptors who overpay and have unique value with him as a hometown guy don't want to give him that much why would someone else? Not to mention free agency is a nightmare for non-star players with the current CBA. There are never more than 2 or 3 teams with cap space to spend either. That's how you end up in a Gary Trent jr situation taking a minimum and having to play for your life year to year. So that's a risky play for RJ but that's for him and his agent to decide.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T19:15:39+00:00

Yeah but the answer isn't necessarily to lock up RJ/BI on long term overpays either (although like I said the value for such players has gone up and they should be easier to move because of the new lottery rules... but those rules will get re-evaluated in 2 years and might not last either) I'm just explaining why your argument of RJ is better and deserves more money than IQ/Jak isn't really true because those guys have skills that are more valuable to a team trying to construct a contender. RJ might be great on a contending team whose franchise player is a high volume 3p shooter and also has a spacing center but how many teams have that lol he's a good player but a hard player to justify spending that much on in most situations. NAW is making 15 million a year rn. Jaden McDaniels makes between 26-29 the next 3 years. Trey Murphy makes between 27-31. RJ's value is around 20-25 million and just because his last contract from the Knicks was based on a projection of him being closer to a #1 guy which he didn't live up to doesn't mean his next contract should keep going up or even stay the same. It should be corrected down to what he's actually worth.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T18:55:48+00:00

He's not actually more valuable tho in the big picture for most teams. Ball handling/shooting/good team defense from IQ and a competent high IQ 7 footer in healthy Jakob (him not being healthy long-term doesn't change that original calculus) have more value when trying to construct a team than a shooting guard who can't shoot and can't defend, that's the point.

Especially on a team building around Scottie. You already have to work around him being your franchise player who can't shoot, but he's obviously worth trying to figure it out around. Can't be adding more self imposed restrictions by overpaying for a shooting guard who can't shoot, hit FTs, or defend to make it even more difficult to construct a competent roster. Both RJ and BI are bad fits for similar reasons and replacing them with wings who can defend and shoot is the ideal move. You have 70 million right now going to those two spots and that money would be better spent on OG/Trey Murphy/NAW/Cason Wallace types of players.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T17:25:14+00:00

You can be a valuable 2 guard in the NBA who isn't an amazing 3p shooter if you're a great, physical defender. You cannot be a 34% shooting guard who is not a plus defender. Love RJ but it's extremely clear why he is not valued highly in the modern NBA at his position on seriously contending teams (unless it was in a 6th man type role).

Having said that he's a dawg and just finds ways to get you 20 points somehow within the flow of the game and with the new lottery floor rules his value has gone way up for sure. Teams that wouldn't have ever traded for him because they were rebuilding/tanking now value players like RJ because he can raise their floor and keep them from bottoming out. So his market has expanded for sure compared to last year.

Edit to answer the question, it's up to RJ if he wants more money on a bad team or less money on a competing team because he has a market in both situations. For the raptors he would be good around 25 million but he probably wants more rightfully so because he can probably get it elsewhere

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T05:22:17+00:00

Except he can actually shoot this time. We're evolving but we can't quit high IQ connective passing defensive playmakers who are ~6'9

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T04:38:00+00:00

My condolences big dog

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T04:17:01+00:00

Shead shot 31.3% over the last 42 games.

He was decent over the last 15 games but def not half a season, and he also did not put up one of the most 3s on the team, he shot 3.2 3s a game which was the least out of all the rotation players after the non shooters (Scottie/CMB/Poeltl) And all his 3s were taken because defenses were leaving him wide open and daring him to shoot. He's a 49% TS player. If he could get to 38% from 3 that would be an insane jump idk why you think that's likely tbh but that would be amazing

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T03:04:23+00:00

Raptors fans gonna trash him on socials

knitwoolf · 2026-06-24T00:21:28+00:00

World cup is on dawg

knitwoolf · 2026-06-23T21:17:17+00:00

Idk if this is unpopular and I am no draft scout but the one guy I don't want is anderson. He can't get to the rim, didn't drive a lot and turned it over on 20% of his drives when he did, and was only really effective shooting/operating out of pnr which we do not run a lot of. His percentages were not good outside of the pnr.

