Another year, another rough offseason for the New York Knicks.
After striking out on all of the big-name free agents, including the two players they'd been targeting for months -- Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving -- to their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Nets, the Knicks finally made their first offseason move by agreeing to a three-year, $63 million contract with Julius Randle, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
The final year of the deal is a team option year.
The three-year, $63 million deal Julius Randle agreed to with the New York Knicks contains a team option on the final year, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 30, 2019
Let's make one thing clear -- Randle is one heck of a player and is clearly on the upside of his career. The 24-year-old is not even in his prime yet and is coming off a stellar season with the New Orleans Pelicans in which he averaged 21.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists in just 30.6 minutes per game on 52.4 percent from the field and a career-high 34.4 percent from beyond the arc.
In other words, despite starting just 49 games and not seeing as many minutes as he could have on another squad with less depth, Randle's per-36 numbers equate to 25.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. Those are not only All-Star numbers, that would put him in elite company -- just two players, MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and All-Star Joel Embiid -- put up those types of numbers during the 2018-19 season.
But let's keep this in context -- the Knicks, who had the second-most cap space entering the offseason at just a shade under $60 million, missed out on both Durant and Irving and ended up with Randle as their big free-agent signing.
Considering the Knicks are arguably the most dysfunctional franchise in all of the NBA with one of the most-criticized owners in James Dolan, this is simply not a good look. Furthermore, it's extremely frustrating for a fan base that hasn't seen their team make the playoffs since the 2012-13 season. They've been forced to endure years of drama between star players and the front office -- witnessing Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis exit the Big Apple on bad terms in recent years.
The dysfunction of the Knicks franchise was topped off by this report by ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, who cites that the Knicks and Dolan were unwilling to offer Durant the max contract because of concern over his recent Achilles injury -- although every other team that was interested in Durant showed no signs of such fear.
The Knicks and owner Jim Dolan were not prepared to offer Kevin Durant a full max contract due to concerns over his recovery from the Achilles injury, league sources tell me and @wojespn. Knicks officials are in Los Angeles tonight, meeting with free agents such as Julius Randle.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 30, 2019
We're not even several hours into free agency and the Knicks can already be considered the major loser of the 2019 free agency period.
