Julius Randle signed a four-year extension with a base value of $106.4MM, along with numerous incentives, in August. The Knicks’ big man has struggled this season and feels responsible for the team’s disappointing play, Peter Botte of the New York Post writes.
“I have to be better,’’ Randle said. “Everybody has to be better. And I’ll take responsibility from the team. I’ll take responsibility for myself. That doesn’t bother me. At the end of the day, I just want to win. We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and decide what we want the season to be. I know what I want it to be. I know what the guys want it to be. But we have to commit to it.”
Randle is averaging 19.8 PPG after posting a career-high 24.1 PPG last season and his field-goal percentages have dropped noticeably.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Randle gets a C grade for the Knicks’ first trimester, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News opines in a report card. Benched point guard Kemba Walker gets an F, while fellow point man Derrick Rose is at the top of Bondy’s class with an A-minus.
- The Celtics have a .500 record and their inconsistency has been maddening to players and coach Ime Udoka, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe writes. “I don’t know, you probably don’t know, and that’s why you’re asking me and I don’t know either,” Dennis Schröder said of the team’s inconsistency. “We’ve got to come out and do it for 48 minutes. It can’t happen that we just do it for two or three quarters.” Udoka admitted, “The effort and the inconsistency is frustrating at times.”
- Detailing the same topic, Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston believes changes might be forthcoming for the Celtics but there’s no clear-cut solution to all of their problems. They do need to make defense a priority after ranking 18th over the last 10 games in the points per possession category.
2 guys who need the ball, who need to occupy the same space, who don’t want to play with each other, and the real kicker ..who both believe they’re the guy and the other has to go. It’s ok, as a Raptors fan this can continue for as long as the idiotic Celtic FO deny these realities.
They need to play team version of iso ball aka triangle. With Brown as Batman and Tatum as Robin, of course you won’t mention this DC comparison to Tatum, should use Jordan/Pipen instead.
You nailed it. Jason Tatum has great talent, but he is becoming Kyrie Irving. Typical game is 25 points on 9 for 24 shooting, 1 or 2 assists, poor defense, whining to refs every time he misses a shot. He needs to grow up, and become a team player.
Tatum’s played 27 games this year, and only 1 of them has been a 1 assist game. Literally, 1 out of 27.
Stop making garbage up dude.
I’m a Raptors fan too but the Celtics have made the eastern conference finals 3 of the last 5 years, Joe. Maybe they should’ve signed Stanley Johnson?
Where’re the useless stats .. I was looking forward to recite again .. there’re lies, damn lies and …
Jaylen hasn’t played much this season so I doubt the idea that Jaylen and Jason “can’t play together” is what’s causing our team play dysfunction. In fact, if Jalen gets healthy, he and Jason playing together is our best chance to make something of this season.
My grade for all of Bondy and Berman would be Incomplete. Former beat reporters being irrelevant doesn’t make them BB analysts.
Looks like Pippen really did not like Jordan. Brown will be Wizard this summer if they don’t do well. The Celtics need a shooter too.
They need a new coach who is actually new and not just recycling the same plays from the previous coach. And right now the team has lots of players who think they are point guards and none who actually are.
LAL, NYK and BOS are all .500 teams.
Who thinks they’re gonna turn it around by playoff time?
All 3 teams should be playing better basketball. Curious to see what happens the next couple of weeks.
Lakers will. They have the talent.
Play Prichard! He’s a shooter. Makes life easier for Tatum
Try starting Pritchard at shooting guard with PG Smart. With TimeLord, Brown & Tatum. Tell Pritchard his job is to shoot, shoot threes! Like Miami starts Duncan Robinson. Come on, get some 3’s from PP! Useless on the bench.
Have Schroder run the 2nd team with Horford.
Donn’t keep trying the same lineups that aren’t working Coach. Be flexible. Try some things!
