Give Knicks' Julius Randle a hand for turning it around
New York Knicks forward Julius Randle looks on against the Brooklyn Nets in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Barclays Center on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Julius Randle was the consolation prize.
He was the free agent the Knicks wound up with after a 2019 offseason so embarrassing that they issued what amounted to an apology to their fans after the Nets signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
“While we understand that some Knicks fans could be disappointed with tonight’s news, we continue to be upbeat and confident in our plans to rebuild the Knicks to compete for championships in the future,” the statement issued by then-president Steve Mills read.
Neither team is exactly standing on the precipice of a championship, but the Knicks squad that beat the Nets, 121-102, Wednesday night, is a lot closer. And the irony is that the play of Randle, the free agent that wasn’t at the top of anyone’s list, is a major reason why.
So much has changed since the last time the Knicks played at the Barclays Center, a game where Kyrie Irving scored 32 points to lead the Nets to their ninth straight win over the Knicks. Five days later, Irving demanded a trade precipitating the breakup of a superteam that was once predicted to win multiple titles.
While the Nets are clearly still recovering from the whiplash of the Irving-Durant era, the Knicks are in fifth place in the East and playing well enough as a team that they might be able to deal with the fact that they could be without two big men — Mitchell Robinson and Jericho Sims — for a significant time.
The Athletic reported late Wednesday that the Knicks could be without Mitchell Robinson for the rest of the season and they have applied for a Disabled Player Exception.
Randle set the tone of the game as the Nets absolutely had no answer for him in the first half. Randle scored 19 of his game-high 26 points before halftime, which was enough to put the Knicks in control for good. The Knicks were a plus-25 when Randle was on the floor.
The performance was his second straight dominant showing. Two days earlier, he won a head-to-head battle against LeBron James in a win over the Lakers despite twisting his ankle in the first half and getting four stitches in his lip at halftime. Not only did Randle have 27 points, 14 rebounds and a plus-17 rating against the Lakers, he put a punctuation point on the win with a breakaway jam after James missed a three-pointer with 40 seconds left.
Randle has more than bounced back from his poor start to the season when he shot 27.1% in his first six game after undergoing offseason ankle surgery. Randle headed into Wednesday’s game averaging 27.4 points, 9.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists while shooting 57.1% in his last 11 games.
“Its’ been a steady climb from the start of the season until now,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Randle after the win. “I know from coaching against him, the one thing you don’t want to see is Julius Randle with a head of steam coming at you downhill. To me, that’s his strength . . . The game tells him what to do. His versatility is his strength. He’s got power, he’s got speed. He’s got touch. He can score a lot of different ways.
“When you look at what he’s done each year he’s added and gotten better . . . He’s playing great basketball right now.”
Unlike their past meetings at Barclays since the 2019 free agency, the Knicks had the two best players on the floor Wednesday night in Jalen Brunson and Randle.
Brunson, because of his consistency, grittiness and unique understanding of the psyche of New York fans, has gotten the lion’s share of the credit for the Knicks resurgence.
Yes, it’s time Randle started getting some credit too. Maybe it’s harder for fans to go all-in on Randle, given that the he has struggled in the playoffs, has had some memorable clutch-time turnovers and has produced eyebrow-raising moments like when he gave the thumbs down to booing fans.
Yet all that seems like a long time ago watching the fun that Randle seems to be having on the court over the past month.
“For me, it’s just falling in love with the journey,” Randle said. “Whether it’s a game day or not a game day. It’s all a part of the process. I just want to continue to get better.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
