Kemba Walker was presumably signed to be the difference-making scorer the New York Knicks needed in their starting backcourt. On the contrary, head coach Tom Thibodeau recently removed Walker from the team’s rotation altogether, opting to insert wing Alec Burks into the starting lineup.
This decision was made with the mindset of the Knicks being more cohesive offensively and efficient defensively. That said, the player with the most pressure on them in the wake of this rotation shakeup isn’t Burks, Derrick Rose or even the second-year Immanuel Quickley: it’s Julius Randle.
Here’s why the Knicks need Randle to play up to his star billing now more than ever.
New York Knicks are doubling-down on Julius Randle
Two months ago, it appeared the Knicks’ offense was going to make a jump from being an efficient, halfcourt operation to more of a well-rounded attack with varying skill sets. With Walker on the bench for the foreseeable future, the Knicks are essentially going back to what they were last season, that being heavily reliant on Randle to lead the scoring charge and subsequently create open looks for others out on the perimeter.
To their credit, the Knicks are at least going all in on this approach. If a team is going to have a point forward, if you will, they have to surround that player with primary shooters who can also score off the dribble. Thibodeau has those pieces at his disposal in Burks, Evan Fournier, RJ Barrett and, to a lesser extent, rookie Quentin Grimes.
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Hypothetically, if Randle finds success to the degree that he did last season, the wings are going to have fewer eyeballs on them while Rose and Quickley provide scoring jolts off the bench. But none of this works without the centerpiece firing on all cylinders.
- Julius Randle stats (2021-22): 19.4 points, 10.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game while shooting 41.7/32.5/76.0
To date, Randle is having quite possibly the worst season of his Knicks’ tenure from a production standpoint. He has been inconsistent, at times lost some minutes to the athletic Obi Toppin and essentially epitomized the 2021-22 Knicks: full of potential but volatile.
The Knicks entered this season not needing Randle to be anything more than he was last season. Now they need his play of last season to be a baseline because the team is reverting back to its 2020-21 offensive tendencies.
Kemba Walker dismissal sends New York Knicks’ offense back to 2020-21
The Knicks’ opening night lineup was Walker, Barrett, Fournier, Randle and Mitchell Robinson. That’s a starting five that, in thought, complements itself well.
Randle is the versatile, high-level scorer. Walker creates separation and facilitates for those around him, serving as a 1b scorer. Barrett takes the next step and benefits from the attention Randle and Walker attract. Fournier serves as a shooting scorer in-between Barrett and Randle. Robinson/Nerlens Noel are defensive anchors in the paint. All of this has been thrown out the window.
Walker being entirely out of the rotation is the Knicks saying adding skill sets that fit in with their 2020-21 ways while banking on internal development gives them a better chance to win than adding a new dimension, which Walker was supposedly going to provide them with.
The Bronx native was being used as a bridge to Rose with Walker playing just 24.5 minutes per contest prior to his benching.
- Kemba Walker stats (2021-22): 11.7 points, 3.1 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game while shooting 42.9/41.3/80.0
New York’s issue is that Barrett isn’t making a substantial third-year jump. He’s a reliable two-way player who got off to a hot start this season, but the player he is in the present may be the player he is for the foreseeable future. From a competitive standpoint, there’s nothing wrong with that.
At the same time, if there isn’t going to be All-Star-caliber scoring from Barrett with Quickley being an at-best tertiary source of offense, then there’s minimal progress from where the Knicks were against the Atlanta Hawks in last season’s Eastern Conference Playoffs.
The Knicks need Randle to be for them what Luka Doncic is for the Dallas Mavericks, as it pertains to scoring all over the floor and haphazard defensive movement leading to jump shots from beyond the arc. It can work, but there’s no room for error. The star has to be a star.
Thibodeau began the season asking Julius Randle to be the locomotive of the offense. Now he’s asking Randle to be the locomotive and coal car of the offense. The Knicks getting past the first round of the playoffs will come down to Randle producing like the $117 million player they made him in the offseason.
