Barrett against...
Army: 20 points on 21 shots
Auburn: 18 points on 20 shots
Gonzaga: 23 points on 25 shots
Texas Tech: 16 points on 22 shots
Clemson: 13 points on 14 shots
Syracuse: 23 points on 30 shots
Pitt: 26 points on 24 shots
Notre Dame: 17 points on 17 shots
St John's: 15 points on 15 shots
Louisville: 13 points on 14 shots
Miami: 19 points on 18 shots
He's had some big games but he's had plenty of inefficient stinkers. That list is nearly half of Duke's games against P5 competition.
His more efficient games against top competition (omitted cupcakes) for comparison, note all 3 matchups against Virginia and UNC thus far are here plus Kentucky:
Kentucky: 33 points on 26 shots.
SDSU: 20 points on 14 shots.
Indiana: 22 points on 18 shots.
Yale (top 100): 30 points on 19 shots.
Florida St: 32 points on 19 shots.
Virginia: 30 points on 19 shots.
Georgia Tech: 24 points on 16 shots.
BCU: 19 points on 12 shots.
Virginia again: 26 points on 15 shots.
NC State: 23 points on 17 shots.
UNC: 33 points on 22 shots.
Syracuse: 30 points on 20 shots.
Virginia Tech: 21 points on 15 shots.
He's a stiff athlete, kind of like Harrison Barnes, who's scoring style reminds me of LeBron without the athleticism. He has no finesse to his game. He barrels into traffic and often throws up prayers that go unanswered. His instincts when driving are poor: he doesn't know when to kick it out, when to try a floater, or to simply bring it back out. Hopefully he'll develop that aspect of his game but it's one area that I think is largely instinctual and can't be improved all that much in most players.
The Ringer has him at #5...
We’ve been waiting on Barrett’s purported playmaking ability—the kind of point-forward ability he flashed in the international scene. ..
I think this is the eye test and confirmation bias leading you and The Ringer astray.
His playmaking has been there and the turnovers you seem to think he's committing really aren't. He's got triple the assist rate of Harrison Barnes in his sophomore year, double Jayson Tatum's, and essentially equivalent to his PG Tre Jones this year. It's 50% higher than Zion's also.
Barnes and Tatum had sub 1 A:TO ratios and he's at 1.4 : 1.