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Julius Randle
A tepid free agent market in 2025 will likely force The New York Knicks“three-time All-Star forward Julius Randle to pick up his player option after this season, Spotrac salary cap expert Keith Smith predicted.
“I think the player option for the 2025-26 season is a pretty safe bet. [Randle] he’s choosing this simply because it doesn’t look like a good free agent deal for teams that have salary cap space next summer,” Smith said on the “NBA Front Office” podcast on Aug. 21:“It’s not that you couldn’t still negotiate a trade or something like that, but I think he probably will. So if you’re the Knicks, it’s kind of a wait-and-see approach, and if you’re Randle, you’re probably OK with that, too.”
The teams that should have the most room to maneuver next summer are the Brooklyn Nets ($49.5 million), Houston Rockets ($30.6 million), the Washington Wizards ($25.2 million) and the San Antonio Spurs ($23.2 million), Smith projected.
Randle is eligible to sign up to a four-year, $181.5 million extension, effective Aug. 3.
However, the Knicks have yet to extend Randle, which comes as a surprise after giving OG Anunoby a fee five-year contract worth $212.5 million and re-signed their All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson at its maximum four-year extension, worth $156.5 million. Although Brunson’s contract extension is $113 million less than what he could have received next summer if he had waited one more season.
SNY’s Ian Begley reported on July 7 that “extension discussions are not at the forefront for either the Knicks or Randle.”
From Face of Knicks Rebuild to ‘Centerpiece’
Once the face of New York’s rebuild, Randle has been largely overshadowed by Brunson’s rise to MVP-caliber status over the past two seasons.
Randle had to adapt his game to accommodate Brunson, who is now arguably the face of the franchise. The Knicks cemented that position by naming Brunson team captain, something Randle was never granted, even after he was named an NBA All-Star and All-NBA forward while leading them to end their eight-year playoff drought in 2021.
Smith considers Brunson, Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, for whom the Knicks traded four unprotected picks and one protected pick among the top four, as the “real building blocks” of the team.
“Randle kind of becomes the centerpiece,” Smith said. “If he comes back and fits in with those three guys and then Mitchell Robinson or whoever else is at center, you’ll probably feel pretty good about keeping Randle and re-signing him.”
If Randle doesn’t fit in or things seem a little weird, that’s probably when you think, “Okay, let’s do it!” [make him] a trade or let things play out as they should and we’ll see where it takes us in a year or two.
Julius Randle’s Commercial Value
The problem for the Knicks is that they won’t get maximum value for Randle on the trade market, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic.
“Here’s what makes discussing a Randle trade so difficult: I don’t think there’s a team in the NBA that would value the three-time All-Star more than the Knicks.
I texted this question to someone who works in a rival team’s office and got the response I expected: “Neutral, at best,” he said. Katz wrote in his mailbag on August 21.
There is optimism about Randle’s health, as illustrated by the Knicks’ 12-2 January streak with him, Anunoby and Brunson healthy. But adding Bridges to the mix will require another adjustment.
Alder Almo is a basketball journalist who covers the NBA for Heavy.com. He has over 15 years of experience in local and international media, including broadcast, print and digital. He previously covered the Knicks for Empire Sports Media and the NBA for Off the Glass. Alder is originally from the Philippines and is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Learn more about Alder Almo
