September P&T mailbag: Randle’s role, Hart vs. DiVincenzo & finding hope when there is none

See you when we see you, Mitch baby

It’s the last week of September. The Yankees are playoff-bound; the Mets may be, too. The Jets are 2-1 and even the Giants joined the winner’s circle after beating the serial rapist. On top of that, Criminal Mayor Eric Adams and his house of clown cards collapses more and more every day. When the Knicks kick off media day and training camp next week, they’ll do so in about as positive a context as New York has known in a long time. Let us tithe our warm little mailbag to this season of light.

“Considering this report, curious what the ‘ideal’ Randle role would look like considering the construction of the roster around him. A player playstyle comp would be a fun addition as well.”

— Spike Lee’s Joint

There seems to be a lot of nervousness, even anxiety among the fan base regarding how Randle will approach next season, his last guaranteed year under contract (he holds a player option for a hair under $31 milliion for 2025-26). While no one knows what tomorrow may bring, a few stats may help settle the nerves of those who fear Randle going mad with power and hijacking the offense and the season.

Randle’s NBA career has seen enough change year to year to dizzy Heraclitus. He played 14 minutes as a rookie before breaking his leg and missing the rest of that season, returned the next year as a starter during the Kobe Bryant Farewell Tour, remained a starter in 2016-17, came off the bench the first half of 2017-18, spent a year with the Pelicans amd then came to the Knicks, which began with the David Fizdale/Mike Miller “Weekend Dads” experience, followed by one year as the main attraction under Tom Thibodeau, then one year featuring RJ Barrett, Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker as co-pilots, then one acclimating to Jalen Brunson and finally last season, which ended shortly into acclimating to OG Anunoby thanks to a separated shoulder. That’s a lot of turmoil!

But as Randle’s grown from a 24-year-old third option in New Orleans to a 29-year-old multiple All-Star/All-NBAer with New York, he’s been remarkably consistent as far as his demands. I looked up his shot attempts per 36 minutes since leaving L.A., using that particular stat to account for disparities in his role and playing time those years (averaging between 30-38 minutes per game). Here’s Randle’s shots per 36 those six seasons:

2019 17.6
2020 17.4
2021 17.8
2022 17.6
2023 18.8
2024 18.5

These are his usage rates those years (the percentage of his team’s possessions ending with him shooting a field goal or a free throw, or turning the ball over):

2019 27.8
2020 27.6
2021 29.3
2022 28.7
2023 29.5
2024 29.9

Ironic, huh? Randle’s numbers stayed essentially the same, with the only real increase in his shots coming after Brunson’s arrival. His assist rate dropped by nearly a quarter (25% to 18%) in Brunson’s first year with the Knicks, then rebounded by nearly that much (22%) last year. What’s a girl to make of it all?

It seems fair to figure Randle isn’t going to throw us or his teammates for a loop. When he’s played for good teams under Thibodeau, he’s stayed steadfast both as a lead scoring option and creative hub for others. Given Thibs had already mentioned Randle spending 10-15 minutes a night as a small-ball 5 even before today’s news that Mitchell Robinson won’t be available the first few months recovering from ankle surgery, you may see Randle end up with the same numbers while playing two distinct styles: an egalitarian and unselfish part of a starting five where everyone’s a scoring threat, a la the 1970s Knicks, and also the clear first option leading bench units or lineups without Brunson, a la Patrick Ewing with the 1990s Knicks. I think Randle’s going to take two different paths to the same level of productivity we’re used to from him. Defensively he’s been the team’s best defensive rebounder for years; he’s going to have to be again.

As far as similar styles . . . ya got me, SLJ. The way the game’s evolved from when I started watching in 1990, sometimes symmetry is tough to identify. Charles Barkley was a big strong forward who also hit the glass and created for his teammates, but Barkley was much shorter, a superior rebounder, a far better player and a frequent idiot with his shot selection and lack of self-control; it’s funny seeing him and Shaquille O’Neal ripping today’s players as much as they do, given they’re the two greatest players I’ve ever seen who so clearly could/should/would have accomplished so much more had they cared more about their conditioning and their legacies. Not that you have to care! But chill with the ripping of others, yo.

LeBron would be the closest Randle comp, only because “big strong dude at his best going downhill who isn’t the best outside shooter but you can’t lay off him out there, and who also creates for others” does apply to both, the way some people apply “sex symbol” to Rita Hayworth and Sabrina Carpenter — only if by “sex” we mean two completely different things. So how about you: who would you compare Randle’s style of play to?

“Who is the 5th-most important Knick player this season? Assuming the first four are some combination of Brunson, OG, Randle and Mikal Bridges. Robinson is obviously the 5th starter. But are Josh Hart and/or Donte DiVincenzo more important to the success of the team?”

— goatphayse

They certainly will be the months Mitch is out!

