Randle's Future

[JayTWill]

We need all-star randle to have a chance at a title.

But it sounds like some people think this is an addition by subtraction situation

I think, with our situation and the state of the trade market, our best bet to get to contention is through Randle.

However, all star Randle is not enough. All NBA Randle is not enough. With his weaknesses as of now, he cannot get us to the chip. For example, he has won regular season awards with his lack of effort on defense. It does not translate to the postseason, which are a different animal. For example, Brunson’s first 2 games versus Philadelphia were similar to Randle’s games against the Hawks. Horrific. Brunson figured it out, but when you play series against teams, they game plan against you.

We don’t need regular season All Star Randle. We need much more. It’s going to require things like him giving effort on defense. It’s going to require him being healthy for the postseason for once. It’s going to require him bucking his postseason trends. It might require him to play the C effectively, not just on offense but on defense. I suspect that he can’t rely completely on his attacking style of the long term, given what happened to high flying and more athletic forwards like Griffin and STAT.

If we can’t get that, we might need to trade him but we should get as much as we can. No shame too. Lots of regular season all stars couldn’t do it, but won lots of awards.

You're comparing apples to oranges, though. Like, can we all agree that the team in the series against the Hawks was made are essentially peanuts compared to JB's team against the 76ers. Some of them are basically not even in the league anymore. Bullock end of the bench guy, Noel out of the league, a young RJ, Payton out of the league, Rose end of the bench guy, Taj in-n-out of the league, Burks, a young IQ, a young Obi, and Ntilikina out of the league. This roster is literally night and day compared to talent that surrounded JB.

Also, consider this, Young averaged 30 & 10 in that series. Knicks didn't solely loose because of Randle. I promise you, you take out Randle for JB in that 2021 playoff roster and the results will be the same. I don't know what player could make that scrappy, yet awful roster succeed in the playoffs. I'm not mad about that series.

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

[Iron Mantis]

I think, with our situation and the state of the trade market, our best bet to get to contention is through Randle.

However, all star Randle is not enough. All NBA Randle is not enough. With his weaknesses as of now, he cannot get us to the chip. For example, he has won regular season awards with his lack of effort on defense. It does not translate to the postseason, which are a different animal. For example, Brunson’s first 2 games versus Philadelphia were similar to Randle’s games against the Hawks. Horrific. Brunson figured it out, but when you play series against teams, they game plan against you.

We don’t need regular season All Star Randle. We need much more. It’s going to require things like him giving effort on defense. It’s going to require him being healthy for the postseason for once. It’s going to require him bucking his postseason trends. It might require him to play the C effectively, not just on offense but on defense. I suspect that he can’t rely completely on his attacking style of the long term, given what happened to high flying and more athletic forwards like Griffin and STAT.

If we can’t get that, we might need to trade him but we should get as much as we can. No shame too. Lots of regular season all stars couldn’t do it, but won lots of awards.

You're comparing apples to oranges, though. Like, can we all agree that the team in the series against the Hawks was made are essentially peanuts compared to JB's team against the 76ers. Some of them are basically not even in the league anymore. Bullock end of the bench guy, Noel out of the league, a young RJ, Payton out of the league, Rose end of the bench guy, Taj in-n-out of the league, Burks, a young IQ, a young Obi, and Ntilikina out of the league. This roster is literally night and day compared to talent that surrounded JB.

Also, consider this, Young averaged 30 & 10 in that series. Knicks didn't solely loose because of Randle. I promise you, you take out Randle for JB in that 2021 playoff roster and the results will be the same. I don't know what player could make that scrappy, yet awful roster succeed in the playoffs. I'm not mad about that series.

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

Can I make this post my sig?

Post is the truth. Will be my go-to for the excuse makers who cry foul when bringing up Randle's terrible ATL playoff performance.

There was no magic or wizardry behind it. He just sucked and needs to prove that his style of play translates to the playoffs.

[Clyde_Style]

You're comparing apples to oranges, though. Like, can we all agree that the team in the series against the Hawks was made are essentially peanuts compared to JB's team against the 76ers. Some of them are basically not even in the league anymore. Bullock end of the bench guy, Noel out of the league, a young RJ, Payton out of the league, Rose end of the bench guy, Taj in-n-out of the league, Burks, a young IQ, a young Obi, and Ntilikina out of the league. This roster is literally night and day compared to talent that surrounded JB.

