BONUS EDITION: Knicks win, RJ shines

Couldn't wait till Monday to gush about a young player who looks like he's putting it all together.

Good morning! Happy Saturday, and more importantly, Happy First Morning After a Knicks Win! Incredibly fun game last night which I’ll have a more thorough recap about in Monday’s edition, but wanted to send out a special film-heavy newsletter today detailing what I felt was the most important takeaway from the win: the playmaking growth of one Rowan Alexander Barrett Jr.

Game 2: Knicks 126, Hawks 120

It should tell you something right off the bat that in a game where…

• Jalen Brunson set a career high for made threes…

• The Knicks sank 20 triples, tying the second highest total in franchise history…

• New York generated 30 assists for only the 14th time in the Thibs era…

• Julius Randle had a quietly spectacular near triple double…

• Mitchell Robinson had an All-Defense level impact…

• They nearly blew it with not one but two egregious turnovers in the final 30 seconds, and…

• Ultimately came away with their first win of the season…

I’m sending out a (semi) emergency newsletter focused solely on the passing of RJ Barrett.

Even within RJ’s performance against the Hawks, there were other reasonable topics deserving of attention. For one, he was efficient, scoring at least 26 points on 15 or fewer shots for just the ninth time as a pro. He also pulled out a few midrange jumpers - the sort of shot that have been largely theoretical throughout his young career - including a late one under big time pressure:

For a player who has never shot above 36 percent on long twos in a season, seeing this go down in a tight game is pretty damn encouraging.

And yet, along with all of the above, it is secondary for me to the playmaking. That probably has a lot to do with what I have wanted from my ideal version of RJ throughout the course of his career.

This Rorschach test of a player has been many things to many people. Some focus on a combination of counting stats that few have ever accumulated by his age. Others see nothing but empty calories (and have the advanced numbers to back it up).

Me? I’ve always wanted one thing above all else, and that’s someone who makes the correct basketball play as often as his reputation would seem to suggest he should. That doesn’t just mean more assists. It’s knowing when to bypass his own shots, and even simpler, when to swing to the next guy so the dominoes keep falling.

It’s early (famous last words), but through two games, it sure seems like its all starting to click.