Julius Randle Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Knicks’ Randle, Cavs’ Okoro Aiming To Return For Game 1

April 14th, 2023 at 5:06pm CST by Rory Maher

Knicks forward Julius Randle, who has been sidelined with a left ankle sprain since he sustained the injury on March 29, is aiming to return for Game 1 against the Cavaliers on Saturday, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter).

Wojnarowski adds that Randle has been making steady progress and will test the ankle prior to the game before he determines whether or not he’ll suit up, but he has been known to play through injuries in the past (Twitter link). The Knicks have officially listed him as questionable for Saturday’s game in Cleveland (Twitter link).

An All-Star for the second time this season, Randle averaged a career-high 25.1 PPG to go along with 10.0 RPG and 4.1 APG on .459/.343/.757 shooting in 77 games (35.5 MPG). He has practiced on a limited basis twice in the past week and was able to run at full speed, though he did not take contact.

Cavaliers wing Isaac Okoro (left knee soreness) is also looking like a good bet to play Game 1, according to an Associated Press report (link via ESPN). The third-year small forward last played on March 26, missing the final six games of the regular season with the injury.

Okoro practiced on Thursday, including taking some contact. He also got in some extra shooting, per The AP. Like Randle, Okoro is officially listed as questionable, tweets Kelsey Russo of The Athletic.

Cleveland’s top perimeter defender will likely have the difficult task of shadowing Knicks guard Jalen Brunson.

“It’s one of Isaac’s strengths defending a guy like that,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Obviously, Brunson is a heck of a player. He’s extremely talented and has proven to be clutch in the brightest moments, but those are the challenges that Isaac accepts and he loves.”

Atlantic Notes: Randle, Williams, Sixers Arena, Vaughn

April 13th, 2023 at 1:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Julius Randle participated in the Knicks’ practice on a limited basis once again on Thursday. He didn’t go through any contact, Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets, but he is running at full speed, Steve Popper of Newsday tweets.

“If he can go he’ll go. He’s a gamer.” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said in reference to Randle’s status for Game 1.

Randle sprained his left ankle on March 29. The Knicks and Cavaliers begin their first round series on Saturday.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Celtics forward Grant Williams is headed to restricted free agency but his mind is focused on the postseason, he told Sam Yip of HoopsHype in a wide-ranging interview. “For me, it’s always been about playing to the best ability that I can, and winning as many titles as I can while I’m here. So after that, whatever happens this free agency cycle, that’ll be determined this summer after hopefully, we got the ring in my hand,” Williams said. “So that’s the main priority. No. 1 is focused on getting this ring first.”
Philadelphia officials have announced “an independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the Sixers’ proposal to build a $1.3 billion sports arena next to the city’s Chinatown neighborhood, according to an Associated Press report. The proposal has drawn strong opposition from some Chinatown residents and leaders. Supporters say the proposed arena, to be based around public transit, would bring needed investment and development.
Sixers coach Doc Rivers feels that Nets coach Jacque Vaughn is more comfortable with Brooklyn’s current roster rather than dealing with the drama brought by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, according to Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post. “He has a new team, and I think he’s enjoying coaching this group more, because it’s none of that stuff anymore,” Rivers said. The Nets-Sixers series begins on Saturday.

Injury Updates: Randle, Middleton, House, Isaac

April 11th, 2023 at 10:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Julius Randle practiced on a limited basis on Tuesday, giving the Knicks hope that he might play this weekend against Cleveland, Zach Braziller of the New York Post reports. Randle sprained his left ankle on March 29.

“He did some [work in practice]. Making steady progress. Taking it day-to-day,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s doing some running, shooting, scripting, that sort of thing.”

We have more injury updates:

Khris Middleton was not a full participant during the Bucks’ practice session on Tuesday but they’re hopeful he’ll be ready to go by the end of the week, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Middleton tweaked his troublesome right knee last week. “He’ll do some individual work, get some weight room work and he’ll do more individual work (Wednesday) and then we’re anticipating and planning for him to practice on Thursday,” coach Mike Budenholzer said.
Sixers swingman Danuel House Jr. didn’t practice on Tuesday due to a sore foot, but head coach Doc Rivers expects him to be available for Game 1 against Brooklyn, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He hurt his foot in one of the (last) two games,” Rivers said. “But I think he will be OK.”
Magic big man Jonathan Isaac underwent season-ending adductor surgery in early March. He expects to be at full strength by training camp, Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel reports. “This is really going to be the first summer I have to fully work,” Isaac said. “Every other summer I’ve been rehabbing trying to get back on to the court. So I’ll be hopefully in the next few weeks be a full go. And doing everything I need to do to have a healthy next season.”

