From Woj:
After two months of rehabilitation to attempt a return to the New York Knicks, All-NBA forward Julius Randle will undergo season-ending right shoulder surgery, the team announced Thursday.
Randle, who has been out since dislocating his shoulder on Jan. 27, had been relentlessly rehabilitating to resume playing prior to the Eastern Conference playoffs. Doctors warned him recently that continued instability in the shoulder made it unsafe for him to play again this season, sources told ESPN.
He had done everything possible to avoid surgery and return for the playoffs. However, the procedure became an increasing inevitability after recent visits to two specialists who warned of further injury and possible permanent damage to the shoulder if he returned to play before a surgical procedure, sources said.
It’s brutal, because Randle and the Knicks absolutely handled this the correct way, it’s just the fact that the correct way often results in this exact scenario – that you lose months to “rehab” before you end up having to get the surgery anyways (there are many examples of this with injuries to elbows in baseball, where a guy will take a few months off trying to avoid Tommy John Surgery…and then get Tommy John Surgery).
This is such a tricky surgery, but hopefully everything works out well for him, and he returns healthy in time for next season. He is to be reevaluated five months after the surgery, which sounds kind of ominous, but it’s probably a pretty standard thing (as you need X amount of time to heal from the surgery before you can test the shoulder). There’s no reason that this surgery shouldn’t be a success, but boy, it’s still sad to see Randle miss the playoffs.
I think the Knicks with OG are still a dangerous, dangerous team, but, well, I dunno OG’s deal, either.
49 replies on “ESPN.com: Knicks’ Julius Randle to have season-ending shoulder surgery”
If we play the Heat in the playoffs, Jaquez’ reception will make the Trae Young stuff look downright affectionate.
Get OG back and shock these losers after Kristaps gets hurt again too
As long as we have OG, I just want Julius to get back to his normal self. This is OK. But only because, had he come back and re-injured it, it would be a LONG time before we see anything close to normal Ju. Don’t get me wrong- I’m disappointed. But I want him healthy. While it’s not the typical “Big 3”, the combination of Randle, Anunoby, and Brunson look really good- especially with DiVincenzo and Hartenstein or Mitch flanking them. They just fit, so I’d rather get the real Randle back as opposed to a facsimile. If OG can come back in time for the playoffs and Bogdanovic can find his rhythm, we can still make a run in the playoffs. So..CMON OG’S ELBOW! I’M ROOTING FOR YOU, KID! LOL
Jokes aside..Thibs now need to figure out his starting PF moving forward. As I said a few threads ago- with Mitch back, he can start Achiuwa. But, Bogdanovic starting at PF whether Hart or Anunoby is next to him really intrigues me. And he doesn’t necessarily have to play 32 minutes because we’d have Achiuwa to bring in if Bogey’s not being physical or active enough on defense. Nevertheless, here is where we find out what team we’re gonna be. Thibs’ rotation with Randle out indicated he was just waiting on him to return. Now we don’t have to be that team- if we use Bogdanovic. That’s an entirely new wrinkle to throw at teams in the playoffs. Or we can stick with size and power and start Achiuwa. I think either way will work, but Thibs has to get Bogey goin now.
This was starting to seem more likely lately. Hopefully he has the surgery very soon so he can begin rehab and get back to 100% for the start of next season.
I think this makes rushing OG back less urgent.
I think we should start discussing the draft, who we can get for backup PG and whether we can find an upgrade for DDV at SG and turn him into our Quickley replacement as 6th man scorer off the bench instead.
We need a backup PG, but I’m always skeptical of rookie PGs especially when we’re competing now. At minimum we need an emergency vet PG.
We could also use more length on the wing, some shot creation, and any semblance of production off the bench.
We should make at least 2 picks, but 3 would be better.
There aren’t going to be a ton of upgrades at SG over Donte at this point. I don’t know if he really brings enough creation to float the 2nd unit, but he’s a great off-ball 3rd option.
Gimme Spida next season. Or at least use the draft picks on players. No more punting. Shit or get off the pot.
What would the trade for Mitchell even look like? Randle out, but coming off an Injury he will not have much value and the Cavs already have Mobley at the 4. Randle and Donte work in the trade Machine.
My feeling is Cleveland is not going to move Mitchell until the deadline next year if at all, they’ll try a new coach and probably trading one of their bigs first.
This also works
Randle and Josh Hart
For
Mitchell, Dean Wade and Ty Jerome
Keeping the 19th pick in the 2021 draft and picking Jalen Johnson wouldn’t look so bad right now.
https://www.tankathon.com/mock_draft looking at this, some names that could be play
Tyler Smith
Bobi Klintman
Tristan da Silva
Fuck any mock drafts, this ain’t the time for that! Still hoping and rooting for a 2nd rd series vs Boston or Milwaukee.
