Former Kentucky Wildcat Julius Randle has signed a controversial three year deal with the New York Knicks
About an hour and a half after the official opening of the 2019 NBA Free Agency window, our first former Cat found a new home…with the New York Knicks! Julius Randle, the heart and soul of Kentucky’s 2014 magical tournament run will finally earn his first big payday in the NBA, and he deserves every penny of it.
Per Woj:
Free agent Julius Randle has agreed to a three-year, $63M deal with the New York Knicks, CAA agents Aaron Mintz and Steve Heumann tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2019
Three years and 63 million dollars. Whew. Have a night, Julius, you deserve it. The 24-year-old power forward is coming off a career year with the New Orleans Pelicans, averaging 21.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Knicks owner Jim Dolan (a perpetual laughingstock) apparently values Randle over two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant, as it was reported that Dolan and the Knicks passed on the opportunity to sign Durant for the max. Julius Randle or Kevin Durant? It’s a highly competitive argument. Who to sign as your max free agent? The back-to-back champ and top-two player in the league or a double-double machine who backed up Nikola Mirotic for most of last season?
I’m joking, obviously.
New York balked on the Durant negotiations, BIG TIME. Jim Dolan is going to need a full SWAT team to protect himself tonight against what is sure to be an atomic onslaught from Knicks fans. If they get ahold of Dolan’s address, outraged New Yorkers (including Stephen A. Smith, who is screaming his face into multiple shades of blue right now on The Jump) are going to come after him like the army of the dead in Game of Thrones.
We all love Julius (yes?) but unfortunately, his addition will be anything but welcome in New York. The expectation for the Knicks in February was a summer haul of Zion Williamson, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving. They even shipped star big man Kristaps Porzingis out for pennies on the dollar over the winter all in an effort to create room for a duo of blue-chip free agents. Randle was not the ideal return, but he’s what New York is stuck with.
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Julius is going to kill it though. He improved each season he was in Los Angeles and he took a massive leap this past season in New Orleans in a dysfunctional situation. The situation in New York is, sigh, even more dysfunctional but that hasn’t stopped the freight train forward in the past. I don’t know much when it comes to the free agency flurry, but I know the Knicks landed someone who can score the basketball effectively and flat out beat the crap out forward foes. Knicks fans sure don’t know it but they got a good one in Julius.
Show some love to Julius down in the comments section below or on twitter @Wildcatbluenatn. I will attempt to keep the updates coming on the former Cats. Stay Tuned.