And-Ones: Jenkins, Rivers, Perry, Attendance, Incentives, More

April 11th, 2023 at 3:50pm CST by Luke Adams

Taylor Jenkins of the Grizzlies and Doc Rivers of the Sixers were named the NBA’s March/April Coaches of the Month for the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, respectively, the league announced today (via Twitter).

Jenkins’ 14-8 record in March and April was the West’s second-best mark behind the Lakers (14-6). The Grizzlies’ head coach perhaps earned extra marks for dealing with some Ja Morant-related drama and Brandon Clarke‘s season-ending injury during that time.

Meanwhile, no NBA team won more games in March and April than Rivers’ Sixers, who went 15-7 to lock up the No. 3 seed in the East.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Reggie Perry, a 2020 second-round pick who appeared in 36 games for the Nets, Trail Blazers, and Pacers from 2020-22, has signed with South Korea’s LG Sakers, the team announced on Instagram (hat tip to Sportando). Perry is headed overseas after spending most of the 2022/23 season with the Raptors 905 in the G League.
The NBA announced in a press release that the league set a new single-season record for total attendance in 2022/23, establishing new high water marks for both league-wide attendance (22,234,502) and average attendance per game (18,077). Both of those records were previously set in 2017/18.
In a pair of tweets, Bobby Marks of ESPN identifies several of the players who earned bonus money by achieving regular season incentives, led by Knicks forward Julius Randle ($2.4MM) and Celtics wing Jaylen Brown ($2.1MM)
Is the concept of “voter fatigue” a myth? For the most part, yes, as Howard Beck explains in an interesting piece for GQ Sports.
Agent Raymond Brothers – who represents Markelle Fultz, Immanuel Quickley, and Precious Achiuwa, among others – has left Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports and returned to his former agency, IAM Sports, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Brothers said in a statement that he holds Roc Nation in the “highest regard” and wishes them well.

Atlantic Notes: Randle, Maxey, Gray, Mazzulla

April 10th, 2023 at 11:08pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Injured All-Star Knicks power forward Julius Randle is now out of the protective walking boot he had worn since spraining his left ankle on March 29, writes Steve Popper of Newsday.

“Yeah, just the next step, following the protocol progression,” New York head coach Tom Thibodeau said of Randle’s departure from the boot. “So making good, steady progress.”

Popper notes that the team is hopeful Randle can return at some point during the postseason. The first game of the Knicks’ Eastern Conference quarterfinals matchup against the Cavaliers is scheduled for this Saturday.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey has had a 2022/23 season filled with peaks and valleys. At one point, he was demoted to a bench role in favor of De’Anthony Melton due to Melton’s defensive play. Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer unpacks how Maxey bounced back to once again becoming the team’s starting shooting guard. Maxey missed roughly six weeks of action due to fracturing a foot in November, and was relatively unaggressive upon his return. A pair of no-nonsense chats in February with All-NBA Philadelphia center Joel Embiid, who encouraged the third-year guard to look for his own shot more often, helped galvanize his resurgence. Maxey rejoined the club’s starting five on March 2. “I was just in a weird space mentally,” Maxey said of the slump. “Once I got out of that, I think I’ve helped us try to win games and came back to being myself. I feel like this was the same type of pace I was on at the beginning of the year, before I got hurt.”
The Nets’ new two-way signing, RaiQuan Gray, enjoyed a terrific debut game with Brooklyn on Sunday, scoring 16 points on 50% shooting, pulling down nine rebounds, dishing seven dimes and rejecting one shot. Net Income of Nets Daily unpacks potential next steps for the 23-year-old rookie. Net Income believes Brooklyn will extend a qualifying offer to Gray by the June 29 deadline and anticipates he will suit up for the team’s Summer League club in July.
First-year Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is looking forward to facing Boston’s playoff challenges head-on, writes Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. “Listen, you can’t run away from the fact that the playoffs have a different consequence,” Mazzulla told Bulpett. “But the bigger things are, the more simple they are. So my goals are to do the same things I’ve done all season — rely on my staff, rely on the players and rely on the experience that I’ve had, because I’ve worked for great people… Our locker room is really intact, and I think that’s just as important as anything else.”

New York Notes: Bridges, Knicks’ Future, Randle, Toppin

April 4th, 2023 at 7:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mikal Bridges outplayed Utah’s Lauri Markkanen, the favorite for the Most Improved Player award, in the Nets’ one-point win over the Jazz on Sunday. So why shouldn’t Bridges get consideration for the award? Brian Lewis of the New York Post makes that point.

Bridges has delivered 11 30-point games for the Nets, including three in his last four, after posting just two in 365 games before the Suns traded him. He was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday.

