NBA: Ranking every team’s best player in 2019-20

The New York Knicks had high hopes for this offseason, hopes that seemed likely if not certain to be realized. Yet a kaleidoscope of transactions this summer left the Knicks out in the cold, instead pivoting to spending all of their cap space on mid-tier power forwards and low-tier guards.

That leaves the team without an elite talent for this season. They have some young players with upside and plenty of future flexibility, but this year their leading scorer will likely be Julius Randle. The former Kentucky Wildcat had a career year with the New Orleans Pelicans a year ago, plying his brand of bully ball to score inside at high levels.

Randle is a talented offensive player if he has the ball in his hands, but as anything but the top option he is increasingly less valuable to a team. Add to it that he may be one of the worst defenders in the league and the ceiling of a team is capped when giving Randle plenty of run. The Knicks don’t care this season so they can take advantage of his scoring prowess.

Looking Ahead: Third overall pick RJ Barrett is going to see a lot of touches this year for the Knicks and the best versions of his development will see him as a wing creator who scores 20 points per game as early as this year.

If the team’s best player in a year is someone other than Barrett it could be that the team finally landed a big fish in free agency; it could also mean Barrett’s is an inefficient scorer and young center Mitchell Robinson takes another step forward.