Julius Randle was on pace to make Knicks history before getting injured
With only five full games left to play in the regular season, Julius Randle suffered an unfortunate injury in game No. 77 that will keep him sidelined for at least two weeks. His sprained left ankle will be re-evaluated right before the start of the playoffs, meaning that he could be back by then or he could miss additional time.
Randle had quite the bounce back during the 2022-23 regular season compared to how 2021-22 went. He reclaimed his spot as an All-Star and could be named to an All-NBA Team again after averaging a career-high 25.1 points, 10 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 77 games.
Not only has Randle helped guide the Knicks back to a top-six seed in the East, but he did so without missing a game. Load management is a controversial topic in today’s NBA, but that doesn’t exist within Tom Thibodeau’s realm. If Randle wouldn’t have gotten hurt in Wednesday’s win over Miami, he still might’ve missed a game or two at the end of the regular season to rest up for the playoffs, but he could’ve played in all 82 games for the second time in his career.
The 28-year-old played in 82 games for the Lakers in 2017-18 that included 49 starts. Two seasons before that, he played in 81 games. Randle was on pace to play and start in all 82 games for the Knicks this season, which is something that hasn’t been done since Robin Lopez did it in 2015-16.
Julius Randle was on track to play all 82 regular season games for Knicks
Julius Randle is the face of durability. Over the past three seasons, he’s played in at least 71 games. The fewest number of games that he’s played in a single season happened in his first full season in New York (2019-20) where he played and started 64 games.
Randle didn’t set out to play in every single regular season game for the Knicks this year, but the fact that he played in 77 is still an impressive feat.
His health is of the utmost importance, especially during this time of the season, but assuming that he’ll be back in time for the playoffs, the time off could end up benefitting him. Not only will two weeks hopefully give his ankle enough time to heal, but it will give him a much-needed break as well.
Let’s not forget that instead of going somewhere tropical during the All-Star break, he was in Salt Lake City and competed in the Three-Point Contest as well as the All-Star Game.
Hopefully, when Julius Randle is re-evaluated in two weeks, he’ll be cleared to return. If that ends up happening, he’d still need some time to get back into the flow of things. He deserves to compete in the playoffs.
