According to NBA reporter Fred Katz of The Athletic, New York Knicks star Julius Randle is “pushing hard” to return from his dislocated right shoulder.
Randle suffered his injury on January 27 against the Miami Heat.
“Behind the scenes, Randle is pushing hard to return,” Katz wrote. “His pain tolerance is without question ‘insane,’ as one person close to him recently described it, but he’s human. Maybe Randle can fight through anguish, but maybe fighting through it still affects him.”
Randle is averaging 24.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 0.5 steals and 0.3 blocks this season while shooting 47.2% from the floor, 31.1% from beyond the arc and 78.1% from the free-throw line. He has 18 double-doubles and one triple-double.
The Knicks are 41-27 on the season. They are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings.
If Randle doesn’t return this season, the Knicks won’t compete for the 2024 championship. The lefty is one of the top players in the NBA. He has a plus-minus of +219 in 2023-24.
The 29-year-old Randle joined the Knicks in the summer of 2019. He’s averaging 22.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.3 blocks in a New York uniform.
Randle won the 2020-21 Most Improved Player of the Year Award. According to NBA insider Ian Begley of SNY, the Knicks are “optimistic” Randle will play again this season.
“I’ve heard during this period that there’s been some positive progression here during the rehab and I think that’s left people with even more reason to be optimistic that Randle will be back at some point this season,” Begley said. “I don’t know if they’re out of the woods yet, but certainly the progress that he has made over the last couple of weeks during this rehab stretch has left people excited about the possibility of him coming back.”
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