Last weekend, my wife and I saw The Farewell.
This might not seem like a big deal to you, but when you’re someone like me who used to live at the movies, and then had a kid, and then pilfered your mother and in-laws for free child care during the day to the point that nights and weekends became largely homebound events, then yes, it was decidedly a big effing deal.
Nowadays, movie theater trips are reserved for the MCU and Oscar fare only (and maybe the occasional giant lizard). The buzz surrounding The Farewell was enough to get me to bite.
And it was…fine.
(That’s not really fair. It was better than fine, maybe even a lot better than fine, but knowing the entire story going in kind of neutered it for me. Anyway, I’ll save my expanded thoughts for Macri on Movies, coming soon to a podcast platform near you.)
The point here is that A24 Films positively nailed the marketing for this thing, generating midsummer buzz that’s usually reserved for movies with ten times the budget. The genius was in the roll out. The film opened in just four theaters, but the anticipation was so high that it broke Endgame’s 2019 record for per-screen average in the process. From there, it spread to 35 theaters, then 135, and only recently topped 400.
At the moment, it’s made nearly $13 million on a $3 million budget. Compare that to the buddy cop action flick Stuber, which was released the same weekend as The Farewell, cost five times as much to make, and last week made roughly the value of a used Civic. The Farewell will blow past it in short order, and should have the legs to take it well past even that.
I haven’t seen Stuber (and judging from the box office results, neither have you), but from what I hear, it was a perfectly fine albeit poor man’s Lethal Weapon rip off featuring the delightful duo of Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista. It’s also the type of film that was always going to get a wide release. Action movies starring an MCU Guardian dictate as much.
In this case though, going against the grain might have been the only thing to save it. Instead, Lulu Wang and the rest of Hollywood has bid Stuber (wait for it…waaaait for it…)
An early…Farewell.
And now, a full 400 words into wasting your time, we get to our Knicks point of the week: RJ Barrett might be The Farewell. Or he might be Stuber. Or he might be, you know…a highly talented basketball player and not a movie, and this analogy should die right here and now. I really don’t know.
Here’s what I do know: I’ve been seeing an oft-repeated sentiment on Twitter lately that Barrett has to be a Knicks starter to begin the season because he’s the third overall pick and how the hell would it look if the third overall pick wasn’t starting for a 17-win team.
Apologies in advance if this applies to you, but the line of thinking infuriates me, not necessarily because it’s wrong (we’ll get to that in a bit), but because it displays the kind of close-mindedness that fuels most of the #LOLKnicks takes that infest the interwebs.
Drawing the conclusion that a third overall pick isn’t good or that his team lacks confidence in him because he doesn’t start is no better than saying the Knicks are idiots for signing four guys that have a “PF” designation on Real GM. Besides, the optics surrounding this franchise are going to continue to stink to holy hell until they do something right on the court. Whether or not they start Barrett won’t make a difference one way or the other. He’s also a savvy enough kid to know that his NBA career is going to be defined by a lot more than its first few months.
That’s not to say the first few months aren’t incredibly important, which is why I bring this point up to begin with.
So far this summer, I’ve attempted to dissect how New York can go about looking like a competent and cohesive offensive unit. I started by exploring the possibilities of a Randle/Robinson frontcourt pairing, and then hit on DSJ’s necessary growth as a passer.
Assuming those three begin the season as starters, that leaves two wing openings. The starting small forward job presumably goes to Marcus Morris or Kevin Knox. Personally, I think Knox gets it, but I honestly don’t care that much either way. Whoever gets it will be stationed in the corner on a typical offensive set while Smith initiates the offense, Mitch floats between the dunker’s spot and setting picks, and Randle hangs around the free throw line extended – his preferred locale to generate offense from, and one that should offer the best chance of amplifying his pairing with Robinson, as I went into detail on here.
That leaves one corner spot left, and as the late, great Johnny Castle once said, nobody puts Barrett in a corner.
That’s really all this comes down to. In the modern NBA, two players are relegated to the corners to begin every offensive possession. It obviously doesn’t mean they’ll stay there, but stationing someone in each corner for all if not most of a possession is the easiest way to ensure decent spacing for the other three players. I don’t need to pull up clips of Barrett at Duke to show you that this is not the best use of his skill set.
Duhhhhhh…but starting him in the corner and then occasionally pulling him out to initiate sets is a great way to take the pressure off, so really, starting him would be genius!
Maybe, maybe not. Aside from the facts that a) Barrett doesn’t yet warrant anyone’s attention as a shooter and b) would inevitably be third on the pecking order after Smith Jr. and Randle in terms of initiating offense, the spacing would only further be killed if no one took his place on “his” possessions or one of Randle or DSJ replaced him.
This last scenario wouldn’t be the end of the world, but again: is that the best use of resources? And for what purpose? To get the third overall pick in the starting lineup because it’s what you’re “supposed” to do? All this would lead to is unnecessary clutter, and if you think that’s a workable situation, pop in a tape of any game last season. Literally, any game.
Let The Farewell be our guide here instead. Having Barrett come off the bench, at least initially, would afford him far more opportunities to operate with the ball in his hands. If Vegas was any indication, this is far more in his wheelhouse at the moment. It’s also how he’ll maximize his ceiling as an NBA player. Operating against backups will simply ease the transition.
Best of all, theoretically joining him off the bench should be some combination of Bobby Portis, Allonzo Trier, Wayne Ellington, (eventually) Reggie Bullock, Damyean Dotson and whichever of Morris or Knox doesn’t start. All of the above with the exception of Knox shot between 37 and 40 percent from deep last year, and the second-year forward should hit that floor rather easily this season.
This is precisely the type of spacing Barrett need to thrive. Even if Smith Jr. and/or Randle progress as a deep threat, any possession where the ball doesn’t touch their hands is probably not the best use of the Knicks’ time. Best of all, bringing RJ off the bench offers the flexibility to play him at any number of positions when he checks in. Keep him at the two or the three? Sure. Run him out there as the point guard? Why not. Go small with him at the four? He certainly has the frame and rebounding chops to give it a go. Hell, sub in Barrett for Robinson and let Randle roam free at center for a bit.
In Barrett’s theoretical place as the starting shooting guard, David Fizdale can pick from any number of options that would be perfectly suited to do what Baby was never meant to (not to mention offer more resistance on defense, an area where RJ would most definitely be better served going against backups).
Do I think this will actually happen? Probably not. Fiz loves his aggressive ball-handlers, and there’s a part of me that thinks he’ll take a “more the merrier” approach with his starters. Over the long term, this should absolutely be the goal. More than shooting or defensive versatility, Golden State and now Toronto have ushered in a revolution where almost everyone on the court can (smartly) move with the ball.
If that eventually happens in New York, Barrett will almost certainly be at the center of it. In the meantime, easing him in as a sub should not only make his transition into the league smoother, but maximize the Knicks’ present day ceiling in the process.
Thanks for reading, talk to you next Thursday!