Also, consider this, Young averaged 30 & 10 in that series. Knicks didn't solely loose because of Randle. I promise you, you take out Randle for JB in that 2021 playoff roster and the results will be the same. I don't know what player could make that scrappy, yet awful roster succeed in the playoffs. I'm not mad about that series.

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

Can I make this post my sig?

Post is the truth. Will be my go-to for the excuse makers who cry foul when bringing up Randle's terrible ATL playoff performance.

There was no magic or wizardry behind it. He just sucked and needs to prove that his style of play translates to the playoffs.

Randle has had several good pieces of luck regarding his role on the team:

1) Brunson is the man now. Takes pressure off Randle.

2) OG gives us frontline defense he seems unwilling to provide which means all he has to do is be at least adequate defensively.

3) Adding Bridges gives us another # 2 or 3 option to complement Brunson. Depending on Randle's POV, that can be a threat to his status on the team or be seen as a positive and take more pressure off him.

4) The Nova mob has transformed our team culture and fits well with Thibs. Every one of them are willing to do what helps the team, whether it is salary cuts or coming off the bench. Randle can choose to fall in line or he'll lose the trust of his teammate and coaches. Again, this is positive if he looks at the situation as an adult. Or it can aggravate his need to be the focus.

This is actually the perfect situation for him to do well with less pressure.

[3toheadmelo]

Manu was one of Pops favorites, he came off the bench even though he could have been a starter, because he did what's best for the team.


Hart shot 37% on 4.5 attempts from three in the playoffs, that's a lot better than what Randle has shot from three in the playoffs. As a matter of fact, Hart averaged 14.5ppg, 11.5rpg, 4.5apg on 44% and 37% from three in the playoffs, just looking at those numbers and then Randles playoff numbers, nevermind the effort Hart has already had a better playoff run than Randle. There's nothing wrong with Randle coming off the bench, it makes the most sense to maximize the wings on the team together and amplify their defense. There's a reason he's saying he's okay with coming off the bench, it's obviously being floated around the team. And what if he came off the bench and made the team better as a result?

Josh Hart played a bigger role this time around in the playoffs and while his counting stats look good, it wasn't good for the team. Knicks had a -4.5 net rating with Hart on the court and a +12.90 net rating with him off the court. Versus Randle on one ankle that required surgery, he still had a better effect than Hart did. The Knicks had a net rating of +2.57 with Randle on the court in the 2023 playoffs. The Knicks had a net rating of -0.67 with Randle OFF the court in the 2023 playoffs. There's more to the game than just counting stats. The Knicks have been much better with Hart on the bench so I don't see the need to push him as a starter. And taking just 4 attempts as a floor spacer isn't enough at all. If it was, then the Knicks wouldn't have went all in on Mikal and would've just started Hart instead. The Knicks aren't discussing bringing Randle off the bench either. It seemed prettty obvious from the interview with Thibs this week that he plans on using him in a big way again.

The entire starting 5 outside of Brunson had negative net ratings, mainly because we had no backups for anyone and diminishing returns happen when you play more than 40mpg. Going by net rating and the playoffs, you can make the case for multiple wings and a floor stretcher at the 4 since Bojan had a +34.0. If we use net ratings a mean for anything, Randles against the Hawks was just as bad as Harts, but that was a depleted roster...which is what we had this year. The point of bringing him off the bench isn't to punish him, it's to look for ways to play the 3 wings together as much as possible, have the ball in Brunsons hands more, play Randle at the 5 more and see if Bridges can find the scorer he was with the Nets in the first season. Bridges becoming a better scorer is more important than anything else going into next season, if he finds himself as a scorer we will win a title, if he's relegated to the Donte role we're not doing anything.

Better players have come off the bench to help their teams win titles.

OG didn't have a negative net rating, Knicks were +0.49 with him on the court.

We learned from the Hawks series that Randle isn't a #1 and we needed upgrades around him. That's what Leon has been doing. We learned from this year's playoffs that guys like Hart need to be back in their role on the bench and Brunson needs Randle back badly. At least that's what I took from it

I still don't get why we need to bench Randle, when he was playing the best ball of his career with OG and Randle. Knicks had like the best net rating in the league and #1 defense. Doesn't really make sense to not try that again. If we try it and it fails, then yeah we can look at different things. We saw in the playoffs how having to rely on Brunson entirely wasn't sustainable. Made guys like Hart less effective.

