'They'll Fall' New York Knicks' Julius Randle Hasn't Lost Confidence Despite Early Struggles

The New York Knicks have struggled to pick up where they left off from last season: burdened with expanded expectations after their most successful outing in a decade, New York has dropped two of its first three games, the most recent being a 96-87 defeat to New Orleans on Saturday that was not as close as the final score indicated.

Those early struggles can't be attributed to just one player but attention will certainly turn to the team's stars, namely Jalen Brunson and All-Star Julius Randle. Both Brunson and Randle played to the standard established last season in the team's Friday win over the Atlanta Hawks: the latter had 17 points and finished just one assist away from a triple-double while the point guard Brunson set a career-best in three-pointers, hitting eight of the Knicks' 20 in a 126-120 victory.

Randle has shot a well-below-average 27.7 percent from the field over the Knicks' first three games (including 6-of-20 from three-point range), creating some understandable concern despite dishing 20 assists.

In the face of adversity, the early struggles don't seem to have rattled Randle's early confidence, as he vowed to keep shooting as the Knicks prepared to close a three-game road trip in Cleveland on Tuesday night (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG/TNT).

“I’ve just got to continue to get better. I’ve just got to make shots,” Randle said per Peer Botte of the New York Post. “I’ve got to look at the tape, but I’ve just got to make shots. They’ll fall.”

The Knicks perhaps also hope Randle takes better care of the ball: he lost eight in the loss to New Orleans, one short of his career-worst.

But in addition to keeping his own self-belief up, Randle also doesn't appear to have lost his teammates' trust. Brunson has his own game to work on (shooting just over 37 percent in the first three) but offered a vote of confidence to Randle in Botte's report.

“He’s being aggressive. He’s attacking," Brunson said. “As a group, we need to be better. But we’ve got to help each other be better. It can’t just be like ‘I have to be better’ or ‘He has to be better.’ How can we collectively help each other? Julius is going to command attention, so we need to help him out a little bit."