New York Knicks power forward Julius Randle wants to “make people better on the court” and take a jump defensively this season.
Randle isn't worried about scoring the ball since that aspect of his game comes easy to him. The Knicks big man is looking to become a more polished player by making his teammates better and rounding into a solid defender.
Article Continues Below“I’m not really worried about scoring the ball,” Randle said, via Steve Popper of Newsday. “20 [points] and 10 [rebounds], that type of stuff is easy for me. I want to make people better on the court. I want to bring everybody along. Guys like Frank [Ntilikina], RJ [Barrett], and Mitch [Robinson] and those guys and help them develop, because those guys are key parts to our team. The faster they develop, the better we’ll be, the faster we’ll be better. I wanna help them out.
“Defensively, that’s my focus. That’s where I want to make the biggest jump. I want to be able to impact the game on both ends of the floor and continue to add on to what I’ve done in the past and get better.”
Randle played with the New Orleans Pelicans last season. The talented lefty averaged 21.4 points and 8.7 rebounds while shooting 52.4 percent from the field, 34.4 percent from beyond the arc and 73.1 percent from the free-throw line.
Randle signed a three-year, $63 million deal with the Knicks this summer in free agency. We'll see if he's able to be a force on the defensive end of the floor this season.