Knicks reportedly remain open to trading Julius Randle

[mpharris36]

The twist here is if we got Kenny Payne for James Wiseman.

[Deeeez Knicks]

The twist here is if we got Kenny Payne for James Wiseman.

[KnicksGadfly]

Like I've said for a long time. Julius Randle isn't Lebron James. You can't expect him to create his own shot, to run the offense through him or to let him try to dictate games and carry the team offensively. That's what Randle was basically forced to do last season. That's why he struggled.

Any notion that the head coaches would have not allowed Randle to do what he did and that instead Randle was free styling against the coaching staffs wishes last season is just silly. He did it cause the next best guy at trying to create his own shot (especially after Marcus Morris was traded) was glued to the bench as the 13th man and the coaches had no choice.

Honestly, I think Randle took one for the team and basically took the role of the punching back and escapegoat when IMHO it wasn't his fault.

Bottom line...for Randle to be successful the Knicks need the same thing that they need to make everyone else on this team successful. A real shot creator...not Elfrid Freaking Payton or running the offense through RJ Barrett...that can allow guys like Randle to focus on what he does well and not do things he's not able to do.

And NO it doesn't mean Randle is a fit on this team or that he's great but you need to be realistic about that "team" that Steve Mills and Scott Perry through out there last season. It was ugly. It was poorly balanced. And other than MAYBE the Pistons it had the least able "star" to create shots for himself and others.

We've used the Lebron James excuse for Melo too. It doesn't work for me anymore. Most players in this league are not Lebron James, Giannis, Harden, etc. But the problem is this: if you're not James, Giannis or Harden (just picking a few ball dominant guys to make my point...insert whoever you want), you better be able to play with James, Harden and Giannis. Marcus Morris is the guy I'm thinking of here. He was also miscast as the 1st option (he actually didn't do so bad), but we also knew he could play off the stars, and so the Lakers and Clippers went after him. They didn't see it with Randle, obviously.

I feel bad about Randle (nah I don't). He probably did get "escape-goated," in the words of Marbury. At the same time, his inability to play a game that maximized his teammates hurt this team. Mitch had to sit because of him. RJ dealt with clogged lanes, and he's our prized 1st rounder. If we had someone like Dorian Finney Smith or Thad Young, I think we'd be further along in those guy's development. RJ is not gonna magically become super efficient, but we did him no favors. You can argue that Randle is young and we should build and develop him, but my argument is that he's getting paid a ****ton and he's already had time to develop in this league. When your contract is that big and you're getting mad minutes ahead of youth, you're getting paid to produce.

Unless there's a big change with his defense and shooting and efficiency, Randle's not going to be able to contribute, unless we can sign: KP, Brook Lopez or some other rare-three-point beast that can play with anybody in this league. And Randle already got to play with AD once already. The other option Randle has to be just become an offensive beast, in the vein of Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, even David Lee in a way, etc. Those guys had defensive deficiencies, but they made up for it by their offensive contributions. But I think that even they had ceilings on their games. Love needed Lebron and Kyrie, and as a 3rd option, he was definitely more miscast compared to Chris Bosh.

Finally, people have brought up Boozer as a comp. But that was a different game, and the Bulls had guys like prime Noah, and Taj Gibson began replacing Boozer in the 4th quarter by the end of Boozer's 1st season on the Bulls.

[br7knicks]

Let's pair randle with Nate Robinson. 2 of the top 5 Knicks, of the last 20 years, that you want to strangle for being so stupid on offense, and shot selection, with no idea of team basketball.

At least Nate is entertaining, tho.

[CDAZ]

Randle still here?

[newyorker4ever]

Even Portis was a better player than Randle (.064 vs .062 WS/48)

[nedleeds]

We should have done this trade at the deadline last year. For any Hornets picks we could get.