“You need to get them back as soon as possible.” » said Perry. “To start this season, Julius Randle had missed the entire offseason due to ankle surgery and we saw how long it took him to come back, get acclimated to the start of the season. There was calls for him to be traded because he started so slowly.”
Getting back to Perry’s point, Randle drew boos for a slow start to the season while working on the procedure, a procedure that saw him shoot less than 28 percent from the floor through his first six games. The injury in question was an ankle injury suffered in one of the final five games of last regular season.
Perry noted that while Randle was able to return, he was clearly lacking some levels in the postseason, where he averaged fewer than 20 points and shot just 28 percent from three during the six-game ouster of the Knicks against the Miami Heat.
“He got hurt in the last five games of the regular season after having a fantastic regular season, and he struggled in the playoffs because he could never get his rhythm back,” Perry said . “That’s going to be the key here for the Knicks, having him come back (quickly).”
There appears to be light at the end of the Knicks tunnel: Anunoby and Randle are closing in on their respective returns and there is hope that Mitchell Robinson, whose December ankle injury sparked this assault, can return on the field by the end of the season. However, if/when they finally come, there will be questions about team chemistry, especially if they return in the shadow of the playoff sunrise.
So how many games will it take for the new-look New York to get used to each other? Perry hypothesized “a minimum of 10.”
“It allows new acquisitions like Burks and Bogdanovic to move forward and figure out how they’re going to fit in,” Perry said. “Then (head coach Tom Thibodeau) has to figure it all out in terms of minutes.”
The Knicks’ 73rd game of the season is March 29…in just over three weeks…when they take on the San Antonio Spurs on the road, but the team has more pressing issues before they reach this milestone.
New York has a vital three-game homestand to contend with, as the fourth-place Orlando Magic visit Friday night (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG) before suffering back-to-back visits from the Philadelphia 76ers that lead to their annual road trip to host the Big East men’s basketball tournament’s descent to Madison Square Garden. Orlando, New York and Philadelphia, fourth, fifth and seventh in the East, respectively, are separated by 1.5 games heading into Thursday night’s game.
