2019 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far
Julius Randle: 3 years, $63 million (New York Knicks)
Free agent Julius Randle has agreed to a three-year, $63M deal with the New York Knicks, CAA agents Aaron Mintz and Steve Heumann tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2019
The three-year, $63 million deal Julius Randle agreed to with the New York Knicks contains a team option on the final year, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 30, 2019
Julius Randle at an average of $21 million per season isn’t a bad Plan C or Plan D. The 24-year-old was an absolute force last season, averaging 21.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game on 52.4 percent shooting. He bulldozed opponents going to the rim, thrived whether he was starting or coming off the bench, and even improved his 3-point touch to 34.4 percent.
However, he’s not a reliable floor-spacer just yet, and as much as Randle is a nice pivot, we can’t just overlook how the New York Knicks are probably going to strike out on all of the summer’s major free agents, or how their next-door neighbor just snagged Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving simply because they’re a better-run organization with a more stable structure in place.
Considering the biggest asset gained in the Kristaps Porzingis trade (sorry Dennis Smith Jr., or future first round picks that may never be as valuable as a healthy Unicorn) was creating max cap space for this summer’s elite crop of free agents, missing out on KD, Kyrie, Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler — not to mention Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis — is a decided disappointment considering how bright the future possibilities seemed entering the offseason.
Grade: B