Knicks: Who would you rather — Julius Randle or Kristaps Porzingis?

Knicks: Kristaps Porzingis or Julius Randle — Scoring and Shooting

Both men have been prolific scorers over the length of their careers. Kristaps Porzingis most definitely came out of the gates hot, averaging 14.3 points per game on a true shooting percentage of 52% as a rookie. For his career, Porzingis is averaging 18.5 points and a very impressive 54% true shooting percentage.

Julius Randle on the other hand took some time to turn into the all-star caliber player he is today. I would say he didn’t really become a high-level offensive weapon until his 4th year in the league where he averaged 16.1 points per game. If we take his rookie season out of the equation where he only played in 1 game and scored just 2 points, Randle’s career average for scoring is 17.3 points per game. Randle, somewhat surprisingly has a better true shooting percentage than Porzingis for his career which currently stands at 56%. I believe this has to do with the fact that Porzingis took more 3’s than Randle has, which brings his percentages down a bit.

While Randle has certainly improved his 3-point shooting this season, for the most part, he’s shot well below league average for the previous 5 seasons that he’s been in the league. On the other hand, Porzingis is known for his 3-point shooting ability almost more so than any of his other strengths on offense. Randle is the better shooter this year but that should surely change as the season progresses. Randle is a career 30% shooter while Porzingis’ career average is around 36%.

Porzingis clearly has the stronger overall body of work but Julius Randle is the better player as of today, and I do not think it’s close. This could of course change over time as “KP” continues to knock the dust off after returning from his torn meniscus injury from last season.

Randle’s grade — B+
Porzingis grade — A-