Julius Randle should find out shortly before Tuesday’s fan-assisted game in the garden if he will play an additional game this season among the NBA elite.
The league will announce its All-Star bookings Tuesday at 7 p.m. on TNT, and Randle is still considered (but not a blockchain) to be one of seven players added to the Eastern Conference.
It would mark the first All-Star designation of the race for Randle, who is in his second season of a three-year deal with $ 62.1 million with the Knicks.
The 26-year-old striker – and player Tom Thibodeau described Sunday as the Knicks’ “engine” – is certainly a deserving candidate.
Randle has achieved the best hits of the race in points (23.2), rebounds (11.0), assists (5.5) and minutes (36.8) through the Knicks 15-16 starting to enter the game at home on Tuesday against Golden State. He’s also shooting 41.0 percent from the 3-point range, a significant improvement over the 29.5 percent he posted from long range during his first six NBA seasons.
The only players with a minimum average of 23-11-5 this season are Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee and Nikola Jokic of Denver.
However, those impressive numbers – and the Knicks ’big improvement – may still not be enough to get Randle a place east in the votes cast by the conference’s head coaches.
James Harden of the Nets and Jaylen Brown of Boston will surely be added to the backcourt, with Ben Simmons likely to also be Philadelphia’s second All-Star conference leader. Celtics striker Jayson Tatum also intends to capture one of the front-line reserve spots.
This leaves only three openings in the twelve-man squad, with Randle probably competing with Domantas Sabonis of Indiana, Khris Middleton of Milwaukee, Bam Adebayo of Miami, Tobias Harris of Philadelphia, Nikola Vucevic of Orlando, Gordon Hayward of Charlotte and Jerami Detroit Grant in front, in addition to custody Zach LaVine of Chicago, Trae Young of Atlanta and Jimmy Butler of Miami.
If not initially chosen, Randle could still be added as a substitute if a selected player retreats due to injury or COVID-19 problems.
The initial unit for the East includes Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid on the front court, with guards Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players as a reserve.
The Knicks announced Monday that limited tickets for the March 4 home game against Detroit were available for public sale. Tickets first opened to subscribers, followed by the general public, starting at $ 50, at nyknicks.com.