If Julius Randle continues this, he will have a hard time buying a drink in New York for the rest of his natural life. When he is old and gray, Randle will still be the toast of the city because he took the money from the Knicks when the big names didn’t want it, because they started their way back to relevance and made it the first championship of the 1973 team to feel like a realistic goal.
Oh, and to ease the sting of the Kristaps Porzingis transaction, if not to make the sting disappear completely.
Knicks’ 2019 deal with Porzingis against the Mavericks wasn’t exactly the 1977 Mets trade with Tom Seaver at the Reds, but it hurt just the same. The main Maverick coming on the road to New York, Dennis Smith Jr., was a disaster, and DeAndre Jordan, the man who was supposed to help draw Olympic colleagues and friends Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving into the garden, ended up joins Brooklyn.
In desperation, the Knicks were forced to spend some of that money on the salary cap that the trade released. Randle raised his hand. On Friday night in Dallas, with Porzingis on the opposing front line, all Randle did was provide 44 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, leading his team to their fifth straight victory and improving the Knicks’ chances of even avoid the Mavericks’ postseason spot. seem to be heading for the dreaded play-in tournament.
Returning to Dallas, Randle became Bernard King’s first Knick in 1985 to score at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a single game. He was 16-for-29 from the floor, 6-for-11 from 3 points and almost doubled Porzingis’ total points (23).
“When he added the 3-point shot,” coach Tom Thibodeau said of Randle after his team’s 117-109 victory, “that just opened up something else.”
Including the possibility that Randle, only eight months older than Porzingis, would only overtake him in the next three or four years. It would be a high command to play over the 7-meter Latvian and a quick look at the last act of Porzingis on the field, while a Knick explains why.
On that evening in February 2018, in the garden, Giannis Antetokounmpo, the most athletic player in the NBA, was wearing Porzingis’ shirt, like a middle-aged warrior at the local Y. KP were relying on their ability to counter-attack. Kyle O’Quinn was the first to reach the corner kick, but his header was blocked by the keeper. But when Jason Terry from the Bucks jumped on the crosswalk, the Unicorn did a very unicorn thing: he stopped in a penny like a wide receiver coming out of a break, he separated Terry and Antetokounmpo in a hard dive. to the basket, and he took the step that Quinn jumped into the air for a loud, posterizing noise over the Greek Freak as the room lights flashed around them.
However, like the latest appearances of the Knicks’ prosperity – Linsanity in 2012, Melo’s 54-win season next year – it ended much too quickly. In fact, it took about two seconds after that beating over Antetokounmpo before a fallen Porzingis stretched his left knee and began pounding the floor. Fans could not even get out of their seats before their delight was struck by devastation. KP had a broken ACL and, almost a year later, entered Steve Mills’ office and told team president and general manager Scott Perry that he wanted to leave and that if they didn’t change him, he would leave for Europe.
Randle’s game (along with the two first-round picks Knicks bought from Dallas) made the Porzingis deal feel much less apocalyptic than it seemed at the time. Entering Friday night, Randle overtook Porzingis (23.2-20.7) and overtook him (10.6-9.3), although the Mavs star beat Knicks’ momentum in terms of player efficiency (22.26-19.73).
Porzingis victimized Randle in a poster in Friday’s game and it didn’t matter. The Knicks’ best player made a 3-pointer in the back with 1.1 seconds left in the third quarter, which set up a huge fourth. With 4:11 to the end and the Knicks holding a six-point lead, Randle made two free throws. He pushed the drive back to eight a minute later, lifting a runner up from the bottle. With 1:44 left, he sank a change that seemed to be clinker.
“He is our engine,” Thibodeau said. “He makes us leave.”
Randle reunited this career season with extreme off-season conditioning work and the confidence that came from it. When he finished dominating on his return home, Randle was asked what it would mean for him to make the All-NBA.
“It would be a great achievement,” he said.
As great as making New Yorkers forget how much they hated the Kristaps Porzingis transaction when it fell.