(DJ Zullo) The benefit of having someone create the look limits how much energy you are expending.
There is a cost to the extra work.
Julius Randle does not just make the team better. He makes them more sustainable.
by Struggle2Real
@New York Knicks
18 Comments
In today’s game there’s a lot of versatility in positions and the one thing about Randle is he’s not versatile
He’s a Power Forward that I would NEVER put at the wing and given how Thibs runs his teams, I wouldn’t put him at Center either.
I can see OG sliding down to the 4. Josh Hart is a 2 who can play 4. Deuce can be a 1/2.
Randle is 2x All-NBA at PF bc it’s kinda a weak position right now. A lot of 4s are more than capable of playing a 3 or 5. Like AD and Sabonis have been PFs in their career but also play a lot of center. Giannis can easily be a 5. Guys like Lebron, Tatum and someone like Tobias Harris or MPJ have spent a lot of minutes at SF but can easily be 4s.
Thibs doesn’t run a small ball lineup, he loves the defensive minded center who rebounds, something that Randle wouldn’t be great at that role.
Randle is 30+ next season, missed all this post season, was injured for 2023 and had a rough 2021 post season.
I’m not one to be of the narrative “he can’t perform in the playoffs” bc I understand 2021 he didn’t have help and 2023 he was hurt. BUT I do know that we have done well without him so cashing out for his value would be huge
Has Randle ever been past the second round of the playoffs? Why is he suddenly being made out to be a winning player? just like Carmelo, he doesn’t
make his teammates better! Having said that, he would’ve helped this series so I may be contradicting myself.
He makes us better bottom line stop this we dont need Randle narrative
a lot of people have the image of randle pre-brunson and even from the 2023 playoffs. those are all fair, because thats part of who he is as a player. but with this kind of a team around him, and with brunson as the clear leader, i think randle can truly flourish and be the most ideal version of himself. his number 1 issue has always been mental. he lets things get to his head and it affects his game. and being the leader of the team (prior to brunson) was something that was too much for him. brunson is much better suited to being the leader. now he can focus on just balling. Also, with a 1a option in brunson all these ancillary weapons, he doesnt have nearly as much of the offensive responsibility that he had in the past.
We’ve been over this time and time again. Even if he’s not performing, Brunson is way more efficient when Randle is on the court. His efficiency dipped down specifically his three point percentage once Randle went out.
Now next season when Randle comes back teams can’t just focus on Brunson, they got to worry about Randle as well.
He hasn’t been perfect in his tenure with us but that’s because the pieces around him weren’t the perfect fit. But january was not a fluke. Brunson DiVincenzo Anunoby Randle Hartenstein is a fantastic starting lineup. They complement each other so well, and they deserve a full season to prove what they can do
We also need to understand the difference between regular season and playoff basketball. Knick fans aren’t there yet. And honestly either is thibs. Signing Randle isn’t a mistake but running the entire thing back might be. That’s two years in a row with a makable ECF and they failed. Blame injuries, sure, but without injuries you don’t get the pacers either.
So you’re saying having a shot creator helps this offense :O
I enjoyed the months of success we had where everyone was just happy we were playing winning basketball. Now that the season is over we have months of agonizing pro vs con Randle debate to look forward to…
You can just point to all of the pressure that Brunson gets when he has the ball. The rest of the knicks just don’t have the ball handling skills. If you double Brunson, he can kick it out to Randle who’s a threat to drive to the basket and has a threat to hit a jumpshot. No one else on the knicks can do that. That is why Brunson gets full court pressed, the knicks just don’t have another ball handler. At times, Deuce, hart, ihart can be a secondary ball handler but Randle is way better. Ofc OG is good at that as well, but Randle is still superior offensively imo. We can also see how the knicks offense went to shit once OG got hurt as well.
Also another thing over looked: teams got way more physical and confident in cheapshots on Brunson with Randle out. Outside of being able to focus more on Brunson, they were comfortable knowing they really didn’t have a physical counter.
This isn’t the 90s, but modern enforcer is someone you know who will punish you on the boards and in the paint in general. Randle does that and had Randle been healthy, would have punished Siakam with bully ball for the little shots here and there.
Love Randle, looking forward to seeing the January Knicks for a full season.
He does make us better though? He rebounds, he defends, he is strong as a fuckin bull, can shoot, drive, pass, post up, basically everything we were missing in the playoff run.
Saying Randle improves the team is a dumb thing to say because it is painfully obvious. Randle, who this far in his career, is a high volume low efficiency regular season work horse helps the Knicks loads. He takes a ton of miles of Brunson. He scores and rebounds relentlessly. And you need someone to do that. It is quite unfortunate that we have had another post season where we did not get to see how Brunson and Randle work together in the playoffs. It’s been a long since the Knicks had a team that was ready to be judged by playoff results instead of a hot stretch in January.
The question that should be asked is are the Knicks better replacing Randle with Bridges? Durant is too old and too expensive. Booker or Giannis isn’t happening. And I don’t know the answer. But Bridges and OG as your forwards flanking Hartenstein with Brunson and Donte as your guards is a lineup that makes a lot of sense together. If the Knicks don’t do their homework on the deal it would be malpractice.
Imagine Brunson getting 3 spot up 3s per game. These playoffs bro has had to swim through 3 defenders and pop it off the dribble with a trailer on his ass and a dude in his face if he wants a 3
When u get bridges u start him at 2 guard and have divencenzo and hart come off the bench and trade all the draft picks we have
We were 14-2 in January with Julius and one of the best teams in the league at both ends of the court.
RUN IT BACK