Knicks All-Star power forward Julius Randle has been ruled out for the year and will require surgery to treat his injured shoulder. No one seems more broken up about the news than Randle himself. Had the 6’8″ Kentucky product been available, New York seemed like it had a viable path to a deep playoff run. Without him, the team could be in for some tough sledding in the postseason.
During a conversation with Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, Randle revealed that he suffered a setback to his shoulder during a practice.
“I want everyone to know that I did everything in my power to get back this season,” Randle told Haynes. “That was my intention, to be playing right now. That’s why I didn’t opt for surgery when it happened. But what caused me to finally go through with getting surgery was about five weeks ago, I went through a full-contact session in pads and re-injured my shoulder. My s–t wasn’t stable. I felt like I was in the same state when I first dislocated it, and It’s been an uphill battle ever since.”
This news contradicts New York’s official claim that Randle had been slowly progressing but had yet to return to contact workouts, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic.
Randle expects to return to the floor for New York at the beginning of the 2024/25 season. The Knicks indicated that they will reassess his shoulder five months after the procedure.
“I visited a couple of shoulder specialists,” Randle revealed. “One said I 100 percent needed to get surgery. Another one said I’m at risk, but if I dislocated it again, I could damage it permanently… I believe in this team and wanted to give it a try. It didn’t work out, unfortunately. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it was my only option at this point. It wasn’t getting right.”
There’s more out of New York:
- Although the Knicks are struggling through multiple injuries to close out the season, the team’s front office did make the right moves with regard to fleshing out its roster, opines Stefan Bondy of The New York Post.
- The Knicks now know they’ll be missing Randle for good this season. Peter Botte of The New York Post (subscriber link) offers his prescription for how New York can survive the home stretch of its regular season without him.
- Katz adds (via Twitter) that the Knicks’ other ailing starting forward, OG Anunoby, still seems to be nearing his own return. Head coach Tom Thibodeau said the team is “cautiously optimistic” about the progress the former Raptors champ has made in his recovery from an elbow ailment.
The former Raptor champ who didn’t play a single minute in the 2019 playoffs.
I would trade Randle and keep Hartenstein and OG.
One thing nobody can question about Randle is his physical toughness and willingness to play through pain. He doesn’t need to say “I want everyone to know …” because anyone paying attention over the past 4 seasons does know.
Randle does work ……. he’s earned it.
link to fadeawayworld.net
“The next guy get in here, get the job done,” Thibodeau said beforehand. “I’ve said this to you guys from the start: We’re not replacing Julius individually. We’re doing it collectively. And that’s one thing that this team has responded extremely well to.”
Knicks play Bulls three times next six gms.
Bulls will find a way to salvage New York’s season…
Get well Julius. Get ready for next yr.
Next yr is next yr. Knicks are playing with house money now. OG has to play. Mitch has to play. Everyone needs to play.
Brunson, OG, Hartenstein, Hart, Mitch, Achiuwa, McBride, Bogdanovic, Burkes, Sims ………. all need to be ready.
Than Knicks can have a good run in playoffs.
Tonight was a good gm. Showed they can come back and win. Without OG.
Knicks still getting healthy. Have to look for the best. I want the 4th seed. I’ll take the 5th seed. 6 gms left.
Real shame for Julius, as always he was having a very good season, best player in the team… so Knicks ain’t going nowhere without him, as simple as!
Got to be honest, I wasn’t happy when the Knicks first signed Julius. He came with the lazy tag, and I had not seen anything to dispel that during his time in LA and NO.
The combo of him playing for and buying into Thibs, along with his own admitted maturation process in NY after a down year two with the Knicks, left me knowing I was wrong about this guy. Sucks that he won’t be on the court again this season, and hopefully the surgery goes well and he’s back at full force in 24-25.