Seriously, and this is such a quirky sentence to write, but it’s true: while Robinson is gone, I think Hart rises in prominence; if/when Mitch returns, I think DiVincenzo then becomes the slightly bigger deal. Assuming Randle is ready to roll opening night, the only two active Knicks with more rebounds per game or per 36 last year than Hart will be Julius and Precious Achiuwa. That skill, coupled with his ability to guard bigger players and turn defensive rebounds into rapid transition opportunities, could make Hart a key in dealing with what figures to be an undersized couple of months . . . unless the front office decides to turn Deuce McBride into a trade for a big, in which case I’m here to endorse Rochester’s Isaiah Stewart as someone Joel Embiid won’t fuck with.

If Robinson is back in the fold for the second half of the season and the playoffs, DiVincenzo becomes a more prominent player to me then, because his strengths — perimeter shooting and playmaking in the opponent’s passing lanes — better sync up with Mitch’s strengths, among which are “doesn’t demand shots” and “locks down the paint, forcing more action in perimeter passing lanes.” In the simplest of terms, Hart raises the team’s floor if Mitch is out, DiVincenzo raises the ceiling if he’s in.

“Over your lifetime of sports fandom, what’s your favorite season?”

— bargzzz

Probably this one? The teams I follow have changed; I used to root for the Jets, the Giants and University of Miami football, but I quit football after 2012. Today my teams are the Knicks, Mets, Liberty, Rangers and Manchester City. The Mets, on the verge of 90 wins and a playoff spot, have been the best team in baseball since June — and they’re the worst of my teams.

The Rangers are a Stanley Cup contender, though beyond counting on continued brilliance by Igor Shesterkin and another leveling up from Alexis LaFreniere, I think they’re still missing something. The Knicks are similar to the Rangers, with the benefit of having added an impact player in the offseason in Bridges. The Liberty are a win away from the WNBA semifinals and have homecourt throughout the playoffs; they’d face the two-time defending champion Aces if both win their next game, but the addition of Leonie Fiebich to their starting five in place of Courtney Vandersloot gives them size, shooting and perimeter defense that were lacking when they fell to Las Vegas a year ago. Man City just endured another cynical and pathethic display from Arsenal to earn a last-second tie and remain atop the Premier League. The Sky Blues probably lost probable Ballon d’Or winner Rodri for the season to an ACL injury — shortly after Rodri said players around Europe’s biggest leagues may go on strike to protest a fixture schedule that’s grown to resemble a death march — and yet they remain favorites to win what would be an unprecedented fifth straight league title, after last year’s unprecedented fourth straight.

The only thing that sucks is trying to watch my teams. I don’t have cable where I live, but I used to see the Mets on Fubo, until they got pulled because not enough too-rich people were making enough of the more money they don’t even need. I’ve followed City since 2007, when their games aired on Fox Soccer — that used to be a channel, back when people watched channels — before moving to NBC Sports; now that soccer has made so many too-rich people even too-richer, they want me to pay for Peacock and Paramount on top of cable/satellite to follow my team. Hello, free internet radio!

Before this year, the best year had to be 1994: the Rangers won it all, the Knicks came thisclose, and while the Mets stunk the Yankees were good for the first time in years and totally likable, with Jimmy Key, Don Mattingly, Daryl Boston, etc. I saw them play the Orioles at the Stadium a week before the players went on strike; Sterling HItchcock pitched, and the Yanks won. The Montreal Expos were the best team in baseball that season, and my favorite non-New York team at the time. I was really hoping they’d play the Yanks in the World Series. Won’t happen this year, but if it’s Mets/Yankees in the Fall Classic, there couldn’t be a better ending to this best-ever year for my teams. How about y’all?

“I was wondering how you find hope in life when it feels like there is none.”

— Unmitigated Gall

I’m struggling right now with something painful that seems hopeless. Sometimes I don’t want to think about it but can’t help it, and after I do I’m like a house after an earthquake, where all the parts are the same as before but nothing feels like it fits right anymore. Sometimes I let it fill me up until my eyes are hot with tears and I hurt in that way that’s like a home run.

You ever hit a home run? If you have, you know how it feels like nothing? I don’t mean “nothing quite feels like hitting a home run,” though maybe that’s true; I mean when you square the ball on the sweet spot of the barrel, it doesn’t feel like you hit anything. Fight a fastball off the handle and you feel it; top one off the top of the bat, it has a feel. When you hit a home run, there’s like zero aftershock. When my heart breaks, it’s like zero aftershock, in a bad way.

After I let it all out and get all wrung out and dry, what’s left behind are the things that don’t hurt, that remind me what I live for, the things that matter in the low points or else they’re not worth keeping. Sometimes when I’m hopeless, I find hope doing small things that matter, not only no matter how small but specifically seeking out the small things. Creating — right now — what I want to exist in the world after I’m gone is really all I can ever do. Doing it mindfully helps me find myself, and where I find me, I find hope.

For me, hopelessness feels like vertigo. I can’t orient; everything is big and boundless and spinning. I have to slow things down, shrink them down. Little acts create consistency. Routine helps me regain a sense of control, and balance. I learned this in physical therapy, the remarkable potential of repeating something small for weeks, months, and achieving seismic results.

Access what brings you joy, what brings peace. What brings purpose. Belonging. Transcendence. Just some a day, a little — but every day. The long night of the soul’s cold and carries on. Carry a hoodie.