Julius Randle should find out shortly before Tuesday’s fan match in the Garden whether he will play an extra match among the NBA elite this season.
The league announces its All-Star reserves on TNT on Tuesday at 19:00, and Randle continues to consider – but is no lock – to be one of the seven players of the Eastern Conference.
It would be the first All-Star career spotlight for Randle, who is in his second season of a $ 62.1 million three-year deal with the Knicks.
The 26-year-old power forward – and player Tom Thibodeau described Sunday as the Knicks’ ‘engine’ – is definitely a deserving candidate.
Randle had the best careers in points (23.2), rebounds (11.0), assists (5.5) and minutes (36.8) by starting the Knicks 15-16 Tuesday’s home game against Golden State. He also shoots 41.0 percent from the 3-point range, a significant improvement from the 29.5 percent he posted from long distance during the first six NBA seasons.
The only other players to average 23-11-5 this season are Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
However, the impressive numbers – and the tremendous improvement of the Knicks – are still not enough to give Randle a place in the East in the vote being held by the conference’s head coaches.
The James Narden and Jaylen Brown of the Nets will definitely be added in the backfield, and Ben Simmons will likely also be named second All-Star for the conference leader in Philadelphia. Celtics forward Jayson Tatum also plans to get one of the reserve spots.
That leaves just three openings in the 12-man squad, where Randle is likely to compete with Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis, Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Philadelphia’s Tobias Harris, Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic, Charlotte’s Gordon Hayward and Detroit’s Jerami Grant from the front, as well as, as well as guard Zach LaVine from Chicago, Trae Young from Atlanta and Jimmy Butler from Miami.
If not selected initially, Randle could still be added as a replacement due to injury or COVID-19 issues.
In the front unit for the East are Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid in the front yard, with guards Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal. Coaches may not vote for their own players as reserves.
The Knicks announced Monday that limited tickets for the home game on March 4 against Detroit are available for public sale. Tickets were first open to season ticket holders, followed by the general public, starting at $ 50, at nyknicks.com.