I'm not really interested in making Mikal our 2nd option. Doing so made him made him way less effective as a 2 way player and didn't make the Nets better. If we had a better wing scorer like Ingram, then yeah I would be open to it. But Mikal aint that. Whenever he was the 3rd option on a team, his team was very successful like the 2021 suns. Monty tried to him a better scoring option than Ayton and the Suns never got out of the 2nd round since then. Nets got swept with Mikal trying to be top dog too. We just need Mikal to knock down open shots with a little bit of creating his own and play lock down defense. His defense should be a massive upgrade over DDV.

[Iron Mantis]

I think, with our situation and the state of the trade market, our best bet to get to contention is through Randle.

However, all star Randle is not enough. All NBA Randle is not enough. With his weaknesses as of now, he cannot get us to the chip. For example, he has won regular season awards with his lack of effort on defense. It does not translate to the postseason, which are a different animal. For example, Brunson’s first 2 games versus Philadelphia were similar to Randle’s games against the Hawks. Horrific. Brunson figured it out, but when you play series against teams, they game plan against you.

We don’t need regular season All Star Randle. We need much more. It’s going to require things like him giving effort on defense. It’s going to require him being healthy for the postseason for once. It’s going to require him bucking his postseason trends. It might require him to play the C effectively, not just on offense but on defense. I suspect that he can’t rely completely on his attacking style of the long term, given what happened to high flying and more athletic forwards like Griffin and STAT.

If we can’t get that, we might need to trade him but we should get as much as we can. No shame too. Lots of regular season all stars couldn’t do it, but won lots of awards.

You're comparing apples to oranges, though. Like, can we all agree that the team in the series against the Hawks was made are essentially peanuts compared to JB's team against the 76ers. Some of them are basically not even in the league anymore. Bullock end of the bench guy, Noel out of the league, a young RJ, Payton out of the league, Rose end of the bench guy, Taj in-n-out of the league, Burks, a young IQ, a young Obi, and Ntilikina out of the league. This roster is literally night and day compared to talent that surrounded JB.

Also, consider this, Young averaged 30 & 10 in that series. Knicks didn't solely loose because of Randle. I promise you, you take out Randle for JB in that 2021 playoff roster and the results will be the same. I don't know what player could make that scrappy, yet awful roster succeed in the playoffs. I'm not mad about that series.

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

Excellent post

[spree2kawhi]

You're comparing apples to oranges, though. Like, can we all agree that the team in the series against the Hawks was made are essentially peanuts compared to JB's team against the 76ers. Some of them are basically not even in the league anymore. Bullock end of the bench guy, Noel out of the league, a young RJ, Payton out of the league, Rose end of the bench guy, Taj in-n-out of the league, Burks, a young IQ, a young Obi, and Ntilikina out of the league. This roster is literally night and day compared to talent that surrounded JB.

Also, consider this, Young averaged 30 & 10 in that series. Knicks didn't solely loose because of Randle. I promise you, you take out Randle for JB in that 2021 playoff roster and the results will be the same. I don't know what player could make that scrappy, yet awful roster succeed in the playoffs. I'm not mad about that series.

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

Excellent post

Indeed. I had voted extend now, but now that we haven’t, what’s next? This is not a max player. Like that announcer puts it in one of the videos, “Again, he can’t play in a crowd”. Come playoff time, they’ll trap the sht out of him and y’all won’t like it. 300 mil?

Folks should really watch those videos posted up there ^^

[Iron Mantis]

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

Excellent post

Indeed. I had voted extend now, but now that we haven’t, what’s next? This is not a max player. Like that announcer puts it in one of the videos, “Again, he can’t play in a crowd”. Come playoff time, they’ll trap the sht out of him and y’all won’t like it. 300 mil?

Folks should really watch those videos posted to there ^^

Playoff time???? Stepping up and performing well in the playoffs is for losers.

Real ones know in which part of the season championships are actually won and NBA legends are truly made...

[Wildcat]

Excellent post

Indeed. I had voted extend now, but now that we haven’t, what’s next? This is not a max player. Like that announcer puts it in one of the videos, “Again, he can’t play in a crowd”. Come playoff time, they’ll trap the sht out of him and y’all won’t like it. 300 mil?

Folks should really watch those videos posted to there ^^

Playoff time???? Stepping up and performing well in the playoffs is for losers.

Real ones know in which part of the season championships are actually won and NBA legends are truly made...