We have more on the New York teams:

The Knicks have exceeded expectations and their future is bright, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic. Jalen Brunson has been better than anyone anticipated, Julius Randle had a bounce-back campaign and some of their younger players have stepped up. They also have the means to get even better in the future, considering that no top-eight team in either conference has the surplus of first-round picks they do.
Is there a silver lining to Randle’s left ankle injury? Chris Herring of Sports Illustrated explores that topic and believes — assuming Randle can come back close to full strength once he’s reevaluated next week — it could be a blessing in disguise. In the midst of the Knicks’ current four-game winning streak, other players have filled the scoring void, including Josh Hart, Quentin Grimes, Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley. That should give Randle more trust in those players than he had in the offensively challenged group around him in the Knicks’ last playoff journey.
Speaking of Toppin, he could be auditioning for an extension this offseason while filling in for Randle, Jared Schwartz of the New York Post notes. He has scored 33 points in his first two starts this season. “Just playing to his strengths,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Every player has strengths, every player has weaknesses. Stay away from your weaknesses, play to your strengths, understand who you are playing with.”

Knicks Notes: Randle, Barrett, Resting Players, Postseason, Brunson

April 3rd, 2023 at 10:44pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Knicks have found tactical methods to survive without the services of shelved starting forwards Julius Randle and RJ Barrett, writes Petter Botte of The New York Post. Randle is done for the rest of the regular season with a left ankle sprain, while Barrett is dealing with a non-COVID illness.

In their most recent game Sunday night, the Knicks were able to beat the Wizards at home sans Randle or Barrett, 118-109, with a balanced offensive attack that featured four 20-point scorers.

“The ball was moving. We were just out there, just having fun, moving the ball and just playing freely,” Randle substitute Obi Toppin said. “It feels good, but I just got to come back here and do what I gotta do every single day to help the team win.”

There’s more out of Madison Square Garden:

The win against Washington officially allowed New York to clinch its second playoff berth in three seasons under head coach Tom Thibodeau, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “It’s a great accomplishment, because it’s one of the goals,” Thibodeau said. He also mentioned that he would not consider resting his top players until New York was officially locked into a seed in the East, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News (Twitter link). “There’s still some things at stake,” Thibodeau noted. At 46-33, the Knicks are currently three games behind the fourth-seeded Cavaliers and 2.5 games ahead of the sixth-seeded Nets, so they’ll likely finish at No. 5.
Bontemps adds that players are looking beyond just making the playoffs this year. “It’s a good accomplishment,” reserve wing Immanuel Quickley said. “But I think we want a bit more for ourselves.” As Bontemps writes, New York has only made it out of the first round once since 2000.
Knicks starting point guard Jalen Brunson is making a convincing push to secure Most Improve Player honors this season, thanks to his major contribution to the club’s on-court performance and his role as a team leader during his first year in New York, Bondy writes in another piece. “It’s a unique award,” Brunson told Bondy. “It’s not something I’m really focused on 100 percent. I don’t really think about it but if it’s something I win or achieve, I’ll be very thankful. But it’s not on the forefront of my mind.” The team has already improved its win-loss record by nine games, and still has three left to play. Brunson is having by far his best season as a pro statistically, averaging 24.0 PPG, 6.2 APG, 3.5 RPG, and 0.9 SPG in his 68 healthy games.

New York Notes: Toppin, Barrett, Claxton, Bridges, Simmons

April 1st, 2023 at 3:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Obi Toppin, who started in place of injured Julius Randle on Friday, had a heated exchange with RJ Barrett during the Knicks’ win over the Cavaliers on Friday night. However, the Knicks downplayed the incident afterward, Peter Botte of the New York Post reports.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau and his assistants had to keep Toppin away from Barrett during a third-quarter timeout. Toppin and Barrett hugged on the court shortly afterward.

“We’re brothers. And we’re good. We discussed it,” Toppin said.

We have more on the New York teams:

Nic Claxton signed a two-year, $17.25MM contract as a restricted free agent last summer. That contract is proving to be a bargain, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes. Claxton has started 72 games and leads the Nets in blocks and rebounds. Claxton hopes he remains with the franchise beyond next season. “It’s human nature. It’s just in our business, you never really know what’s going to happen as far as trades, contracts and everything,” Claxton said. “But I’ve been here four years, and Brooklyn has been a huge [time], played a huge role in my growth. And I would love to be here.”
Nets forward Mikal Bridges is on track to play 83 regular season games this season, something that hasn’t been done since Josh Smith played that many games for Houston and Detroit in 2014/15, Nick Friedell of ESPN notes. Nets GM Sean Marks is impressed by Bridges’ durability during a time when players are frequently rested. “You look at how he plays the game,” Marks said. “Obviously, when he was playing in Phoenix, even dating back to college days, the length, the reliability — he’s nearing 400 games played in a row, it’s pretty unique in this day and age. And for somebody who actually wants to play at that clip is also certainly refreshing.”
With Ben Simmons declared out for the season by the Nets, Lewis interviewed a number of medical experts and Simmons’ agent to determine whether he’ll be healthier next season (New York Post subscription required). Lewis also explored the question of whether Simmons might require surgery to resolve his back and knee issues.

