The New York Knicks were quiet at the trade deadline outside of one small deal, opting to roll with what they had instead of trying to make a big splash in order to make a playoff push. That doesn't mean the Knicks didn't consider making a trade, and they even kicked around the possibility of trading All-Star Julius Randle, per Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer.

It's a good thing New York didn't pull the trigger on a Randle trade.

The 26-year-old was the catalyst for the Knicks' recent nine-game winning streak, which unfortunately came to an end against the Phoenix Suns on Monday. Randle had one of his few bad games of the month against a strong Suns defense, managing just 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting.

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Prior to that game, Randle had hit the 30-point mark in six of his last seven games, including two games hitting the 40-point mark. He has put the Knicks on his back and gotten them all the way up to the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.

It's hard to imagine what kind of trade the Knicks could have made involving Randle that would have been remotely worth it. There aren't a whole lot of guys playing better than him right now, and trading him for draft picks in the middle of a season where the Knicks are finally competing for a playoff spot again would have caused a riot.

Looking ahead, Randle has a partially guaranteed $19.8 million contract for 2021-22. New York will almost certainly guarantee the rest of that deal (it's guaranteed for $4 million right now) and perhaps talk about a contract extension. The lefty has proven worthy of being a core piece moving forward and should be rewarded at some point with a fat new deal.

Plus, the Knicks have flexibility to make other big moves in the offseason.