Watch on YouTube

[Wildcat]

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

Excellent post

Indeed. I had voted extend now, but now that we haven’t, what’s next? This is not a max player. Like that announcer puts it in one of the videos, “Again, he can’t play in a crowd”. Come playoff time, they’ll trap the sht out of him and y’all won’t like it. 300 mil?

Folks should really watch those videos posted up there ^^

Neither camp are talking about the extension. If Randle was even remotely disgruntle about it, we'd know. If there was tension about this, someone would have already "leaked" it that either the Knicks didn't offer, or Randle isn't happy with the offer.

[Chanel Bomber]

3toheadjulius receiving payments from Aaron Mintz for his online work

Watch on YouTube

Respect

[Iron Mantis]

Excellent post

Indeed. I had voted extend now, but now that we haven’t, what’s next? This is not a max player. Like that announcer puts it in one of the videos, “Again, he can’t play in a crowd”. Come playoff time, they’ll trap the sht out of him and y’all won’t like it. 300 mil?

Folks should really watch those videos posted up there ^^

Neither camp are talking about the extension. If Randle was even remotely disgruntle about it, we'd know. If there was tension about this, someone would have already "leaked" it that either the Knicks didn't offer, or Randle isn't happy with the offer.

None of this is fact. That's all your own made up speculation.

Especially since it wouldn't benefit either camp to leak that type of information.

The truth is none of us know anything about how anyone feels.....the facts are: Randle has not been extended yet while his teammates have...thus, his future here is uncertain.

[Wildcat]

I feel like we have been re-writing the history of that Atlanta series for a while. The Knicks actually kept it even or outperformed the Hawks the 25% of the time Randle was off the floor. Was the talent around Randle great? No. Was the talent around responsible for how poorly he played? No. He simply had a bad performance. It happens to many guys in their first playoff appearance. If Randle had Brunson's skillet and mentality I think the Knicks win that series easily with the same supporting cast imo.

In 2021 the Hawks took away the paint and his ability to play bully ball. The rest of his shot making and playmaking fell apart. It's still a strategy teams can use against him now. The Knicks lost by 2 in game 1 of the Hawks series. Rose had a solid game and Burks exploded off the bench for almost 30 while Randle was 6-23.

Game 2 the team did enough as a whole to win despite another poor performance from Randle. Game 3 Rose goes off for 30 and Randle is 2-15. Mitch left a big hole defensively but Randle's performance was the biggest difference in the series. Their #1 option was far more qualified for the role than the Knicks #1 option. They took away the paint and all the tough off balance shots and 3's that went in during the regular season did not go in the playoffs.

There was no super exotic defense that made these shots not go in in game 1. Outside of a couple late clock passes none of this is the fault of his teammates.
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0042000131&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

There is no crazy defensive attention that caused these turnovers when we were trying to extend the series in game 5
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0042000135&PlayerID=203944&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Playoffs&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Even in 2-3 times they sent a quick double there was still 10-15 seconds on the clock where he could have kept the ball moving. Instead he settled for step back fall away jumpers and missed.

Years later Randle's playmaking and perimeter shooting are still very shaky parts of his game no matter who you put around him. If you put the ball in his hands you have to live with the ups and downs of it. In the playoffs against tougher competition most players are likely to see more downs than they experienced in the regular season. He needs to figure out how to contribute to winning when they take away what he does best.

It's still comparing apples to oranges. That roster doesn't hold a candle to this roster.

I'm not going to go through ever single game here, but in Game 1 alone Atlanta was forcing Randle into a jump shooter. We all can sit back and comfortably say he should have done things differently. In FGA/M, he was doubled -- whether it was light or fake -- at least 10 times. And that's not even taking into account all the other possessions. We can absolutely all agree Randle could have done things differently -- smarter, not take what the D is giving you -- but that's absolutely no question that roster pales in comparisons to last year's roster.

[Wildcat]

Indeed. I had voted extend now, but now that we haven’t, what’s next? This is not a max player. Like that announcer puts it in one of the videos, “Again, he can’t play in a crowd”. Come playoff time, they’ll trap the sht out of him and y’all won’t like it. 300 mil?

Folks should really watch those videos posted up there ^^

Neither camp are talking about the extension. If Randle was even remotely disgruntle about it, we'd know. If there was tension about this, someone would have already "leaked" it that either the Knicks didn't offer, or Randle isn't happy with the offer.

None of this is fact. That's all your own made up speculation.

Especially since it wouldn't benefit either camp to leak that type of information.

The truth is none of us know anything about how anyone feels.....the facts are: Randle has not been extended yet while his teammates have...thus, his future here is uncertain.

