NBA Rumors: Knicks ‘Undoubtedly’ Open To Trading Julius Randle In Offseason, Per Marc Berman

As one of the eight teams that weren’t invited to the resumption of the 2019-20 NBA season on account of their win-loss record, the New York Knicks are now free to plan for this year’s offseason as they hope to end their lengthy playoff drought sooner rather than later. These plans, as a new report suggests, might involve trading Julius Randle, the young big man they acquired last summer as their new starting power forward.

In Saturday morning’s edition of his column for the New York Post, Marc Berman answered a number of questions from fans, including one who wanted to know about Randle’s future with the Knicks. The fan pointed out that the 25-year-old didn’t seem like a good fit alongside last year’s No. 3 overall pick, forward/guard R.J. Barrett, and speculated that he might not mesh well either with 2020 draft prospect LaMelo Ball — assuming the Knicks select him.

In his response to the fan, Berman wrote that the Knicks are “undoubtedly” open to moving Randle in the offseason, despite his solid statistical performance.

“Randle had his moments as a double-double force and is still early in his prime. But Randle’s defense is below average and it’s been reported here his knack of over-dribbling frustrated some teammates, including RJ Barrett. And a bigger disappointment was Randle lost his magic from the 3-point line (27.7 percent).”

Julius Randle is now the mayor of Philadelphia https://t.co/Fb7uOwZTLv

— Mickstape (@MickstapeShow) November 30, 2019

Berman further expounded on the latter issue, stating that former Knicks head coach David Fizdale had recently mentioned the need for a power forward who could shoot at a high percentage from three-point range. As the New York Post writer noted, the Knicks just recently had one in Kristaps Porzingis, who was traded to the Dallas Mavericks midway through the 2018-19 season.

Per Basketball-Reference, Randle averaged 19.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in the first year of his three-year, $62 million contract with the Knicks. According to Berman, the second year of the contract is “manageable,” as he is set to earn $18.9 million in the 2020-21 season, but the Knicks will take a $4 million cap hit in the summer of 2021 if they choose not to exercise his team option.

Although there were no trade ideas or potential destinations mentioned by Berman in his column, the past few months have seen Randle mentioned in various trade rumors. Most of these suggested that the Knicks came close to sending the former Kentucky Wildcats star to the Charlotte Hornets for Terry Rozier prior to the February trade deadline. However, a more recent trade idea suggested that the Phoenix Suns could acquire Randle in a deal that would send superstar shooting guard Devin Booker to New York.