Q&A with NBA trainer Drew Hanlen, including his expectations for RJ Barrett's second season with Knicks

Drew Hanlen, RJ Barrett’s trainer, joined The Putback recently to talk about his work with Barrett. He spoke in to detail about the work that went into Barrett’s shot, what he saw from Barrett last year and what he thinks may be different for the second-year Knick this season. 

You can watch most of Hanlen’s interview here and here . 

Below are some extra insights from Hanlen, including how Kelly Oubre’s career arc is relevant to Barrett, Barrett’s work in Orlando and Hanlen’s PureSweat training company:

SNY: What was your work like with Barrett in the offseason? 

HANLEN: "Yeah, we actually almost created our own bubble in Orlando. We were just a couple of miles away from the NBA bubble at Montverde, his high school. We were just working out twice a day. I literally was staying right next to the gym, right next to where he has a house. So I was working on my golf game and working out RJ. We did everything; we rebuilt his jump shot. We moved his elbow out a little bit. We worked on improving his posture. We worked on making it more fluid. I thought he had a kind of a two-piece shot instead of a smoother one-part shot (so we worked on that). We also worked on balance - improvement of balance so that every shot is consistent. So he's developed a lot of confidence. He feels a lot more comfortable and he's a lot more consistent thus far. So now we just have to continue to work on those things and turn them into something that he does when he's (well rested). But when he's also fatigued and in the course of a game. And when there's off-balance shots; he can still execute the same exact mechanics that are feeling good right now.”

SNY: What went into the decision to move Barrett’s elbow out in his shot? 

HANLEN: (Hanlen provides detail on the elbow adjustment here.) "It might not be your traditional Indiana (shooting form), elbow right underneath the ball, wrist cocked back. But the truth is not many NBA shooters outside of Klay Thompson have those perfect shooting mechanics. It's all about just being consistent and believing that your shot’s going to go in every time. And so I think that he's a lot more comfortable with his mechanics now. Now it's just about continuing to rep it out and developing the consistency to improve his effectiveness when he's out on the court.”

SNY: When you make a change like that, how long does it take to implement? 

HANLEN: “It depends. It really does. I always say that it takes about three months for (players) to fully embrace the change. After three months, it shouldn't feel abnormal to them. It should feel like they're (own) shot. But then some players make the adjustment right away and it feels great and they just start knocking down shots. I've had other players where it's taken the second year before it kind of crosses over. So it really depends. You look at guys like Jayson Tatum or Meyers Leonard, those are two guys that I changed their shots and Meyers shot over 40% (from beyond the arc) the last three years, the three years that I've worked with him. Jayson Tatum is obviously is an over 40% career shooter in the NBA after a pre-draft adjustment. You look at Kelly Oubre, it took him two or three years to kind of really master the mechanical adjustments that we made but now he's shooting it at a high clip. 

So I don't like to put timetables on players. And I don't think that fans should either. I think that's something that fans don't really understand. Everybody takes a different time to develop and grow. I would say that everyone that knows anything about basketball would say that Kevin Durant's a good shooter. But he shot under 30% from three in his rookie season, Michael Jordan, the best player of all time, didn't shoot over 30% from three until his sixth NBA season. So I would say that there are a lot of times where fans overreact to analytics or numbers early on in players’ careers. The truth is you're really going to see how good a player is in Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, when they really kind of hit their stride and start showing their true potential.” 

SNY: When we spoke before the draft, we talked about you and RJ working on his dribble and getting by defenders with lateral movement aka wiggle – how has he progressed in that area?

HANLEN: "It's funny, Brad Beal always gives me trouble. He was the one that originally said, ‘I'm Drew's guinea pig. He always tries stuff out with me and if it works for me, then he uses it on other players. If it doesn't work for me, he keeps tweaking it on me until it does work. And then other players get the benefit of it.’ (Hanlen laughs) But that's the truth. When Brad came into the league, he was more of a spot up guy. And then he became a guy that played off the ball a lot. And then he had to develop that wiggle and handle. And so we spent a whole summer on developing Brad into the go-to score that you see now. And then I put Zach LaVine through it. I put Jordan Clarkson through it and Jayson Tatum through it.

