Post#645 » by snadler » Thu Aug 25, 2022 7:16 pm
Katz from the Athletic:
What is the perception of Julius Randle around the league? Is he viewed as a positive asset at all? — Nicholas S.
I can’t speak for all 30 teams. Maybe there is a front office I haven’t heard about that is seeking out Randle. But if there were, I would be surprised. It’s not like the Knicks are clinging onto him. If you call them about Randle, they’re listening to your offer.
If I tuned out of NBA news for a month, returned to learn that the Knicks had traded Randle and had to guess what the trade was, I’d assume they swapped him for another expensive contract — a milder version of all these supermax-for-supermax trades we’ve seen over the past few years. The four remaining seasons on Randle’s deal have made teams, even ones who believe last season wasn’t representative of who he is, hesitant about acquiring him. The Knicks, meanwhile, haven’t been willing to attach a first-rounder or two to send him elsewhere.
Last season’s offense was concerning for a ball-dominant forward on a nine-figure contract. His head wasn’t in the right space. His defense dipped. Basketball-Reference deemed 112 players qualified for their efficiency leaders in 2021-22. Randle finished dead last in effective field-goal percentage. Teams saw how the Knicks stalled when he had the ball. They saw how the Knicks were almost 10 points per 100 possessions worse when he was on the floor.
I believe a large portion of Randle’s fall-off last season had to do with the players the Knicks put around him. As he told me in the winter, he felt compelled to drift to the perimeter more when he ran alongside a rim-diving center, which was almost always the case. When the Knicks spread the floor around him, he got to the rim nearly twice as often. Those types of lineups worked when Randle was draining jumpers during his All-NBA season. They didn’t when he was nonstop clanking.
But it’s not easy to take a $100 million risk after the performance he had in 2021-22, which is why there hasn’t been any traction on a Randle deal, even though each general manager knows that if he calls Leon Rose & Co., he could likely find a way to acquire the former All-Star.