If Julius Randle keeps this up, he’ll have a hard time buying a drink in New York City for the rest of his natural life. When he’s old and gray, Randle will still be the toast of the town for taking the money from the Knicks when the big names didn’t want it, because he was relevant again and felt like the team’s first championship since 1973. a realistic goal.
Oh, and to soften the sting of the Kristaps Porzingis trade, if not to make the sting disappear completely.
The trade from Porzingis to the Knicks Mavericks in 2019 wasn’t exactly Tom Seaver’s trade to the 1977 Reds from Mets, but it hurt nonetheless. The main Maverick coming to New York, Dennis Smith Jr., was a disaster, and DeAndre Jordan, the man who was supposed to lure Olympic teammates and friends Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to the Garden, ended up with them in Brooklyn instead.
In desperation, the Knicks had to spend some of that salary cap clearing the trade. Randle raised his hand. Friday night in Dallas, with Porzingis on the opponent’s frontline, Randle delivered 44 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, leading his team to fifth in a row and increasing the Knicks ‘chances of taking the Mavericks’ post-season spot. avoid. seem to be heading for – the dreaded play-in tournament.
On his return home to Dallas, Randle became the first Knick since Bernard King in 1985 to have at least 40 points, 10 boards, and five assists in one game. He went 16-for-29 from the floor, 6-for-11 from the three-point series and nearly doubled Porzingis’s point total (23).
“When he added the three-point shot,” said coach Tom Thibodeau of Randle after his team’s 117-109 win, “that opened everything else.”
Including the possibility that Randle, just eight months older than Porzingis, might just outperform him for the next three or four years. It would be a big task to play above 6-foot Let, and a quick look at Porzingis’ last appearance on the field as a Knick explains why.
That February evening in 2018 at the Garden, Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA’s most athletic player, held the Porzingis jersey like a middle-aged weekend warrior would at the local Y. Trey Burke screened the Bucks’ franchise player at the left elbow, and KP freed himself from the defender above the foul line and prepared for a pass from Kyle O’Quinn. But when Jason Terry jumped off the Bucks into the passing lane, the Unicorn did something very unicorn: He stopped on a dime like a wide receiver coming out of a break, split Terry and Antetokounmpo on a hard dive to the basket, and took Quinns bounce step into the sky for a high-flying posterizing dive over the Greek Freak as camera lights flash around them.
But like the most recent outbursts of Knicks prosperity – Linsanity in 2012, Melo’s 54-win season the following year – it ended far too soon. In fact, it took about two seconds after that dive over Antetokounmpo for a fallen Porzingis to reach his left knee and start pounding on the ground. The fans couldn’t even get out of their seats until their joy turned to havoc. KP had a torn ACL and almost a year later he walked into Steve Mills office and told team president and general manager Scott Perry that he wanted to leave, and that if they don’t trade him in, he would leave for Europe.
Randle’s play (along with the two pending first round picks that the Knicks have taken over from Dallas) makes Porzingis trading feel a lot less apocalyptic than it seemed at the time. Coming in on Friday night, Randle defeated Porzingis (23.2-20.7) and defeated him (10.6-9.3), although the star of the Mavs beat the Knicks’ power in player efficiency (22 , 26-19.73).
Porzingis victimized Randle on a poster during Friday’s game, and it didn’t matter. The Knicks top player made a step-back 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds to go in the third quarter that took the massive fourth. With 4:11 left and the Knicks six points ahead, Randle made two free throws. He pushed the lead back to eight a minute later by making a runner high off the glass. With 1:44 to go, he put down a fading turnaround similar to the clincher.
“It’s our bike,” said Thibodeau. “He’s forcing us to go.”
Randle built this career season through extreme off-season conditioning work and the confidence that came from it. When he finished dominating his homecoming, Randle was asked what it would mean for him to make All-NBA.
“That would be a great achievement,” he said.
Just as great as how New Yorkers forget how much they hated the Kristaps Porzingis trade when it went down.