July of 2019 was a dark time for New York Knicks fans, who had gone, in the matter of a few days, from thinking they were going to land Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to winding up with Julius Randle as the marquee summer signing.
It was, at the time, regarded as the latest — and most embarrassing when Durant flat out said the Knicks were no longer “cool” — in a line of swings and misses by a franchise that had finished a combined 166 games under .500 since their last postseason appearance in 2013.
But something was quietly happening, and it started with Randle, who came on a three-year, $63M deal that might have felt like a consolation prize but was actually the best thing that could’ve happened. The Brooklyn Nets wound up with the Durant-Irving debacle, while the Knicks, under the savvy guidance of Steve Mills and Scott Perry, started to think long term by way of shorter-term commitments.
Just when it would’ve been the most Knicks thing to do to overreact to the Durant/Irving miss by selling their soul on some other shortsighted all-in deal, like when they maxed Amar’e Stoudemire in 2010 after whiffing on LeBron James, they started building through the draft while piling up powder by signing guys like Bobby Portis, Elfrid Payton, Taj Gibson, Marcus Morris, Alec Burks, Derrick Rose and Nerlens Noel to team-friendly deals to go around Randle, who was suddenly overtasked with being a go-to player in what appeared to be a no-win situation.
All Randle did was crash two All-NBA teams and three All-Star teams while helping to lead the Knicks to three playoff appearances over his five-year tenure in New York, which came to an end late Friday night when he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves (along with Donte DiVincenzo) in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns.
To be clear, Towns is a better player than Randle. Perhaps more importantly, he’s much better suited for the Knicks as a premium floor spacer next to Jalen Brunson. He can play in two-big lineups with center Mitchell Robinson. He adapted quite well to serving as a secondary scorer to Anthony Edwards, and he should fit in similarly in New York as a guy who can, for the most part, pick and pop and attack closeouts without all the pressure to be the best player.
Suddenly the Knicks are absolutely stacked after trading for OG Anunoby last December and Mikal Bridges this summer. The team simply outgrew Randle, who nevertheless served his purpose in a way that deserves to be remembered and respected. He was the first brick in the patient path that has led the Knicks into legit contention for what would be their first championship since 1973.
Randle wasn’t perfect in New York. He was a ball-stopper and sporadically engaged defender. He wasn’t, and still isn’t, good enough to be the go-to scorer on a contending team, and that showed up in the first round of the 2021 playoffs when he shot under 30% and committed 23 turnovers as the Knicks were bounced by the Hawks.
But it would be a mistake to focus on Randle’s postseason shortcomings rather than the fact that he got the Knicks, who had won 17 and 29 games in the two years before his arrival, that far in the first place.
This is a guy who overachieved in every way imaginable in a role that was seemingly miles over his head. Over his first three years with the Knicks, Randle, despite seeing constant double teams and driving lanes that were clogged with cheating defenders entirely unconcerned with non-shooters like Elfrid Payton, R.J Barrett and Derrick Rose, averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Opponents had the luxury of throwing everything at Randle, who, through all of the physical pounding that comes with being a No. 1 bully-ball option who was often tasked with guarding opposing centers at just 6-foot-8, just kept his head down and kept showing up damn near every single night. From 2020-23, Randle played in 89% of New York’s games (220 of 246) and an average of 36 tough minutes a night. Forty-three times he played over 40 minutes during that three-year span.
No player was more instrumental in New York’s return to relevancy than Randle, who laid the foundation of a team that was suddenly cool enough to attract DiVincenzo and Isaiah Hartenstein and Jalen Brunson, the latter of whom evolved into a great enough player to motivate the front office, now run by Leon Rose, to go all-in on trades for Anunoby and Bridges.
That’s when the Randle trade writing was on the wall. He’s in the last year of his current contract, and the Knicks would’ve been in the tight spot of having to overpay him this summer or lose him for nothing. It’s a shame that Randle won’t get the chance to play with this upgraded version of the Knicks in the secondary role for which he was always best suited, but the simple truth, again, is the team just got too good for him to still fit.
It’s a little like the David Lee situation with the Warriors. Lee was an All-Star with, interestingly enough, the Knicks before signing an $80M sign-and-trade deal with the Warriors in 2010. The Warriors were garbage, and while Lee was never good enough to be the lone All-Star on a real team, he was, like Randle with the Knicks in 2019, the first established guy to pump some life into a cellar-dwelling franchise that would, over the next few years, explode into a juggernaut that no longer needed him.
Lee got a ring with the Warriors in 2015, but he was almost an honorary member of the team at that point. He averaged four points in the playoffs and logged one minute in the championship-clinching win over the Cavs. Still, it was apparent to everyone the role Lee had played in the formative years of a dynasty, even if he never really got the chance to finish what he started.
Likewise, Randle isn’t going to get the chance finish what he started in New York. But make no mistake, he did start it. Wherever the Knicks go from here, that can’t be forgotten.
