New York Knicks: Making Julius Randle’s All-NBA case

Julius Randle’s breakout season was validated in February with his first All-Star appearance, but the midseason game would pale in comparison to a potential All-NBA honor that’s well within reach as the regular season wraps up.

There’s a difference between being named one of the 12 best players in your conference halfway through the season and one of the league’s 15 best players once the entirety of the year has concluded.

The NBA’s talent pool continues to overflow, but Randle’s case is as convincing as any. His career-high marks of 24.0 points, 10.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game are exceeded by only two other players in the NBA: Giannis Antetokounmpo, the reigning two-time MVP, and Nikola Jokic, the frontrunner for the 2021 award.

Randle is also doing this while shooting a career-best 41.6 percent on 5.3 3-point attempts per game, quite the leap for someone who only shot above 30 percent from distance once in his first five seasons.

Julius Randle has been a revelation for the equally surprising New York Knicks. It’s worth asking if that’s enough for an All-NBA nod.

Elite numbers are nothing new in a league where offensive production continues to skyrocket, but Randle’s are anything but the hollow results of trying to stand out on a bad team.

The New York Knicks have exceeded the wildest of expectations placed on them before the season. Winners of nine straight following Saturday’s blowout victory over Toronto, the Knicks are seven games above .500 with a 34-27 record. If the playoffs began today, Madison Square Garden would be hosting Game 1 of a series for the first time since 2013 with the tiebreaker over Atlanta for the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference.

Of course, whether it’s All-Star or All-NBA, one’s odds at being selected aren’t solely dependant on the case they make.

The wealth of talent at either forward position would typically squeeze Randle out of legitimate contention for an All-NBA spot. In a vacuum, two of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard wouldn’t earn First Team honors. That would exactly two other spots for Randle along with stars like Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler, Paul George and Zion Williamson — and Anthony Davis depending on whether voters view him as a forward or center.

But the context of the compressed 72-game shortened 2020-21 season has, unfortunately, cleared some space due to injury. James is up to 19 games missed following a sprained ankle suffered against Atlanta. Durant has only appeared in 24 of Brooklyn’s 60 games so far with various injuries. Even Davis only recently returned from a 30-game absence.

It is not the fault of LeBron that his foot was in the wrong place when Solomon Hill tried to make a play on a loose ball. Maybe KD might’ve played in more games if the Nets weren’t (rightfully) so conservative in managing his ailments to ensure full health for the postseason. AD’s injury could be attributed to the brief offseason he had after emerging from the bubble as a champion.

But to ignore their constant unavailability in the All-NBA discussion would be to penalize someone like Randle, who has missed only one game while leading the league in minutes per game.

Availablity has always mattered when it comes to awards and selections. When the gap is wider than 20 games for each of those superstars, it’s too hard to ignore, no matter how unlucky the circumstance.

LeBron, KD and AD might be disqualified, but Giannis and Kawhi remain viable First Team candidates even while managing some injuries of their own. PG should be a lock as well amid a bounce-back season with career-highs in assists and 3-point percentage that has the Clippers just two games shy of the league’s top record.

That leaves three more All-NBA spots. Zion’s sophomore numbers have been historic, but his Pelicans sit eight games under .500 and out of even a play-in spot. Butler is averaging over 20 points a game while posting career-highs in rebounds and assists while leading the league in steals per game. His Heat have also underperformed coming off their unexpected Finals run as the seventh-best team in the east.

Similar unmet expectations can be attributed to Tatum who, despite the improvements made upon last year’s breakout season, is on a Celtics team with just one fewer loss than Miami, clinging to a spot that would avoid the play-in.

Then there’s Randle. He’s not playing alongside another All-Star caliber player like Jaylen Brown or Bam Adebayo. His co-star is a 20-year-old sophomore. His team was supposed to finish at the bottom of the standings. Yet less than one month from the start of the playoffs and the Knicks sit just below the cream of the conference’s crop thanks largely to Randle’s play rivaled only by the superstars of the league.

A lot can change between now and season’s end. Seeds 4-through-7 are separated by just two games and the Knicks have the second-hardest remaining schedule of any team in their conference with a west-coast trip that includes matchups against both LA teams, Phoenix — after playing them at MSG tonight — and Denver.

Maybe that stretch knocks New York out of homecourt in the first round. Even then, with six spots available and fewer names to fill them, Randle’s remarkably unexpected body of work should still speak volumes about the season he deserves to be properly rewarded for.