A few Knicks notes as the club enters Wednesday’s game at the Dallas Mavericks...
AGGRESSIVE RANDLE
Julius Randle set a season-high in 3-point attempts during his career-high 46-point night against the Sacramento Kings.
Knicks Notes: Julius Randle's big night; scouts on RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley's development
Randle scored a career-high 46 points against the Kings on Monday night
The Knicks forward took 16 threes against the Kings, hitting eight of them.
His previous high for 3-point attempts in a game was 10. Last season, it was 13.
In the nine games prior to Tuesday’s win, Randle averaged 3.7 3-point attempts per game.
On Tuesday, he missed four of his first five attempts from beyond the arc. So why did he keep letting them fly on Tuesday?
"I’m not second-guessing myself. Just going out there playing, and if it’s the open shot, it’s the right shot," Randle told MSG Network’s Mike Breen and Walt 'Clyde' Frazier in an on-court interview after the game. "Sometimes I get myself in trouble where I try to make things a little easier, be a little more aggressive and get to the rim sometimes."
Randle said that approach can lead to his "turnovers" or cause him to "force tougher shots."
The 2021 All-NBA player said that his mindset going into the Mavs game is simple:
"Open shot, shoot it, in my mind. Miss them, make them. I’m just going to be aggressive regardless."
On the season, Randle is shooting 31 percent from beyond the arc. That’s 10 percent lower than last year’s 3-point percentage. His two-point field-goal percentage is mostly consistent with last season’s rate. He’s shooting 76 percent on free throws this season after hitting 81 percent last year.
BARRETT ELEVATING PLAY
It was overshadowed by Randle’s big night, but RJ Barrett had a very strong game against Sacramento. He finished with 29 points on 11-of-21 shooting and added eight rebounds and six assists. That well-rounded performance has become the standard for Barrett of late.
In his last nine games, Barrett is averaging 27 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.8 assists.
Other teams see Barrett making quick decisions with the ball in his hands and eluding defenders in ways they hadn’t seen in Barrett’s first two seasons in the league.
"It’s the decisiveness for me," one Western Conference scout said.
The scout also has been impressed by Immanuel Quickley.
"It looked like his (season) was going to a bad place. From my seat, he looked unfazed on the court. You couldn’t tell that he was struggling. That’s not easy for a young player."
In his last seven games, Quickley is averaging 17 points, 5.4 rebounds, and three assists. He’s hitting 48 percent of his threes in that span.
In a vacuum, this is all good news for the Knicks. It’s always great when your players succeed and you win games. But if you’re looking at things in the bigger picture, it’s a little more nuanced.
Monday’s win leaves the Knicks 4.5 games behind 10th place in the East with 17 games to play. New York hasn’t had enough sustained success this season to give you a reason to think they can make the climb to 10th. But they are close enough to continue to give it a try.
Based on what we’ve seen from the organization and Tom Thibodeau so far, it’s fair to assume that New York isn’t yet at the point where they’d bench veterans like Evan Fournier and Alec Burks in favor of playing young players exclusively.
Injuries have given younger Knicks opportunities to play.
In Sunday’s win over the Clippers in Los Angeles, the four-man lineup of Miles McBride, Cam Reddish, Barrett, and Quickley dominated the game. With those four on the floor, New York outscored the Clippers by 30 points. They were on the court for roughly 12 minutes.
Would we have seen that foursome on the court for 12 minutes if Derrick Rose and Nerlens Noel were healthy? It’s impossible to know that with any certainty. But based on how the Knicks and Thibodeau have allocated minutes this season, it seems unlikely.
