No one expected the New York Knicks to be competitive this season, let alone enter the NBA playoffs with home court advantage.
So even after suffering a gentleman’s sweep at the hands of Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks, fans and players alike remain optimistic moving forward.
New York’s All-Star, 26-year old forward Julius Randle, is no exception.
The NBA’s 2021 Most Improved Player sounded off on the Knicks season in an Instagram post on Friday night.
Randle, in his second season in New York, elevated his game to an entirely new level this season, averaging 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and six assists per game.
It didn’t translate to the playoffs, so he and the Knicks will spend a part of their offseason how to better prepare for another postseason run in 2022.
That being said, both the NBA and New York Knicks fans alike are eager to see what Julius Randle and this team and can do with another offseason under their belt.
Knicks Postpone End-of-Season Interviews
Even with Julius Randle and others’ optimism, head coach Tom Thibodeau is giving the team some deserved time off.
According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, the Knicks are postponing end-of-season exit interviews for two weeks:
According to a league source, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau staged a long team meeting Thursday at the team’s Tarrytown facility — one day after they were eliminated by the Hawks in five games. After the lengthy group discussion, Thibodeau told the players to disperse and come back in about two weeks for the standard player-evaluation conferences.
It’s not the worst idea, given how New York’s season ended, and the grueling COVID-19 aspects on the day-to-day of the 2020-2021 campaign.
Fans no doubt will remember the drama that surrounded Kristaps Porzingis skipping his exit interview back in 2017.
He was “frustrated with the team’s dysfunction,” and felt he needed to make a statement.
Any frustrations this season fall into an entirely different tier.
It’s not about the New York Knicks’ lack of success, but rather how poorly they defended that success in the postseason.
And as opposed to 2017, the air is brimming with hope and optimism.
What’s Next for Randle and the Knicks?
After a surprisingly successful season, the New York Knicks are on an accelerated path to contention.
That all starts and ends with Julius Randle’s ascension to All-Star.
Do they reward the forward, despite his postseason vanishing act, with a new contract this summer?
Randle has a team option for $19.8-million, and on top of that, is eligible for a four year, $106-million extension.
Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype recently polled some NBA executives and scouts to get their thoughts on how New York will approach things with Randle this summer.
The results were mixed, but one executive saw the pending extension offer as a no-brainer decision for the Knicks:
If that’s his max (four years, $106.44 million), it’s probably not much of a decision. He won Most Improved Player, was an All-Star, might make an All-NBA Team, and was the best player on a playoff team that he led. He’s super durable and played huge minutes. Don’t overlook that.
But one other executive sees waiting one more year to extend Randle long term as safe a decision (if not safer) than inking a contract this offseason:
I’m not sure I’d extend him. If they go another year under his current contract to let him prove that this year wasn’t a fluke, they’ll still have Bird Rights and can always give him an extra year more than other teams when he’s an unrestricted free agent.
If New York opted to hold off on extension talks with the first year All Star, it would see the extension figure climb to five years and $201.5-million next summer, when he’s an unrestricted free agent.
Regardless, barring some significant development, the question isn’t if Julius Randle and the New York Knicks will strike on a new deal, but a matter of when.
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Julius Randle Sends Message to Knicks Fans: ‘I Love the Process’