Amidst Durant blunder, Dolan and Knicks sign Julius Randle

In the wake of Kevin Durant signing with the Brooklyn Nets, the Knicks have signed Julius Randle. The two parties reached a deal that would secure Randle for three years at the tune of 63 million dollars. Of course, this deal only happened because team owner, James Dolan, didn’t want to offer Durant a max contract. That being said, Dolan signing Randle is not an atonement for his blunder.

What happened?

Dolan messed up. It was public knowledge that Durant would miss a huge chunk of next season due to an Achilles injury. Teams were speculated to be weary of signing him post affliction, none clearly more so than the Knicks. All season the team was speculated to get Durant. When the opportunity finally availed itself, Dolan did what he does best: he made the wrong decision. He and the front office decided that a max contract would be too much for the injured Durant. Thus, the team went the other way. To mitigate the loss, the Knicks turned around and signed Julius Randle, who is still promising but isn’t on the level of Durant.

Promises, promises

When the Knicks traded away Kristaps Porzingis, the hope was that the team would sign two max contract players. The Knicks have failed to sign even one. Don’t get me wrong, Randle has a lot of potential. In his time with the New Orleans Pelicans, he averaged 21.4 points per game along with 8.7 rebounds. A budding star, Randle is a young player who could help the Knicks score and grab rebounds. However, he hasn’t quite reached All-Star level, despite a flurry of high scoring games. Now next year, the League may finally see Randle make the jump to that level, but he’s not there yet. Quite frankly, an All-Star is what fans were promised.

Dolan is a bad owner

James Dolan is infamous for his mismanagement of sport teams. Throughout the years, fans have had to struggle through his questionable decision making. Players don’t like him and neither do other team owners, as well as fans. His poor judgement and callous disregard for success has dragged the Knicks through the trenches. Fans are tired of losing, and this age of mediocrity has to end. Dolan cannot continue to let fans down in this malicious manner, unless he doesn’t care about fan support. While there is still time to make a deal, Dolan need to at least pretend he cares about this organization and sign an actual All-Star. Otherwise, all the sacrifices this team has made through the season would be for not. Anything short of an actual effort would be a slap in the face to fans everywhere.

Within two hours of free agency opening, the Knicks have already made a drastic error. With Durant and Irving in Brooklyn, the team will need to find a way to stay competitive. While signing Julius Randle might seem like mitigation, the team is still severely lacking in the star department. Thus, its time for Dolan to work for a living and bring in another star.