So neither is right or wrong.

[Iron Mantis]

Neither camp are talking about the extension. If Randle was even remotely disgruntle about it, we'd know. If there was tension about this, someone would have already "leaked" it that either the Knicks didn't offer, or Randle isn't happy with the offer.

None of this is fact. That's all your own made up speculation.

Especially since it wouldn't benefit either camp to leak that type of information.

The truth is none of us know anything about how anyone feels.....the facts are: Randle has not been extended yet while his teammates have...thus, his future here is uncertain.

So neither is right or wrong.

[3toheadmelo]

Indeed. I had voted extend now, but now that we haven’t, what’s next? This is not a max player. Like that announcer puts it in one of the videos, “Again, he can’t play in a crowd”. Come playoff time, they’ll trap the sht out of him and y’all won’t like it. 300 mil?

Folks should really watch those videos posted to there ^^

Playoff time???? Stepping up and performing well in the playoffs is for losers.

Real ones know in which part of the season championships are actually won and NBA legends are truly made...

Watch on YouTube

Cant wait for episode 2. Rooting for him unlike some people here who claim they "like" him

[spree2kawhi]

Playoff time???? Stepping up and performing well in the playoffs is for losers.

Real ones know in which part of the season championships are actually won and NBA legends are truly made...

Watch on YouTube

Cant wait for episode 2. Rooting for him unlike some people here who claim they "like" him

I like Randle too, he seems like a nice dude. So am I and I can claim I’m not a toxic person.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Josh Hart played a bigger role this time around in the playoffs and while his counting stats look good, it wasn't good for the team. Knicks had a -4.5 net rating with Hart on the court and a +12.90 net rating with him off the court. Versus Randle on one ankle that required surgery, he still had a better effect than Hart did. The Knicks had a net rating of +2.57 with Randle on the court in the 2023 playoffs. The Knicks had a net rating of -0.67 with Randle OFF the court in the 2023 playoffs. There's more to the game than just counting stats. The Knicks have been much better with Hart on the bench so I don't see the need to push him as a starter. And taking just 4 attempts as a floor spacer isn't enough at all. If it was, then the Knicks wouldn't have went all in on Mikal and would've just started Hart instead. The Knicks aren't discussing bringing Randle off the bench either. It seemed prettty obvious from the interview with Thibs this week that he plans on using him in a big way again.

The entire starting 5 outside of Brunson had negative net ratings, mainly because we had no backups for anyone and diminishing returns happen when you play more than 40mpg. Going by net rating and the playoffs, you can make the case for multiple wings and a floor stretcher at the 4 since Bojan had a +34.0. If we use net ratings a mean for anything, Randles against the Hawks was just as bad as Harts, but that was a depleted roster...which is what we had this year. The point of bringing him off the bench isn't to punish him, it's to look for ways to play the 3 wings together as much as possible, have the ball in Brunsons hands more, play Randle at the 5 more and see if Bridges can find the scorer he was with the Nets in the first season. Bridges becoming a better scorer is more important than anything else going into next season, if he finds himself as a scorer we will win a title, if he's relegated to the Donte role we're not doing anything.

Better players have come off the bench to help their teams win titles.

OG didn't have a negative net rating, Knicks were +0.49 with him on the court.

We learned from the Hawks series that Randle isn't a #1 and we needed upgrades around him. That's what Leon has been doing. We learned from this year's playoffs that guys like Hart need to be back in their role on the bench and Brunson needs Randle back badly. At least that's what I took from it

I still don't get why we need to bench Randle, when he was playing the best ball of his career with OG and Randle. Knicks had like the best net rating in the league and #1 defense. Doesn't really make sense to not try that again. If we try it and it fails, then yeah we can look at different things. We saw in the playoffs how having to rely on Brunson entirely wasn't sustainable. Made guys like Hart less effective.

I'm not really interested in making Mikal our 2nd option. Doing so made him made him way less effective as a 2 way player and didn't make the Nets better. If we had a better wing scorer like Ingram, then yeah I would be open to it. But Mikal aint that. Whenever he was the 3rd option on a team, his team was very successful like the 2021 suns. Monty tried to him a better scoring option than Ayton and the Suns never got out of the 2nd round since then. Nets got swept with Mikal trying to be top dog too. We just need Mikal to knock down open shots with a little bit of creating his own and play lock down defense. His defense should be a massive upgrade over DDV.

