Why Knicks players are ranked so poorly in NBA top player lists
In the lull of the NBA offseason, it can be difficult for the media machine to fill the airtime and column inches with little actual news happening. Instead, we get our usual recycled fodder of regurgitated rumors, ridiculous hot takes and, of course, player rankings.
Ordering every athlete in the world’s best basketball league from the top down will naturally cause a stir, but without fail, members of the Knicks are repeatedly overlooked and underappreciated. Specifically, Julius Randle is constantly treated worlds apart from his actual production, and the latest turn is no exception.
CBS Sports put out their player rankings recently, listing their top 100 players in terms of how well they’re expected to perform in 2023-24. Randle finished at 59th, below Jalen Brunson at 27th and ahead of RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley in the high 80s.
While past performance isn’t indicative of future events, and some of these rankings are debatable, Randle finishing outside the top 50 is borderline outlandish. The Action Network did their own, ranking him 43rd in the league, and generously opening his case with “he does stuff.”
At least they provided a rubric, including regular season performance, playoff impact on winning, availability, age impact on expected improvement/decline and liabilities. We’ll dive into these individually, but Randle’s been one of the most available and high-performing regular season players in the league and is in the smack of his prime.
Just listing the names ahead of him, without knocking their games, invalidates these rankings. CBS slated Victor Wembanyama, a rookie, Marcus Smart, a role player and Kristaps Porzingis, an inferior and oft-injured big, over Randle.
Action Network put Cameron Johnson, a nice complimentary piece, Fred VanVleet, a low-efficiency producer, and Lauri Markkanen, who trails Randle in versatility and winning impact, ahead of the Knicks' big. Perhaps we need a reminder of what kind of player Randle is.
Over the last three seasons, Randle’s averaged 23.2 points, 10 rebounds and 5.1 assists, shooting 49 percent from two and 35 percent from three. Never mind only 14 other players have put up those counting stats over a whole season, but Randle has been consistently at that production for three years running.
This past season Randle hit a career-high 25.1 points a night, with a career-high in percentage of looks from the three and free throw line, resulting in his best true shooting percentage since he became a Knick. This while consistently being available and assuming a massive load.
Randle was the star of the 2020-21 season, leading New York to a fourth-seed finish. After a rough follow-up, he had a stronger co-star in 2023 but was still crucial to the Knicks’ regular season and second-round playoff finish.
Hard to say he doesn’t have a winning impact given the Knicks haven’t found this postseason success in the decade before he showed up. While Brunson deserves much of the credit for 2023, Randle played in nine more games, solidifying New York’s seeding late in the season and fighting through separate ankle injuries to compete in the playoffs.
There’s plenty to gripe about Randle as well, no player is perfect. His defensive effort tends to fluctuate and he can lose his head in moments, not to mention attempt poor shots and sit in the mid-post long past decision time.
These are largely circumstantial, with the biggest complaint being Randle’s playoff performances. His 2021 appearance as the focal point of the Knicks offense was a disaster, and 2023’s injury-plagued run had its lows but also featured three solid outings against a Finals-bound Miami Heat team on one ankle.
While the playoffs are a concern, they can’t eliminate the rest of his production when grading him against his peers. Few of which have seen the postseason success he has, putting up the numbers he put up, in the dominant fashion he can do it.
Maybe it will take yet another All-NBA season to position Randle rightfully ahead of, at the very least, second and third options on teams. In truth, he belongs much closer to Brunson, given his unique ability to do everything asked of him consistently through an 82-game regular season.