Julius Randle To Miss At Least Two Weeks With Ankle Sprain

March 30th, 2023 at 5:28pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Knicks All-Star power forward Julius Randle will miss at least the next two weeks due to a left ankle sprain, the team has announced (Twitter link).

According to the Knicks, Randle will have the ankle reassessed in two weeks. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be ready to hit the floor at that juncture, just that New York could have a better sense of his recovery timeline.

Randle injured the ankle during the second quarter of an eventual 101-92 victory over the Heat Wednesday.

Needless to say, this serves as an incredibly inopportune time for New York to be without perhaps its best player. That will knock him out for the team’s final five games of the 2022/23 regular season. The NBA playoffs will begin two weeks from Saturday, on April 15.

At 44-33, New York is currently the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. Tim Bontemps of ESPN observes that the Knicks are just two wins away from clinching their second postseason appearance in three seasons under head coach Tom Thibodeau. As Ian Begley of SNY.tv tweets, New York is 2.5 games ahead of the No. 6-seeded Nets, and four games in front of the seventh-seeded Heat, so the club is a good bet to avoid the play-in.

Prior to the ankle injury, Randle had not missed a single game this season. In his 77 appearances, the 6’8″ forward averaged 25.1 PPG on .459/.343/.757 shooting splits. He also chipped in 10.0 RPG, 4.1 APG and 0.6 SPG. Randle seems to stand a pretty good chance of landing on his second All-NBA team in three seasons thanks to his consistency, health and team record.

As the East’s fifth seed, the Knicks are currently slated to square off against Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs. New York will face the Cavs, who have already clinched a playoff berth, on Friday.

Injury Updates: Randle, Clippers, Sixers, Wolves, Blazers

March 29th, 2023 at 9:11pm CST by Rory Maher

The Knicks received both good and bad news on Wednesday night versus Miami. The good news is point guard Jalen Brunson was able to play after missing the past two games with a sprained right hand, and the Knicks came away with an important victory (Twitter link via the team).

The bad news is power forward Julius Randle sprained his left ankle after landing on Bam Adebayo‘s foot following an offensive rebound (YouTube link), with Randle remaining on the floor for a while in pain. He stayed in the game to shoot free throws, but headed back to the locker room with a trainer.

Randle was able to limp off the floor on his own, but as soon as he was back in the team’s tunnel he was bent over in discomfort. The Knicks later ruled him out for the remainder of the contest (via Twitter).

Hopefully the injury isn’t severe, particularly so late in the season. Randle has appeared in all 77 games for the Knicks and was named to his second All-Star team last month.

Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was ruled out of Wednesday’s game in Memphis due to personal reasons, per Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter links). Head coach Tyronn Lue said the team is hopeful Leonard will only be out one game. On a positive note, Norman Powell was able to return to action after missing the past 11 games with a shoulder injury — he was previously listed as questionable.
Sixers stars Joel Embiid (calf soreness) and James Harden (Achilles soreness) were active for Wednesday’s game vs. Dallas, tweets Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN was the first to report the news (via Twitter). Embiid missed Monday’s loss in Denver with the injury, while Harden had missed four straight games.
The Timberwolves had several late additions to their injury report (Twitter link) ahead of tonight’s game in Phoenix. Kyle Anderson, Anthony Edwards, Taurean Prince, Austin Rivers and Matt Ryan are all dealing with an illness that head coach Chris Finch described as an “intestinal flu,” according to Chis Hine of The Star Tribune (Twitter link). Edwards and Anderson were able to suit up, but the Wolves later ruled out (via Twitter) the other three players as well as Jaylen Nowell, who continues to battle left knee tendinopathy.
In addition to four starters being held out with various injuries and surgeries sidelining a couple other players, the Trail Blazers added three young players to Wednesday’s injury report ahead of their matchup with Sacramento (Twitter link). Second-year guard Keon Johnson is out with a fractured right finger, while second-year big man Trendon Watford will miss his second straight game with a sprained right ankle. Fourth-year wing Cam Reddish is doubtful due to lumbar soreness.