The NBA's General Manager's survey hit on Wednesday and among the takeaways hidden in the details: the hype for R.J. Barrett is very real.
Under the category who is the best international player not in the NBA, Barrett received votes from the GMs that were apart of the survey. He was the only Canadian player on the list and is the only one who isn't playing pro anywhere in the world at this time.
1. Sergio Llull – 39%
2. Nando de Colo – 29%
3. Alexey Shved – 14%
4. Jan Veseley – 7%
Also receiving votes: R.J. Barrett, Andrew Bogut, Nicolo Melli
Barrett will enter his freshman season with the Duke Blue Devils this season with a team that's expected to have a lot of attention surrounding him.
Barrett isn't the first young Canadian phenom to get some love from the GMs prior to arriving in the NBA.
Back in the 2013 GM survey, Andrew Wiggins received 7.1% of the vote while still in college and turned that into a number one overall selection and later a five-year $148 million dollar deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
1. Nikola Mirotic -- 25.0%
2. Rudy Fernandez, Vassilis Spanoulis -- 14.3%
4. Juan Carlos Navarro, Dario Saric -- 10.7%
6. Andrew Wiggins -- 7.1%
Nothing is for sure but it's a good sign for Canadian basketball with NBA GMs already aware of Barrett's potential.