NBA.com has OG as -0.7, Brunson being the only starter with a neutral net rating.


Bringing Randle off the bench means the ball is in Brunson's hands more, and most importantly it puts Hart, Bridges and OG on the court at the same time from the start of the game. You have multiple wings that play defense and move without the ball, and you give Bridges the reps to see if he can channel that 2022-2023 version of himself where he averaged 26ppg and 23ppg in the playoffs. You view it as punishing Randle, I view it as trying to find a way to maximize what he is while also trying to find a way to maximize what Bridges is, since we paid a fortune in assets to get Bridges. If the team could be better with him off the bench, why wouldn't it be done? There's no doubt in my mind the defense is going to be better with those 3 guys on the court together, and I think the slack on offense could be picked up by Bridges.


The Knicks gave up 4 unprotected firsts to get Bridges, 1 protected and 1 swap, that is not the trade package you give up for someone to bring them in and have them be a marginal upgrade over Donte. That is more unprotected picks than the Bucks/Cavs/Wolves/Hawks gave up to get Jrue, Mitchell, Gobert and Murry, this was the trade package given to get an all-star. His scoring should be his focus, because he wont need to be the primary defender on the other teams best player since we have OG for that. It would be an abject failure if he doesn't show some of what he did with the Nets early on, they didn't just pay the price to get him because it was the Nets, they paid that high a price because they obviously think there's more in the tank. If he's playing the same role as Donte we're not going to win anything, if we're just running DHO with him and Randle where he's used like F0urnier, we're cooked. His game needs to be expanded for us to win, especially based on the steep price paid to get him. You don't need to create off the dribble to be a killer, he should be viewed as diet Klay more than anything else, he's actually better at creating than Klay was, obviously not as good of a shooter but close enough that he should be used the same way and given a shot profile similar to him.

[JayTWill]

It's still comparing apples to oranges. That roster doesn't hold a candle to this roster.

I'm not going to go through ever single game here, but in Game 1 alone Atlanta was forcing Randle into a jump shooter. We all can sit back and comfortably say he should have done things differently. In FGA/M, he was doubled -- whether it was light or fake -- at least 10 times. And that's not even taking into account all the other possessions. We can absolutely all agree Randle could have done things differently -- smarter, not take what the D is giving you -- but that's absolutely no question that roster pales in comparisons to last year's roster.

I just don't like downplaying the supporting cast to prop up a poor performance by Randle. Yes, the players around Brunson and Randle were different but the Knicks did have one of the best defenses in 2020-2021 and that wasn't all because of Randle. It was his job to lift up the supporting cast around him especially offensively. He didn't do it.

Why call Rose an end of bench player when the team was below .500 (-1.1 net rating) before his arrival, their offensive rating jumped up 5 points (+4.3 net rating) after his arrival and he had an argument for being possibly the 3rd most talented offensive player in the series behind Young and Randle. He led the team in scoring and assists on far superior percentages than Randle while playing 35 minutes and doing the vast majority of the ballhandling and initiating of the offense.

Anyway I don't know how Randle would have performed if he was given the supporting cast Brunson was given for the majority of this year but this is part of his performance against the Sixers in the magical month of January.

Shot attempts
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&GameID=0022300483&PlayerID=203944&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612752&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

Assists
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=AST&GameID=0022300483&PlayerID=203944&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

Turnovers
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&GameID=0022300483&PlayerID=203944&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612752&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

These clips don't show all of his value, good or bad but does he look like an entirely different player surrounded by better talent?
He still has similar strengths and weaknesses. He can still have the same struggles if you keep him away from the rim where he did most of his damage this year. His 3 point shot is still highly unreliable. He can still get flustered and loose with the ball when he has bodies around him.

Even 2 of his assists were close to being turnovers as he almost came back down before releasing those jump passes and one of them he was completely out of control. Can you imagine this guy leading the Knicks to victory in the first round against the Sixers in place of Brunson? I honestly don't even think the team makes the playoffs if Brunson happened to go down instead Randle on January 27. I have a feeling you wouldn't think so highly of the supporting cast with Randle as the #1 option and no Brunson. The offense took a pretty big drop without Brunson on the floor in January I believe.


He has value to the team but I have difficulty envisioning the team succeeding with him in the playoffs as a #1 no matter who you put around him. In my opinion he either needs to step up offensively as a 2nd option, completely change his game to contribute in other areas as a 3rd option or just be moved to the bench where his minutes can be adjusted to how well he is playing at the time.