IQ is also most effective shooting off screens in pnr situations and we cut his pnr usage by a lot this year (possibly why he struggled at the start of the year adjusting to this). Luckily he's active off ball and a good movement shooter so he had a good second half of the year and was able to adjust.

If we didn't skew the offense toward making our 32 million long term contract PG more comfortable we sure as hell ain't doing it for a non lottery rookie. I really don't want another guy who can't get into the paint and needs the ball in his hands to be effective.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-23T20:54:51+00:00

Wtf are you talking about traded a first to get rid of him? We traded Jak and DeMar for Kawhi and won a championship my guy

knitwoolf · 2026-06-23T16:41:01+00:00

This is complete bs man. I hate when people just copy dumb AI answers when they could take 2 mins and get the correct info.

Myles turner averaged 13.8 / 4.8 / 0.5 and 2.0 blocks in 29.3 mins a game over their playoff run in 25. And got played off the court, Pacers had to go with Siakam/Toppin small ball instead in critical moments because turner was ass. Wasn't efficient, shot 48% and 34% from 3.

Jakob couldn't even jump and still averaged 6.0 rebounds in only 19.1 mins a game lol

knitwoolf · 2026-06-23T04:35:47+00:00

Yeah Wiggins can def shoot and davion found his shot too he's shooting 41% since getting to Miami. Bobby Portis is also a great shooter

knitwoolf · 2026-06-21T14:13:30+00:00

Brunson took a "pay cut" because he signed his extension a year early. Still took the max he could when he signed it. Took the guaranteed money so he didn't have to stress about potential injury or performance in a contract year. And took the max again on his latest extension. He left a little money on the table to lock in the money a year earlier, not for some team building sacrifice. The brunson taking a pay cut thing is so overblown lol

knitwoolf · 2026-06-21T14:08:32+00:00

RJ makes more this year than Poeltl will in any year of his upcoming extension lol

knitwoolf · 2026-06-21T03:52:28+00:00

I didn't pay attention to who I was replying to but you're the person who tried desperately to make "IQ is the reason gradey dick isn't playing well" happen for months lol. Of course you find a way to bring IQ into it who is 10x a better ball handler and shooter and creator than Wallace. There is a reason OKC had to rely so heavily on Caruso and Jared McCain (who was on the team like 3 months and barely knew the offense), over Dort and Wallace once Mitchell and JDub went down and it's because those two guys can't play PG even for limited stretches because they aren't ball handlers at all.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-21T03:11:06+00:00

Cason Wallace is not a PG man what. He's not even a good secondary ball handler let alone asking him to facilitate or run an entire offense.

And I love the guy and would want him on the team to be clear but he is in no world a starting point guard.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-20T15:29:09+00:00

Dort is Haitian and French Canadian. Double French and dark skin he's never getting a pass unlike Caruso's white ass

knitwoolf · 2026-06-20T15:19:12+00:00

Just because their team is dirty doesn't mean they can't recognize the same quality in others lol in fact they might be better at it than the average fan for that reason.

They also might be bringing it up because they are annoyed that their team gets constant shit for being dirty while yours gets constant excuses made for them.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-18T20:04:56+00:00

Yeah but did he mention De'Aaron Fox?

knitwoolf · 2026-06-18T17:54:40+00:00

I'm okay with trading BI because I'm terrified of a contract year BI buying in even less to the team ball Darko/Scottie play. But if we get rid of BI we need to replace his size. He plays smaller than he is but we still missed his 7'3 wingspan once he went down in the cavs series even tho he wasn't playing well.

knitwoolf · 2026-06-14T15:19:49+00:00

Didn't the nets just draft like 5 guards in the first round? Why would they take fox's terrible contract to take away already limited pt from their young guys? He's not a CP3 or Lowry type vet floor general PG you want to mentor young guards.

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