Knicks star Julius Randle is rejuvenated and encouraged despite his team coming off a rough road trip, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. New York went 1-4 on the trip, defeating the Warriors and losing to the Lakers, Jazz, Nuggets and Blazers.
“Honestly encouraged in a sense of this was a tough trip,” Randle said. “We played some really good teams on this trip. We were in the game and really gave ourselves a shot to win four of the five games.
“It’s encouraging in that sense. But it’s also very disappointing that we were 1-4, easily could have gone 4-1. It’s tough. It’s tough. But for me it sucks, got a long plane ride back home.”
The Knicks are now 25-32 and rank 12th in the Eastern Conference. The team will return to New York for a four-game homestand on Monday, playing the Thunder, Nets, Heat and Sixers.
There’s more out of the Atlantic:
- New Raptors forward Thaddeus Young shouldn’t struggle fitting in with the team, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports writes. Toronto acquired Young in a deal with San Antonio last week, adding another lengthy and versatile defender to its frontcourt. The team is 8-2 in its last 10 games.
- Knicks center Mitchell Robinson exited the club’s game on Saturday with a sprained ankle, Marc Berman relays in a separate article for the New York Post. Robinson finished with two points and three blocks in the contest, playing just 14 minutes. Backup center Nerlens Noel is day-to-day with a knee injury, so veteran Taj Gibson and two-way center Jericho Sims could see more playing time this week.
- Sixers officials rejected the theory of president Daryl Morey eyeing Mike D’Antoni as a future replacement for coach Doc Rivers, Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice tweets. D’Antoni coached the Rockets when Morey served as general manager from 2016-20. Rivers has guided the Sixers to a 34-22 record despite not having Ben Simmons this season.
Sixers officials rejected the theory of president Daryl Morey eyeing Mike D’Antoni as a future replacement for coach Doc Rivers.
What does it mean?
Future replacement
Randles problem is he thinks he’s the Knicks star. He’s just one of our best players. Cause we got no stars and it’s a young rebuilding team. Imo he’s out of touch. And Thibs is enabling him. Best thing is for him to play well. So we can get value for him next yr. We need team players not egos. I thought Thibs was about this too. But he’s starting to upset me. He’s not developing the young guys. And it should be a priority. I’m all for getting another lottery pick this yr. Trading into top 8-10 will net a solid starter in this draft.
Right, Randle plays and acts like, since he’s their “best player,” he has to be and play like a star for them to win night in and night out.
The part he doesn’t understand is that true “stars” make their teammates around them better. They don’t slow down the offense, stop the ball from moving, and make their teammates worse.
I’ve ALWAYS been a big fan of Thibs, and as a Bulls fan I loved him when he was here. Even so, he has his faults, and his stubbornness is what keeps him from being a really good to great coach, rather than just a good coach.
It isn’t completely his fault, but he certainly isn’t helping matters either. He isn’t maximizing the talent he has on his team, and he’s stubbornly not giving minutes to two of his most talented players in Reddish and especially Toppin.
He’s always been pretty vanilla offensively, but now he’s letting Randle take on waay too much of the load. He really needs to reign Randle in, and have him focus more on keeping the ball moving, setting screens and popping, and looking for open guys when he’s attacking.
Since they don’t really have a true PG, if Randle is going to run this offense, then he HAS to stop slowing down their rhythm completely to a haul when he gets the ball…
I don’t get why this article used that quote from Randle, it’s just like a rambling answer to a question he don’t care about answering, man I hated the Knicks in the 90s because Michael Jordan is my religion, but I like the nba better when the bulls Knicks rivalry is healthy, NY needs to move on from thibs, from a bulls fan, his schtick gets old quick, and for the love of god sign a starting PG this offseason whose knees aren’t in worse condition than my deceased grandmother
It’s from a Marc Berman article. He’s a complete hack and potentially the worst NBA writer out there.
And a Knick hater.
Doc Rivers
Regular season grade A
last year playoffs Grade F
Hawks were a terrible team last year. This year’s Celtics would defeat Hawks last year
Cool. Doc is just OK. Last years playoffs were a huge disappointment.
This is a big playoff coming up for Doc. This team is built to win with Embiid/Harden.
Knicks could be his next landing spot
At least anyone can see that MDA is a much better coach than Doc, no doubt about that!
Only thing is, how would Embiid fit in MDA’s system?
Unlikely. Embiid isnt just a rim runner like Amare.
Dearest Julius… ur in it for the long haul. Come on and let’s just play some basketball…. Ur Knicks, youare their go to guy. Nobodies been struggling trying to watch you
My vote is Julius to N
YC baby
Randle meets Rose
Now that is the best pairing of stars
ever seen so let’s see, hm Randle to Rockets, No
Randle to Philly for assets and a pick, No
Randle to Vancouver for Bibby and stars, No!
Randle to NYC, Yeah baby
Weirdest post ever
You obviously haven’t been around here very long.
Haha, yeah there are a few.
It was the Bibby reference that got me
I wish the grizzlies were still in Vancouver haha
Doc does a good job. With Simmons sitting out he really got the team to buy into his game plan and each other. With so many teams having issues with players all demanding to be “the guy,” Doc has them playing as a team. In today’s NBA that’s quite an accomplishment.
Yeah but do we know his methods? Some of them could be unsavory…
Unfortunately the 76ers acquired a diva who’s game of leaning into on a 3 pt shot is fast becoming antiquated. And he’s going to have to buy into the team thing because everywhere he’s been he’s been “the guy”
Harden wasn’t “the guy” in OKC, as a matter of fact he was the sixth man!
In HOU yes he was!
In BRK he wasn’t, KD’s team clearly!
In PHI he won’t neither, that is Embiid’s team!
Harden has played more games in a Nets jersey than KD has…..
Randle is playing with a lot of energy, and it helps, defensively and on the boards mostly. But it will only help marginally on the offensive side, since effort was never really his issue. It’s judgement. It wasn’t any better last year than previously, it was just underexposed. This year it’s been overexposed.
Reigning him in sounds good, but he’s not an easy guy to do that with and keep him productive on either end of the floor. He’s not a low post player, nor can he dribble in heavy traffic. Except for last year, he hasn’t been a reliable 3 pt shooter. Still, with all that, he’s the only player we have that can routinely create mismatches in our favor, and teams don’t win much in the NBA without those. If winning is no longer a priority, then reigning him in is likely the right basketball decision. Since defenses are still tilted toward him, we may get an initial boost from it. Eventually, though, when we play a good team, I suspect we’ll resemble a boxer that enters a bout with only a puncher’s chance to win, and decides to fight to avoid being knocked out. A comfortable loss is usually the result.