There wasn’t much debate about whether Julius Randle would come back down to Earth. It seemed more a matter of when.
After Randle’s brilliant 2020-21 season — career highs in scoring, assists and 3-point accuracy, and All-Star and All-NBA selections for leading the Knicks to a surprise No. 4 playoff seed — reached an unceremonious conclusion at the hands of the Hawks, it felt likely the “upward trajectory” portion of his story was over. Fairy tales end; guys who win Most Improved Player in Year 7 don’t tend to keep getting better. The only question, once Randle reached that peak, was just how much it’d hurt when he landed back in the valley.
A lot, it turns out.
Randle’s stats remained strong last season: He was one of only four players to average at least 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists per game, joining three of the top-five finishers in MVP voting. But both his shot and his defensive effort fell off a cliff, and the Knicks fell back below .500 and missed the playoffs. All the good vibes of his surprising emergence as the heart of a reborn Knicks team dissipated in a hail of clanged jumpers, declined comments and thumbs pointed straight to hell.
As a result, Randle entered this season in an interesting position. He was still New York’s No. 1 option, after Leon Rose’s well-chronicled pursuit of Donovan Mitchell ended up with the Utah All-Star in Cleveland. But he needed to revamp his game and rehabilitate his image, lest the toxicity fester further and the league start viewing him primarily as a negative-value nine-figure contract attached to a player who doesn’t help you win.
Changing can be hard; sometimes, we all need a little help. Randle has done his part to shift the storyline, averaging 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists per game to help pace the Knicks to a 3-1 start after they held on for a 134-131 overtime win over the Hornets on Wednesday. Part of the credit for that fast start, though, belongs to the arrival of Jalen Brunson, a new table-setting running buddy with the game and the clout to help nudge Randle away from his worse tendencies.
After spending most of the past two seasons dominating the ball for teams that had few reliable shot-creating options, Randle’s usage rate, time of possession, touches, dribbles per touch and seconds per touch are all down. He averaged two pull-up 3-point attempts per game last season, despite missing two-thirds of those tries; he has taken just three in…