Sam Navarro | USA TODAY Sports
'Trade Him!': Stephen A. Smith Calls For Knicks to End Julius Randle Era
Stephen A. Smith believes the New York Knicks can no longer handle Julius Randle.
The ESPN personality and Knicks critic/fan embarked upon one of his trademark high-volume rants on First Take after Randle's demeanor was one of the headlines after a 109-101 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. It was a defeat that put New York on the brink of oblivion, as they now trail 3-1 in the best-of-seven set.
Though Randle had 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, he was charged with six fouls and turnovers each. Randle's postgame comments also drew scrutiny, when he bluntly declared "maybe (the Heat) want it more."
Those factors were enough to convince Smith that Randle's New York tenure should end at four seasons after the Miami series, whose conclusion could come as soon as Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT).
"I think they should trade him," Smith said in a discussion with fellow panelist JJ Reddick and host Victoria Arlen. "From a talent perspective, particularly come playoff time, I'd rather have Karl-Anthony Towns than Julius Randle."
Smith suggests trading for either Towns or Damian Lillard to work alongside Jalen Brunson, whom many have seen as having had succeeded Randle as the Knicks' franchise face.
"Do you know what I'd give to get my hands on Damian Lillard at the Garden?" Smith rhetorically asks, having made his interest in the current Portland Trail Blazer quite apparent in the past. "It wouldn't have been a shot-making issue if he was on the court, I promise you that!"
Smith does give credit to Randle for being one of the more durable players in recent Knicks memory, having missed only 26 games over the past three seasons. But that's not enough to bring him back for a fifth year of service in Manhattan. This season was Randle's first on a four-year contract extension bestowed after his first All-Star campaign in 2021.
While he reverted back to All-Star form this time around, Randle has been chastised for failing to be a difference-maker in the postseason, having previously struggled in the Knicks' 2021 postseason cameo against Atlanta. New York was able to win a round this year, best Cleveland in five games, but Randle was dealing with the aftershocks of an ankle injury that cost him the final five games of the regular season. He was notably kept on the bench for the entire fourth quarter of a momentum-shifting Game 4 victory at MSG.
In eight appearances this postseason, Randle has averaged 15.9 points and 8.4 rebounds. While he's shooting slightly better (38 percent from the field compared to 30 percent), those are a drop from what he did in the five-game defeat at the hands of the Hawks during the shortened 2020-21 campaign.
Smith doesn't seem interested in any moral victories for the Knicks, calling a potential Miami victory on Wednesday the result of a "sweep" thanks to Jimmy Butler. New York's lone victory in the series to date came in Game 2, when the postseason superstar was nursing an ankle injury sustained toward the end of the opener. Reddick poured salt in the wound by claiming that Miami should've been favored in the series from the get-go despite their status as the eighth and final seed on the Eastern bracket.
"This is a great example of just classic Knick fan delusion," Reddick said. "This is a team that was 10-13 earlier in the season. They get the five seed, they beat the Cavs, who were the favored team in that series. They get to the second round, everybody's thinking conference finals or Finals. It's delusional!"
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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