1. Continuing to give Julius Randle chances to fail in the playoffs
Julius Randle is a great player in the regular season and arguably the biggest reason for the Knicks’ success in recent years. He may be an impeccable floor-raiser for any team, but on the other hand, he consistently cripples the Knicks’ ceiling in hilarious fashion.
Randle’s All-Star and All-NBA appearances are great and all. However, how many times are Rose and Company going to allow him to fail in the playoffs before they finally cut him loose? While Randle was dealing with an injury during this year’s playoffs, he was clearly healthy enough to play. Alongside this, an injury is no excuse for his disgustingly poor attitude and lack of effort during the biggest moments of his career.
Don’t talk to me about an ankle. I don’t want to hear it. Dude was in the biggest games of his life playing like he didn’t care. pic.twitter.com/HRevALuGAs
— Shaun From TKW (@iHateShaun) June 3, 2023
The Knicks have made two playoff appearances because of Randle, but they’ve also collapsed in both of them because of Randle. Obviously, not everything was his fault, but we can’t sit here and act like he’s not a generationally bad playoff performer. Through three playoff series, Randle is averaging 17.1 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 3.9 turnovers per game while shooting 34.4% from the field and 28.3% from three on 6.6 attempts.
Maybe Randle can prove his doubters wrong, and we hope he does. This question must be asked: How many more failures will Randle be allowed to have in the playoffs before Rose finally pulls the plug? Had Randle not played so poorly against the Heat the Knicks very well could have made the conference finals. Instead, they were sent home in six games.
Randle has had several opportunities to prove he can be the guy for the Knicks and has consistently failed. We applaud him for playing through injury, as that takes a lot and can be an excuse for his poor play. However, it’s not an excuse to act the way he did several times during the Heat series.
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