So when is the Woj bomb about OG being out for the playoffs coming? I predict right after the Boston game.
Taking Jokic instead of Cleanthony Early at 34 would have been better š
Mets fire sale please
It’s self-masochistic to watch them and they’re getting good enough starting pitching to win. Their hitting sucks and waiting for JD Martinez is the same as Godot as far as a significant catalyst.
Well at least we’re not Mets fans
I think a lot of us are reasonably optimistic if OG returns, but there’s not much else to talk about right now. We pretty much know how we look without Randle and our high-end outcome just got lower.
We’ve got 3 picks and wish casting is fun even though there’s like a 70% chance we punt on all the picks or move them for somebody we should’ve acquired this past deadline.
Nicely done, Doogie!
Nimmo, Lindor and McNeil are like 1 for 100 combined
Are you riding a horse at Gulfstream today? š
Sign Dennis Smith Jr for either the taxpayer MLE or the biannual exception, then draft Tyler Kolek for 3rd string PG and develop him slowly.
Leon’s been on fire since the summer of 2023, but the team he could have assembled just by drafting the BPA is still better than the team we have right now.
Game 2 of the Mets doubleheader. They have four automatic outs in the lineup plus Brandon Nimmo and his .045 OPS and Francisco Lindor who is at a scorching .050.
Itās the fourth inning and theyāre 0-9 as a team
But this is true for every GM. Every team would be better if that team’s GM picked the best player available.
Imagine if Cleveland picked Hali instead of Okoro, OKC drafted Maxey or IQ instead of Poku, Boston kept Bane instead of selling him for two 2nds, or the Spurs drafted Jalen to pair with Wemby.
This isn’t a criticism unique to Rose.
Reading Metsblogger is even more depressing than even my darkest post. š
Re-posting from the other thread thread:
You’re one of the sunny guys today! š
Not every GM punts entire drafts like Leon does in return for a bunch of crappy protected picks.
It would be cool if there was one big leon incinerated that draft pick thread where the people who like to endlessly fight about that can go
What draft pick? Will someone remind me? š
Very curious to know the mood inside OGās camp. Does he/they even want to play, want to shut it down, etc. as it pertains to contract.
EDIT: Likewise iHart.
Lets put it right next to the “Thibs caused all our injuries” thread
Finally a somewhat positive update from Thibs on OG.
https://x.com/fredkatz/status/1776006444002762997?s=46&t=lSgB_Y82ThYZg2DjRoVHNA
Optimistic notes on OG today. If he can make it back, what better way to prove heās worth the massive contract heāll get regardless than to take on some extra usage?
Tom Thibodeau:
“Rumors about the medical staff’s intention of maiming his arm are exaggerated, so he’s doing very well”.”
That is definitely good news about OG. All they need is OG to be really dangerous in the playoffs. OG transforms this team in such a major way. If good play is a flame, OG is the accelerant.
āThe elbow transplant from donor Jayden Daniels is healing nicely, but OG is not ready to throw long just yet.ā
With OG and Mitch we do at least have some equity on a Ewing Theory run.
I kinda secretly think JB/Deuce/DDV/OG/iHart might be one of our best 5-man lineups.
It’s still probably fatal that we have the worst backup PG in NBA history. Who knows, maybe Burks has been playing some sort of long-term TikTok prank.
Youāre talking of the BPA in hindsight.
I hold him to a much lower standard. Like have you ever done a fantasy draft and one guy doesnāt show up bc he got stuck late at work, so the computer just autoselects the highest ranked player for him every time?
If Leon didnāt show up to any of the drafts, and a bot did all the picks just by taking the top ranked prospect, weād have added Halliburton, Bane, Tillman, Jalen Johnson, Keon Johnson, Sharife Cooper, and Jalen Duren.
OG missed the TOR title run with an injury, so maybe now he leads us to the promised land while Randle misses out. OPTIMISM
(Bummed for Ju)
Are you taking kickbacks from Big Buzzkill š
There is no consensus objective pre-draft ranking of players
LOL! For the record, itās not me either. Thereās more european Knicks fans than Max and me. š
OG is cleared for contact and is practicing. So hopefully a couple more games.
Some good news finally.
Sounds like Randle started taking contact a few weeks ago and reinjured the shoulder.
Itās really weird how the Knicks flat out lie about injuries. What is even the point?
this was begley in late march:
Julius Randle is feeling good but hasnāt been cleared yet for full contact, Tom Thibodeau says. Randleās been doing controlled contact but hasnāt been taking live contact. Randle has been in this stage of rehab for a few weeks. Thibodeau says Randle hasnāt had setback.
It can be hard to tell if the Knicks are objectively weird about injuries or if we just follow their injury spin more closely than we do any other team’s, but this cuts squarely in the “they’re objectively weird about injuries” direction.
Itās Schrodingerās Shoulder
In full contact sessions and also not