Randle opting for season-ending surgery in blow to playoff hopes
NEW YORK — Julius Randle is not walking through the Madison Square Garden doors again this season.
After nearly 2½ months attempting to rehab a dislocated right shoulder without surgery, Randle, a three-time NBA All-star, has opted to undergo a procedure with just seven regular-season games remaining on the Knicks’ schedule.
Which means a zero percent chance the workhorse forward makes a return to the floor to support his playoff-bound Knicks team in the final leg of the season.
It’s the worst-case scenario for the franchise, where the idea of one-upping last season’s secondround playoff appearance hinges on stars returning to the injury-riddled Knicks.
In hindsight, Randle should have gotten the surgery immediately after his shoulder dislodged in the final minutes of regulation of a blowout Jan. 27 victory over the Miami Heat.
And while his decision against it was admirable — to exhaust all options in an attempt to make a triumphant playoff comeback without ending his season early via surgery — Randle has merely postponed the inevitable.
He must now start again from scratch. Full recovery from shoulder surgery could take five-to-six months, which brings us to training camp next season. Had he gotten the surgery in early February, Randle would have been clear to return to the court by July.
Either way, he was never going to make a return this season.
Dislocated shoulders are fickle, and for Randle, the right shoulder was his primary weapon of choice as a bulldozing force on the low block this season. Ultimately, doctors warned him against returning to this season, according to ESPN.
The reasoning: shoulder instability made a return to play unsafe.
Yet quietly, the Knicks were growing comfortable with the idea of Randle missing the season. The Knicks are also without two other starters: OG Anunoby aggravated an injury to a surgically-repaired right elbow, and Mitchell Robinson did the same with his surgically repaired left ankle.
The Knicks have been without Robinson largely since Dec. 8 and all three starting frontcourt players since Jan. 27.
Anunoby and Robinson are both at risk of re-injury, calling into question whether it’s worth it for either to return to the floor this season if Randle is already ruled out.
“I’m looking at it like this is the team we’re going to have,” Josh Hart, who is starting in place of Anunoby, said on Sunday. “I think that’s how we have to approach it, [like] those guys aren’t coming back.
“And obviously we’ll be pleasantly surprised if they come back. I’m not in those medical conversations or anything like that, so I don’t know sh-t from sh-t. But we’ve got to approach it every game at the end of this season [like] those guys aren’t coming back, and if they do, be pleasantly surprised.”
Compounding matters for the Knicks is the timing: With seven games left on the schedule, New York (44-31) has lost three in a row and has fallen from No. 3 in the Eastern Conference to No. 5.
The difference between third and fifth is not only home-court advantage, but it’s also a second-round date with the world-beating Boston Celtics, who the Knicks can avoid until the conference finals if they finish the regular season in second, third, sixth or seventh place.
The Knicks remain two games ahead of the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers, who are tied for sixth. And they are now a half-game behind the fourth-seeded Orlando Magic, who are increasingly beginning to look like a first-round playoff matchup for New York.
As a reminder, the Knicks won once and lost three times in four games against the Magic, which means even if the two teams were to finish with identical records, the Magic would retain homecourt advantage — and all the momentum from the season series.
Randle’s return would have swung the pendulum in the Knicks’ favor, but he isn’t walking through that door this season.