The New York Knicks were able to advance to the second round of the NBA playoffs last season, and won two games in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals before being eliminated by the Miami Heat. It was the best finish by the team in 10 years, and there were reasons for optimism going forward despite the defeat.
Julius Randle Struggling For Knicks Through 6 Games
Julius Randle has the worst FG% through six games since 1959 (minimum 75 attempts).
He’s shooting 26-96 FG (27.1%) on the season 😬 pic.twitter.com/4p9p1SMdYN
— Basketball Forever (@bballforever_) November 6, 2023
There wasn’t a lot of optimism surrounding forward Julius Randle, though. He was the team’s leading scorer in the regular season, as he has been every year since 2019-20, and was named an All-Star and was given All-NBA Third Team honors. He finished the 2022-23 season averaging more points than Nikola Jokić, De’Aaron Fox, and Anthony Edwards.
Then the playoffs began, and Randle somehow shrunk when the lights shined the brightest. His scoring average dropped from 25.1 in the regular season to just 16.6 in the playoffs, and he shot an abysmal 37.4% from the field as a whole, and 25.8% from three point range specifically.
The Knicks brought back roughly the same set of characters as they had last season to start the 2023-24 campaign, and there were hopes that Randle’s playoff struggles were an aberration and not a sign of things to come.
This year has started off even worse. The Knicks are struggling out of the gate with a 2-4 record, and Randle may deserve a large portion of the blame for the slow start. His scoring average through six games is down to 13.7 points per game, which would be his lowest total since 2016-17, and his shooting percentage is historically bad.
Shooting Numbers Are Historically Bad
Julius Randle is shooting the worst FG% through 6 games of an NBA season since 1959, per @KnicksMuse.
Man oh man. pic.twitter.com/iNv8juHyuJ
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) November 5, 2023
Randle is making baskets at a 27.1% clip so far this year, which is the lowest mark in NBA history of any player that has taken 75+ shots over his team’s first six games.
It isn’t just the shooting percentage woes. Randle has been accused of showing a lack of effort on both sides of the floor, and is being called out in the media for the “selfish” basketball that he has been playing so far this year.
Julius Randle and the Knicks will take on the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday evening inside Madison Square Garden. Newly acquired James Harden is scheduled to make his debut for the visiting team, and they are favored by 1.5 points over New York.
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