[3toheadmelo]

The entire starting 5 outside of Brunson had negative net ratings, mainly because we had no backups for anyone and diminishing returns happen when you play more than 40mpg. Going by net rating and the playoffs, you can make the case for multiple wings and a floor stretcher at the 4 since Bojan had a +34.0. If we use net ratings a mean for anything, Randles against the Hawks was just as bad as Harts, but that was a depleted roster...which is what we had this year. The point of bringing him off the bench isn't to punish him, it's to look for ways to play the 3 wings together as much as possible, have the ball in Brunsons hands more, play Randle at the 5 more and see if Bridges can find the scorer he was with the Nets in the first season. Bridges becoming a better scorer is more important than anything else going into next season, if he finds himself as a scorer we will win a title, if he's relegated to the Donte role we're not doing anything.

Better players have come off the bench to help their teams win titles.

OG didn't have a negative net rating, Knicks were +0.49 with him on the court.

We learned from the Hawks series that Randle isn't a #1 and we needed upgrades around him. That's what Leon has been doing. We learned from this year's playoffs that guys like Hart need to be back in their role on the bench and Brunson needs Randle back badly. At least that's what I took from it

I still don't get why we need to bench Randle, when he was playing the best ball of his career with OG and Randle. Knicks had like the best net rating in the league and #1 defense. Doesn't really make sense to not try that again. If we try it and it fails, then yeah we can look at different things. We saw in the playoffs how having to rely on Brunson entirely wasn't sustainable. Made guys like Hart less effective.

I'm not really interested in making Mikal our 2nd option. Doing so made him made him way less effective as a 2 way player and didn't make the Nets better. If we had a better wing scorer like Ingram, then yeah I would be open to it. But Mikal aint that. Whenever he was the 3rd option on a team, his team was very successful like the 2021 suns. Monty tried to him a better scoring option than Ayton and the Suns never got out of the 2nd round since then. Nets got swept with Mikal trying to be top dog too. We just need Mikal to knock down open shots with a little bit of creating his own and play lock down defense. His defense should be a massive upgrade over DDV.

NBA.com has OG as -0.7, Brunson being the only starter with a neutral net rating.


Bringing Randle off the bench means the ball is in Brunson's hands more, and most importantly it puts Hart, Bridges and OG on the court at the same time from the start of the game. You have multiple wings that play defense and move without the ball, and you give Bridges the reps to see if he can channel that 2022-2023 version of himself where he averaged 26ppg and 23ppg in the playoffs. You view it as punishing Randle, I view it as trying to find a way to maximize what he is while also trying to find a way to maximize what Bridges is, since we paid a fortune in assets to get Bridges. If the team could be better with him off the bench, why wouldn't it be done? There's no doubt in my mind the defense is going to be better with those 3 guys on the court together, and I think the slack on offense could be picked up by Bridges.


The Knicks gave up 4 unprotected firsts to get Bridges, 1 protected and 1 swap, that is not the trade package you give up for someone to bring them in and have them be a marginal upgrade over Donte. That is more unprotected picks than the Bucks/Cavs/Wolves/Hawks gave up to get Jrue, Mitchell, Gobert and Murry, this was the trade package given to get an all-star. His scoring should be his focus, because he wont need to be the primary defender on the other teams best player since we have OG for that. It would be an abject failure if he doesn't show some of what he did with the Nets early on, they didn't just pay the price to get him because it was the Nets, they paid that high a price because they obviously think there's more in the tank. If he's playing the same role as Donte we're not going to win anything, if we're just running DHO with him and Randle where he's used like F0urnier, we're cooked. His game needs to be expanded for us to win, especially based on the steep price paid to get him. You don't need to create off the dribble to be a killer, he should be viewed as diet Klay more than anything else, he's actually better at creating than Klay was, obviously not as good of a shooter but close enough that he should be used the same way and given a shot profile similar to him.

There is where I found the knicks net rating with OG and and off the court
https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612752&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Playoffs&PlayerIds=1628384

Mikal was extremely inefficient on the Nets in the playoffs. That 23 PPG in the post season got them swept. He had 1 good shooting game and then shot 35% FG for the rest of the series. We've seen that forcing him to be a scorer doesn't do him good and it makes his team worse.

The Nets traded KD for Mikal. So they were going to command a huge haul in return for Mikal regardless. But that doesn't mean since he was traded for a lot, he's supposed to be our top option. Josh Hart himself said on the podcast that they view Mikal playing a role that's in the middle of the Nets and Suns which is perfect for us.

