The Julius Randle Experience is not getting any better this season for fans of the New York Knicks.
Randle and the Knicks had a brutal loss at home to the rival Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. After leading by as many as 23 points during the first half, the Knicks melted down completely, getting outscored 32-10 in the third quarter and eventually losing to the Hawks 112-99.
When asked by reporters after the game what went wrong in the second half, a nonchalant and seemingly disinterested Randle said simply, “I just gotta look at the tape,” and left it at that.
Randle received a lot of criticism for that response, as it was not the one that fans wanted to hear from the team’s supposed leader. The former All-Star big man failed to take any accountability for the Knicks’ collapse against Atlanta and sounded dismissive at best with that answer.
The 27-year-old Randle’s numbers this season (17.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game) still look good on the surface. But he has fallen back into some old bad habits with poor shot selection, overdribbling and nuking the offensive flow by holding onto the ball for too long. Randle has also displayed little chemistry with $104 million signing Jalen Brunson.
Granted, Randle just began a new four-year, $117 million extension of his own. But the attitude issues that plagued Randle last year are once again manifesting themselves in the early stages of this season.
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