Don't let the circumstances fool you, though: he is more than a consolation. Coming out of high school, Barrett was ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit and entered 2018-19 as the preseason favorite to be drafted first overall in 2019. He has a pedigree that includes being a McDonald's All-American, a consensus First Team All-American, Mr. Basketball USA, the Gatorade National Player of the Year, and a gold medalist at the FIBA U19 World Cup with Canada. The list goes on.

While Barrett was sometimes ball-dominant and inefficient as a scorer in college, the NBA and the spacing it offers to a player with Barrett's game -- one centered around creating shots on the perimeter, occasionally herky-jerkying to create separation for passing lanes and for putting up points -- should benefit him tremendously.

Kevin Durant Maillot，As for the fit for Barrett in The Empire State, his college coach, Mike Krzyzewski, said Tuesday on SiriusXM that he believes he'll do well for himself.

"RJ will flourish here in New York," Krzyzewski said. "He wants to be here. He is so mature. He just turned 19 last Friday, but he's been a part of the Canadian basketball program since [he was] a little guy, always played up."

New York has been linked in recent months to a number of free agents and has two max salary slots to offer players like Kevin Durant, Kemba Walker, Kyrie Irving or any number of the stars on the open market this summer. While we won't find out the fate of that future success (or failure), we do know that Barrett joins an intriguing young core that includes 2018 second round pick Mitchell Robinson as well as Dennis Smith Jr., Allonzo Trier and Kevin Knox.