You're viewing benching Josh Hart as a punishment when that's been his role for most of his career. No one considers him as a starter because of how much limited he is as a shooter and he handicaps the team doing so. He's been fine as a bench piece.

We're gonna keep going in circles about this, but deep down you know that Randle isn't coming off the bench lol

[Moose]

OG didn't have a negative net rating, Knicks were +0.49 with him on the court.

We learned from the Hawks series that Randle isn't a #1 and we needed upgrades around him. That's what Leon has been doing. We learned from this year's playoffs that guys like Hart need to be back in their role on the bench and Brunson needs Randle back badly. At least that's what I took from it

I still don't get why we need to bench Randle, when he was playing the best ball of his career with OG and Randle. Knicks had like the best net rating in the league and #1 defense. Doesn't really make sense to not try that again. If we try it and it fails, then yeah we can look at different things. We saw in the playoffs how having to rely on Brunson entirely wasn't sustainable. Made guys like Hart less effective.

I'm not really interested in making Mikal our 2nd option. Doing so made him made him way less effective as a 2 way player and didn't make the Nets better. If we had a better wing scorer like Ingram, then yeah I would be open to it. But Mikal aint that. Whenever he was the 3rd option on a team, his team was very successful like the 2021 suns. Monty tried to him a better scoring option than Ayton and the Suns never got out of the 2nd round since then. Nets got swept with Mikal trying to be top dog too. We just need Mikal to knock down open shots with a little bit of creating his own and play lock down defense. His defense should be a massive upgrade over DDV.

NBA.com has OG as -0.7, Brunson being the only starter with a neutral net rating.


Bringing Randle off the bench means the ball is in Brunson's hands more, and most importantly it puts Hart, Bridges and OG on the court at the same time from the start of the game. You have multiple wings that play defense and move without the ball, and you give Bridges the reps to see if he can channel that 2022-2023 version of himself where he averaged 26ppg and 23ppg in the playoffs. You view it as punishing Randle, I view it as trying to find a way to maximize what he is while also trying to find a way to maximize what Bridges is, since we paid a fortune in assets to get Bridges. If the team could be better with him off the bench, why wouldn't it be done? There's no doubt in my mind the defense is going to be better with those 3 guys on the court together, and I think the slack on offense could be picked up by Bridges.


The Knicks gave up 4 unprotected firsts to get Bridges, 1 protected and 1 swap, that is not the trade package you give up for someone to bring them in and have them be a marginal upgrade over Donte. That is more unprotected picks than the Bucks/Cavs/Wolves/Hawks gave up to get Jrue, Mitchell, Gobert and Murry, this was the trade package given to get an all-star. His scoring should be his focus, because he wont need to be the primary defender on the other teams best player since we have OG for that. It would be an abject failure if he doesn't show some of what he did with the Nets early on, they didn't just pay the price to get him because it was the Nets, they paid that high a price because they obviously think there's more in the tank. If he's playing the same role as Donte we're not going to win anything, if we're just running DHO with him and Randle where he's used like F0urnier, we're cooked. His game needs to be expanded for us to win, especially based on the steep price paid to get him. You don't need to create off the dribble to be a killer, he should be viewed as diet Klay more than anything else, he's actually better at creating than Klay was, obviously not as good of a shooter but close enough that he should be used the same way and given a shot profile similar to him.

There is where I found the knicks net rating with OG and and off the court
https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612752&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Playoffs&PlayerIds=1628384

Mikal was extremely inefficient on the Nets in the playoffs. That 23 PPG in the post season got them swept. He had 1 good shooting game and then shot 35% FG for the rest of the series. We've seen that forcing him to be a scorer doesn't do him good and it makes his team worse.

The Nets traded KD for Mikal. So they were going to command a huge haul in return for Mikal regardless. But that doesn't mean since he was traded for a lot, he's supposed to be our top option. Josh Hart himself said on the podcast that they view Mikal playing a role that's in the middle of the Nets and Suns which is perfect for us.

You're viewing benching Josh Hart as a punishment when that's been his role for most of his career. No one considers him as a starter because of how much limited he is as a shooter and he handicaps the team doing so. He's been fine as a bench piece.

We're gonna keep going in circles about this, but deep down you know that Randle isn't coming off the bench lol

I don't want to read all of this. I'll just say, there's a better chance that Bridges comes off the bench than Randle lol