Breaking: Randle Out for the Season

Brutal blow, but all is not lost for New York... This season will now hinge on whether or not OG is able to return and remain on the floor.

The news many Knicks fans feared became a reality Thursday morning when the team announced that Julius Randle would have surgery on his right shoulder.

Randle, who initially dislocated his shoulder on January 27th, will miss the rest of the season and be re-evaluated in five months.

A brutal blow for the player and the club.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news a few minutes before the Knicks made it official. In his story, Woj reports that Randle "had been relentlessly rehabilitating to resume playing prior to the Eastern Conference playoffs. Doctors warned him recently that continued instability in the shoulder made it unsafe for him to play again this season."

Wojnarowski adds that Randle "had done everything possible to avoid surgery and return for the playoffs, but the procedure became an increasing inevitability after recent visits to two specialists who warned of further injury and possible permanent damage to the shoulder if he returned to play before a surgical procedure."

The silver lining is that by getting the surgery done now, Randle can take his time rehabbing and should be good to go by the start of training camp in September.

After undergoing ankle surgery following the 2023 playoffs, Randle couldn't prep for the 2023-24 campaign as he would have liked and struggled at the start of the season.

While Randle has some flaws that have frustrated fans, his consistent production during the regular season has been incredibly valuable. After playing in each of the first 77 games of the 2022-23 season, Randle played in the first 46 games this year. In the process, he earned his third All-Star selection while averaging 24.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists a night.

He's one of only two players in the league averaging 20+ points, 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists per game this decade. The other two are Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

New York looked like a legitimate title contender in January with the trio of Randle, OG Anunoby, and Jalen Brunson healthy. In the 13 games the trio played together, they went 12-1 while posting the best Defensive Rating and Net Rating in the NBA.

Some fans have already begun blasting the Knicks' front office for delaying the surgery, arguing that Rande should have immediately gone under the knife.

I'm not willing to go there. First and foremost, even if Randle did have surgery right away, there was no way he would be able to return for the playoffs. While it is true the Knicks may have approached the February trade deadline differently if they knew Randle was done for the year, New York did make a move to fortify the bench by adding two respected veterans, Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic, partly because of the uncertainty surrounding Randle and Anunoby.

In addition, Randle had earned the right to fight for his season. Remember, after Randle was injured, Woj reported that doctors were initially encouraged by test results and that there was a strong belief Randle would miss "only weeks, not months." By all accounts, Julius is a tireless worker off the court, making extreme efforts to keep his body in tip-top shape year-round. Sadly, his season has ended prematurely two years in a row due to freak injuries.

In my opinion, the chance of Randle returning in April was worth delaying surgery or making any other panicked moves.

Unfortunately, OG's elbow flared up the same week Randle dislocated his shoulder.

The Knicks have been able to keep their head above water in the 2+ months since, but the wear-and-tear on the rest of the team has been debilitating.

Jalen Brunson's Usage Rate since the All-Star Break is a whopping 37.4%, the highest post-ASB USG% in the NBA. (To put that number in context, no Knicks guard in franchise history has ever posted a Usage Rate above 27% over an entire season.) As a result, he's appeared worn down late in games.

Josh Hart leads the NBA in minutes played since stepping into the starting lineup in late January. Hart is now dealing with a right wrist injury and is listed as questionable for Thursday's game vs. Sacramento.

Mile McBride has logged a ridiculous 44.7 minutes per game over the past three weeks. No other player in the NBA is averaging more than 39 MPG.

Still, all is not lost for New York. This season will now hinge on whether OG can return and remain on the floor. If he can, and the Knicks can secure one of the top six slots in the East, I'd argue they have enough to make some real noise in the playoffs.