Julius Randle opens up about injury, doesn’t rule out surgery

Just one day after the Knicks returned to practice and Tom Thibodeau shared the most promising of updates, the actual injured man took the podium and left us all a bit colder than we hoped.

Now, mind you, what Julius Randle told reporters after Wednesday’s practice when he was asked about his shoulder and his rehab process wasn’t calamitous. It wasn’t disastrous. It wasn’t awful. But it wasn’t the best possible thing we could have heard from him, either.

“I think I’m planning on being back on the court April 1st, probably,” Randle joked. “Nah, I’m just kidding. I’m just taking it a day at a time, to be honest. Every day I’m getting stronger and better.

“Just trying to stay locked in and continue to get healthy, not just physically but mentally.”

The Knicks still have 27 games left in their regular-season schedule. Once the calendar hits April a little over a month from now, there will only be two weeks left of regular-season play and eight games remaining in New York’s home stretch before the playoffs.

April Fool's or not, joking with an Apr. 1 date seems to be too much of a coincidence here. Either Randle knows he’s going to be able to return much sooner than that (mid-March at the latest?) or simply knows the regular season ends right before mid-April. I'm just not buying the Apr. 1st as an iso joke if I'm honest.

The problem with Randle is that everything is all of a sudden looking very much like it did last season when he bullied his way through the postseason playing through an injury that later required off-season surgery.

Asked about that scenario repeating itself this year, Randle didn’t quite discard it.

“We’ll see,” Randle acknowledged. “There are still necessary steps. There’s a process to everything. I have to weigh out everything, ultimately, and decide from there. Right now I’m focused on trying to avoid [surgery], get back on the court as soon as I can.”

Randle revealed he has “heard many different opinions” about the status of his shoulder and whether or not it would require surgery to fix it.

“I like how I feel today as far as getting better, feeling stronger, progressing to where I need to be as far as getting on the court,” Randle said. “But I’m never somebody that says never.”

There might be something brewing here, and Randle couldn’t have made it clearer on his presser Wednesday. “Ultimately, I have to do what’s best for myself to have a long career, have longevity,” Randle said.

Randle also said that the moment he hit the floor following his airborne meeting with Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. on Jan. 27 he “knew I was out.”

Thibodeau spoke once more on Wednesday, saying that Randle has been going through two sessions per day, to which the three-time All-Star commented “It’s funny that Thibs told you that.”

Randle detailed his rehab process and plan, saying “I love it.”

“[Thibodeau] was blowing my phone up the whole time [during] All-Star, so he was doing two-a-days, too,” Randle said. “I don’t know. I just kind of go on how I feel, to be honest, and I feel great. That’s as much as I can say. You guys know me. I’m going to push it as hard as I can—safely, cautiously, with the training team’s advice.”

Randle agrees with everybody that even though the New York Knicks have endured an endless string of injuries, the squad has stayed reasonably above water during the three weeks (since OG Anunoby and Randle went down injured) leading up to the break.

“That’s who our team is,” Randle said. “Every day, Thibs does a great job of having us prepared, everyone—whether you get steady minutes or not. That’s who our team has been. When guys get an opportunity they are ready to play. If anything, it’s brought our team closer together. Guys have been doing a great job of doing the most with what we have and holding it down while we’re hurt.”

Randle also said that “being around my teammates helps,” although he acknowledged “Watching the game sucks; I don’t like being on the sideline.”

He’s also “trying to be there, be supportive as much as I can, give advice when needed.”

Even though he’s not quite there physically and cannot grace the court yet, Randle told reporters that he’s been “diving into the film,” and “using this time as useful as I can as far as—told you guys before the season when I was coming back from injury—I think that kind of prepared me for what I’m dealing with now.

“I’m making the most out of what I can,” Randle said. “One of those things is being able to watch film with Coach on this season and see how I can get better and apply it when I’m really able to get out there on the court, for sure.”

When that happens, nobody really knows. Everything points toward a mid-March return, but with surgery looming on the horizon there is always the inherent risk of playing Randle only to watch him go down without prior notice or—although it won’t be of his own doing—playing limited by a damaged shoulder for a few final regular-season games and through the postseason before going under the knife come July.