Getty Julius Randle of the New York Knicks looks on during the first half against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The New York Knicks may have already missed out on the Bradley Beal sweepstakes as he was just recently dealt to the Phoenix Suns, but they still have a full offseason ahead of them to try and strike a long-desired blockbuster.
Jeremy Brener of Fan Nation believes that one route Leon Rose and company could take is pursuing a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans that would land them soon-to-be fifth-year star big man Zion Williamson in exchange for a package headlined by one of their current cornerstones.
The meat of the proposed transaction reads as follows:
New York Knicks receive: Zion Williamson and Garrett Temple
New Orleans Pelicans receive: Julius Randle and Evan Fournier
Deemed as a trade that “works for both sides,” Brener would go on to note that the two reunions between former teammates in Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram with the Pelicans and Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett with the Knicks could prove to be both entertaining and quite beneficial for several reasons.
“Temple’s contract is nonguaranteed for the upcoming season, which means the Knicks can cut ties with him after the trade if they wish with no cost against them. Ironically, this trade would reunite Randle with former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Brandon Ingram while putting Williamson on Barrett’s side once more. Randle also spent the final season of his pre-Knicks career in New Orleans during the 2018-19 campaign. Trading for Williamson is an undoubted [gamble] for the Knicks, especially with the top pick’s injury history (29 games over the last two seasons) but also allows them an opportunity to rid themselves of Fournier’s contract. For the Pelicans, it gives them a fresh start without Williamson and an opportunity to re-tool around Ingram with Randle beside him in the frontcourt,” Brener wrote.
A highly athletic, multi-faceted talent, Zion Williamson has proven to be one of the league’s most menacing players when found on the hardwood. Throughout his four-year career with the Pelicans, the big man has posted sensational averages of 25.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 60.5% from the field and 34.3% from deep.
Unfortunately, the two-time All-Star has been severely limited since entering the league due to a laundry list of injuries.
During his tenure in the association, Williamson has played in 114 out of a potential total of 308 regular season games and, since signing his lucrative five-year, $194 million extension last summer he has seen just 29 games of action.
Nevertheless, some individuals such as Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley are of the belief that despite the health concerns, pursuing a trade for the 22-year-old could be a risk well worth taking.
Knicks Unlikely To Trade Julius Randle
Despite Brener’s proposal of seeing a swap of Julius Randle for Zion Williams, it seems rather unlikely that the Knicks will be parting ways with their All-NBA power forward any time soon.
At least, that’s what one anonymous NBA executive believes, as they informed Heavy Sports NBA insider Sean Deveney that the 28-year-old’s value on the trade market is seemingly too low for New York’s front office to cash in on.
“They are not in position to trade Randle because there’s no way to get value for him,” the executive said. “They have found a way to get him to be really productive with what they do. But that does not really translate to a lot of other teams. So that is always going to work against them if they were to move him. But they have not had those conversations in a long time, and he has three years left on the contract (the third year is a player option) so it is something where he is not going anywhere for a while.”
Julius Randle finds himself coming off of arguably his best season in the NBA, as he went on to post impressive per-game averages of 25.1 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists while shooting.
However, despite these top-flight numbers and the fact that he’s a two-time All-Star, the exec suggests that the league does not view him as a name worthy of going all in on a trade for.
Knicks Urged to Talk Trade With Raptors
In a recent sit-down with Sean Deveney, an Eastern Conference Executive made the bold claim that the Knicks should strongly consider looking toward the Toronto Raptors as a potential trade partner this summer, suggesting that there are specific talents on the roster that could be available for the taking.
“Toronto is where they’re probably going to find some guys who can fit,” The executive said. “OG Anuonoby or Pascal Siakam, when the Raptors really get into talking about those two, that is where the sweet spot probably is for New York.”
Despite this, however, NBA correspondent Marc Stein recently shared intel from league sources that Toronto still has a “strong reluctance” to part ways with some of their current foundational players, namely Anunoby.
There is no the Pels trade Zion for Randle. They may be looking to move on from Zion, but not for a bag of chips. Zion is a generational talent when healthy. And Randle is a third option on a championship team. Randle is wanted by his team or fans for on court reasons. Zion just need to get past his chronic hamstring issues, and the talent will and pop. No trade here