Celtics problems aren’t a mystery. They’ve been a stubborn team for years. Stubbornness is a nasty form of stupidity. They are loathe to give minutes to struggling young players regardless of their higher ceilings. Meanwhile, over the last two seasons, they’ve brought in ineffective veterans – Jeff Teague, Tristan Thompson, Denis Schroeder, Josh Richardson. Additionally, they extended Marcus Smart rather than trade him. Under Stevens, they continue playing isolation despite the fact the offense disappears in spurts and especially late in games when they are gassed.
“I don’t know, you probably don’t know, and that’s why you’re asking me and I don’t know either,” – Udoka
Translation: we aren’t doing anything wrong and we’re not changing a damn thing.
To quote Steely Dan: “go back, jack do it again”
Stubbornness could be the worst form of stupidity.
You’re putting Schroeder at his salary in the same category as Teague and Thompson?
That’s just silly.
Schroeder has a BPM of -2.0. The problem is that if he plays better, he’ll price himself out of the Cs budget for next season. He’s better than Teague, but so what. They never needed him in the first place. He is just another example of this team’s stubbornness in giving developmental players more minutes. For two years the team has ‘fortified’ itself with ineffectual veterans at the cost of younger, higher ceiling players and making no progress. Now, that’s what I call silly.
Schroder at his salary is not the problem. Obviously.
Celtics were 48-24 just in 2019-20, two yrs ago. And Kemba was a big part of that.
link to basketball-reference.com
Funny how things change so quick. Still think this team is better than they are showing. But at some point, you are what your record shows you are. Don’t watch them enough to tell what’s wrong. Clearly wasn’t Kemba.
Kemba has had a bum knee for two years. Once in about 4-5 games he’ll shine, but that’s as good as it gets. Ainge signed him in a sheer panic move. The result was giving up a first round pick in 2021 to OKC just to get out of that contract.
Randles stats are down across the board. But more important to me. Is he is not leading like last yr. Leading by example hard work and repetition.
To me the whole point of needing a PG. Was to take the ball out of his hands. To let the offense be run by a PG. So there can be more flow. More pushing the ball. More sharing the ball. More running the offense for everyone. Instead it’s get out the way. To let him be a playmaker off the iso. You can do this at times. But this is not good team offense to me.
Like I’ve said plenty times here. Knicks have success as a team. And now by using our depth. These clowns here and in media that talk stars. Are in a fantasy world. This is the team that will succeed. We are not contenders. But we can contend with anyone if we play to our strengths. The rebuilding is still in progress. And Thibs will get it right. He better or the other genius Dolan will step in. And no Knick fan wants that.
Another no offensive flow. Three happy and no Mitch D in Middle game . I’m so tired of watching Randle think he’s Magic. Thibs is going to drown with this. Randle is no Magic, No Bron. He’s a good passer for a 4. This is why we went after a starting PG. All he does is stop the flow of the offense. 18 team ast and 13 TO. A three happy team that shoots 26.5%.
You watch Fournier and he never takes a two. This offense has totally crippled his gm. Toppin showed tonight why we drafted him. He was suppose to push Randle out. We Knick fans know Randle is no #1 guy. Seems to me he doesn’t know it. And Thibs better wake up. There shouldn’t be this much regression from last yr.
I couldn’t agree with you more Al. This iso Randal ball is nauseating to watch. Thibs pulls Topping with three minutes left in the fourth after he had the best game of his life is head scratcher as well to play a veteran. Thibs is 65 years old so if hasn’t change when it comes to his running vets into the ground and refusing to play young players that help some of our weaknesses he never will. This shop is sinking fast and if this ok keeps up Thibs will be a Deadman walking just like the former Raptors coach who won the coach of the year than fired the next. Does Noel or Burkes really move the needle as far as roster changes. Thibs get your stubborn head out your ass and play Grimes McBride and Sims . Sit Noel for a couple of weeks to get healthy and send Mitch to the Fat Farm for conditioning because he can’t even jump off a curb anymore. And is anyone slower than RJ Barrett on a fast Break even though he is playing better the last few games. We can’t keep giving Thibs a pass.