Recently, there has been some trade talk surrounding Julius Randle. Should the Knicks consider dealing him?
The Knicks are one of the hottest teams in the NBA and Julius Randle is a big reason for that. After dealing with last season’s woes, he’s been more efficient scoring the basketball. Additoinally, he is leading this team on both sides of the ball alongside G Jalen Brunson. Brunson has taken so much pressure off of Randle with his playmaking. Over the past ten games, Randle has averaged around 25 PPG and 10 RPG while shooting over 40% from the field.
Last season, there was a lot of chatter about the Knicks trading Randle due to the disappointing season that they had. Now that the Knicks are playing well and Randle’s stock is high rumors have been swirling around about packaging Randle in a deal for a high draft pick and a couple of young pieces before the trade deadline. Hopefully for the Knicks sake, this is not the case. It would make absolutely no sense to explore a trade for Randle and it would be a huge mistake if they did.
Other Deals to Make
Is Julius Randle an MVP caliber player? No, but he is an All Star caliber that is thriving at the moment. Trading him now will not only ruin the success that the Knicks are currently having but it will also hinder the production of Jalen Brunson who the Knicks just acquired in the off season. Why mess up the chemistry between these two while they are on a roll?
Also, with the Knicks having players such as Derrick Rose, Cam Reddish, and Evan Fournier on the trade block, they can possibly make a couple of deals that can better the team as a whole. At this point in time the Knicks front office should try to make deals for role players that can keep this new found momentum going. Trading Randle now is basically hitting the reset button for a team that has potential to be good in the foreseeable future.
Julius Randle has had his ups and downs but with him playing as well as he is while being a major contributor to the Knicks recent success. There’s no reason why he should be traded in the near future.