RJ Barrett impresses during the Knicks volunteer mini-camp

While the rest of the NBA successfully rebooted the year in the Orlando bubble, the Knicks were among the eight teams excluded from the reboot due to a pitiful regular season that resulted in 45 losses in 66 games (.318 win rate. ).

For his part, Barrett did what he could, averaging 14.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 30.4 minutes per game. Before the season was stopped, Barrett had started to find more consistency, averaging 17.2 points in the last 10 games he played before the pandemic stopped things. In addition to strong numbers, Barrett was also extremely resilient, playing in 56 of the team’s 66 games. Most of the 10 lost games came after the former Duke star suffered an ankle injury at the end of the season.

Despite the strong numbers, Barrett has not been named to any of the NBA’s All-Rookie teams as announced earlier this month.

Because the Knicks weren’t qualified to participate in the Orlando bubble, the New York franchise was allowed to win a mini training camp that had to abide by a set of social distancing rules. The camp started on 13 September and continued until the end of the month.

And, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post, Barrett was a man on a mission for his franchise during what the team called “Eliminate 8”

“On the seventh day of scrimmages, Barrett looked like number 3, according to new Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau,” wrote Berman who then cited the Knicks manager’s version of his young player.

“He had a terrific practice today,” Thibodeau said. “Today was his best practice. He was bouncing very well, he played, he did a great job with that. So I just want him to focus on improving.

“He is a young player. I’m just taking the work part down. This is the first step. Conditioning, continuing to work on his shoot. There are many things it can do well”.