“So now I've been able to have different guys go through that experience. And so I've been able to learn from it and get a little bit more efficient with my teaching methods. So we put RJ through that program. While he hasn't mastered all of it yet because it does take time and we also had limitations. In a normal off season, not only do they get to work out in a gym, but then they also get to compete one-on-one, 3-on-3, 5-on-5. So that we can make adjustments and teach while they're playing. We didn't get that (this offseason). So that's one thing that I think this early season will be so important for guys like RJ that have made big developments in the one on zero situation.

“Now you've got to try it out in practice in pre-season games, and then in regular season games through trial and error. And that's the only way that you can become a good basketball player. It doesn't matter what you can do against air, what you can do against a 5-11 white guy like me in the gym. You have to be able to do it against the best defenders in the world. Against team schemes and coverages. So due to COVID, we have not been able to see (the things Barrett worked on) in live action as much as we would in any other off season.”

SNY: What should Knicks fans expect from Barrett?

HANLEN: I try not to put any crazy expectations on my guys because I'd rather they speak on what they think is going to happen. But I did go out and tweet one thing. Somebody had said ‘Who do you expect to see a big time jump from the season?’ And I responded, I quote-tweeted it and said RJ just because I've seen how hard he's worked, how locked in he is mentally. I really do think that he's going to grow a lot.

“I think it also frustrated him when he was watching the film (from his rookie season), how many little mistakes he made - just kind of moments fatigue kind he had during the season. And I think that when you look at his shot now versus last season, I think you're going to see a lot more disciplined shooter, which should excite fans. I think you'll also see a lot more efficient player which should also excite fans.

"I don't want to place any expectations, but I will say that I expect him to make a big jump forward. And I think that he’ll be a lot better version of himself this season than we saw last year, which was a little bit below what I thought was going to happen his rookie season.

(In general), I would love to see RJ use this year as a year to grow and develop, a year to be more efficient, to be a better leader, to be better on defense - to do all these little things so that he can become a more complete player. And I think that that's what Knicks fans should really be (looking for). How do we eventually put together a contending team that can compete in the playoffs? Instead of worrying so much (about) ‘Is RJ shooting 40% after game one or game two from three?’ I would love to say, is he more confident when he's shooting them? Is he taking the right shots? Is he making the right plays? Is he locking in on defensive assignments on the ball, off the ball? That's how I'll be judging his season this year. Does he make developmental growths that are going to put it on the right track moving forward?

"I just want to see him on the right path. I use Kelly Oubre as an example all the time. Kelly averaged three points a game as a rookie for the Wizards. And then he averaged (six) points a game, and then it was 12 and it was 15 and last year was 19. And I remember having conversations with the Wizard fans and media, where they were like, ‘Kelly Oubre’s a bust, Kelly Oubre’s this and that.’ And you look at him now, he's a guy that everybody wants to have on their team because he's a two-way guy that's contributed 19 points a game on offense, efficiently. And on defense , he’s a dog that gets after it. So I hope that RJ can take that same kind of path. Obviously, he started out higher. It wasn't three points, a game, it was 14. But that's the kind of curve that I want him to go on. Just continuing to improve, add one or two things to your game each and every year so that eventually you're the player that we want you to become in your prime.

SNY: You have trained many of the top players in basketball. Now, amateur players can get in touch with you directly. How can they do that?

HANLEN: Two things: one is I started a free text community. I always make fun of all the talk shows that grab on to the headlines of, you know, LaVar Ball versus Michael Jordan or LeBron James - is he the goat or not the goat? So I wanted to start a text community where I could actually give them real information to help educate them on the game of basketball. So fans can just text me directly. It's actually my number. It's (314) 461-1862. So I send out text messages every day featuring instructional videos. And then also I answer as many questions as I can, as I'm traveling city to city. And the other thing I did was I built out an online basketball school, which is pretty cool. I’ve always wondered why I couldn't learn like about basketball the way I learned about math and science and social studies. So I started a virtual basketball school on my website, puresweatbasketball.com. So those are the two best ways to get ahold of me. If they're just someone that casually wants some more information, they can text me for free. And if they want to go all in and really learn about the game of basketball, they can check out the virtual basketball school.”