Julius Randle’s murky future is at the heart of important Knicks offseason

Towards an argument for continuity, there’s always January.

You might remember it as the best Knicks month in 30 years. It was stupendous basketball. The Knicks were balanced offensively. They were a defensive juggernaut following the arrival of OG Anunoby. They had a Death Lineup to finish fourth quarters. They won 12 of 14 games. It was the closest Tom Thibodeau had this past season to a full squad.

Only Mitchell Robinson was missing.

Then Julius Randle tumbled over Jaime Jaquez Jr., and here we are, roughly four months later, contemplating the validity and sustainability of January.

It’s the biggest question of the Knicks’ summer, and Randle sits at its center. If he’s not the most important addition to the roster next season, the 29-year-old could easily be its most important subtraction via trade.

After all, it’s hard to arrive at a sensible package that doesn’t include Randle for a high-salaried star player. Not impossible (Bojan Bogdanovic and Mitchell Robinson could be combined for salary-matching purposes instead, for instance); just difficult. And the Knicks have set up themselves to be in the market for a star player.