Knicks: Where Does Julius Randle Rank Among NBA’s Best Players?

One of the many reasons why the New York Knicks have been so unsuccessful this millennium is due to the lack of elite talent on the roster.

In today’s NBA, you need at least one all-star caliber player to be competitive, and if you want to compete for a championship, you are gonna need at least two of those players. But make no mistake, one of those two has to be a top 10 player at minimum.

Clearly, the Knicks have not been so lucky to acquire such a talent. While they have been able to add the next best thing, they’ve only managed to have stars who end up being alone on the team as far as that designation goes.

And it’s been a minute since New York has had a perennial all-star.

Where do you rank Knicks’ All-Star Julius Randle amongst the elite?

Carmelo Anthony was the last one. He made six straight all-star games from 2011-2017. God bless him for trying, but his desire to play in the Mecca of Basketball never lead to another elite player joining him.

The only other player that ever reached the heights Melo did in a Knicks uniform post-Ewing was Amar’e Stoudemire. If not for injuries, he certainly would have made more than just one all-star game. He was granted that honor in his first year in NY back during the 2010-11 season.

But how good were those two players among other NBA stars?

For a short time, many people used to argue Anthony was the third-best player in the league having finished third in MVP voting for his 2012-13 heroics. While Anthony was certainly a top 10 player for most of his prime, he was always outshined by more successful and skilled players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and Kevin Durant.

As for Stoudemire, he definitely played the part of a top 10 player with NY for that one season. But before he famously ‘brought the Knicks back,’ STAT was never any better than top 15 in the league, and that may be generous.

It wasn’t his fault though. He played in an era where the best big men in the league were the likes of Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, and Tim Duncan, to name a few.

Heck, he wasn’t even the best player on his team because of the great Steve Nash.

Since those two were around, (if you don’t count that tall lanky guy always in street clothes with the Dallas Mavericks,) the best Knick player has been Julius Randle.

Randle in his second year just recently secured his first all-star selection, and since he wants to stay in New York long-term, he may get a chance to be the latest NY perennial all-star.

But that begs the question, where does Julius Randle currently rank among the best players in the league?