The Whiteboard: RJ Barrett and the most intriguing lineup the Knicks have played so far this season

On Monday night, the Boston Celtics pulled away late for a 114-98 win over the New York Knicks. Most of the Knicks starters played well but, with RJ Barrett out with a migraine, New York was clearly missing the second-unit impact that has helped keep them afloat at times this season.

Barrett has been one of the Knicks' best players this season but Tom Thibodeau has been managing his minutes in a slightly different way this season, giving their bench a huge boost and helping Barrett lay the foundation for a breakout season.

RJ Barrett has become the anchor for the Knicks bench

Barrett has played 118 minutes with the rest of the Knicks' starters — Jalen Brunson, Quentin Grimes, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson — outscoring opponents by 20.5 points per 100 possessions. The lineup he's played with next most often is ostensibly four bench players — Josh Hart, Isaiah Hartenstein, Donte DiVincenzo and Immanuel Quickley.

The starter/bench player definition is a little messy because Barrett has come off the bench in three games with Hart replacing him in the starting lineup, but that is about labeling not about function.

The lineup with Barrett and the four bench players has outscored opponents by 13.7 points per 100 possessions across 59 minutes, an extremely strong mark for a second-unit lineup with just one starter. With those four players around him, Barrett is averaging 28.7 points and 4.2 assists per 36 minutes, with a 69.1 true shooting percentage.

This season the Knicks have used lineups with just one starter on the floor for 23.1 percent of their minutes, second most in the league, and they're outscoring opponents by 6.9 points per 100 possessions. It's a huge advantage for the Knicks to be able to stretch their lineups that deeply and still have such a big advantage over opponents, and Barrett has been the offensive engine for those groups.

Barrett played with four bench players extremely rarely last season — the most common grouping was this same lineup but with Obi Toppin in place of DiVincenzo and that group saw the floor for just 18 minutes all season long.

This current iteration puts three drive-and-kick weapons around Barrett in Quickley, Hart and DiVincenzo, the last two of whom are way more likely to pass off a drive than Randle or Brunson. The floor is incredibly well-spaced and he's allowed to create with space and, often, without having to worry about help defense.

Barrett is also getting plenty of opportunities to work off the ball, running off screens and spotting up in a lineup that is much more tilted toward egalitarian ball movement.

Just over 27 percent of Barrett's minutes this season have been played with this lineup and they're certainly not the only reason he's off to such a strong start — 22.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 62.0 true shooting percentage — but it's been a significant part of it.

The Knicks now have a balance to their rotations, a killer second unit they can count on and the third wheel they desperately needed to step up playing as well as he has at any point in his career.

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The Wizards are in flames

The Wizards have finished the first 10 games of the 2023-24 season 2-8, with their only wins coming against the lowly Hornets and Grizzlies. Their most recent loss came against the Raptors in a game in which they blew a 23-point lead and let Toronto finish the game on a 21-1 run.

During the game, Wizards fans were treated to ...

• ... an entire possession of 4-on-5 defense while Kyle Kuzma begged for a challenge at the other end of the court.
• ... Jordan Poole intentionally and transparently ignoring head coach Wes Unseld through an entire timeout and then realizing he had no idea what play the coach had called and desperately trying to see the clipboard as play was about to resume.
• ... the team passing the ball to a player who was standing out of bounds on their final possession, with a chance to win or tie. 

The vibes are impeccably bad, the Wizards are bottom-eight in both offensive and defensive efficiency and Poole is shooting 41.2 from the field and 30.3 percent from beyond the arc. YIKES.

READ MORE:

• Wizards keep blowing leads with their awful clutch offense by Cem Yolbulan, for Wiz of Awes
• The Numbers Crunch: Wizards lose grip on the ball and the game, fall to Raptors by Kevin Broom, for Bullets Forever

Recommended Reading:

1. Isaiah Collier is a must-watch prospect: "He's finishing effectively in the paint, pressuring the rim, and making swift passing reads on the move. If the jumper comes around, he is going to have a strong case for the No. 1 pick next June." NBA Draft stock up, stock down, games to watch: Isaiah Collier makes strong first impression

2. Ben Simmons is still Ben Simmons: "Instead, there are more useful questions that frame Simmons’s current status: Does he make his teammates better? Will he stay on the floor in crunch time? How’s he moving? What’s his role and position? Is he able to function in any lineup, regardless of who else is in it? Fundamentally, how does he impact winning?" Ben Simmons Is Showing Flashes of His Old Self. That’s Good and Bad.

3. The box score is misleading, Example No. 4,327,851: "In the most important skills necessary to be a high-volume scorer, Cunningham is coming up tragically short. He’s not converting shots from anywhere on the court, and he hasn’t shown any proclivity for a specific playtype he can lean on to generate pseudo-efficient offense. He simply needs to be better to justify the massive offensive load he’s shouldering." What’s wrong with Cade Cunningham?