


PHILADELPHIA — As the Knicks’ offense had become increasingly reliant on one person — sometimes with success, other times with worrisome stretches of scoring droughts — Josh Hart hasn’t forgotten the reasons Julius Randle would be helping.
“Where do I start? I mean, he’s an All-Star,” said Hart, who essentially replaced Randle in the starting lineup but not his offensive production. “He [averaged] 24 [points] and nine [rebounds] and five [assists], so that playmaking, shot making, is something that we’re missing.
“It’s funny — when people talk about us they somehow forget the big void we have of 24 and nine gone. It’s not like he’s out there with us 70-80 percent. He’s not out there. So that’s something that’s a big void that we knew was gonna be hard to fill, but his playmaking, his shotmaking, his energy is something that we definitely miss.”
Jalen Brunson developed into a one-man show after Randle suffered his dislocated shoulder, and that’s only been magnified in the playoffs.
Entering Thursday’s Game 6, Brunson accounted for one-third of the team’s total points and carried a usage rate of 36.1 percent — well above the 28 percent when he shared the court with Randle until February.
If you ranked the players in the Knicks-Sixers series who could create shots for themselves in the half-court, Philadelphia would have three of the top four — with definitely Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey joining Brunson on the list, and probably Tobias Harris directly after.
Randle, for all his struggles in the playoffs, can certainly get a bucket in isolation.
Heading into Game 6, nobody on the Knicks, other than Brunson, was averaging more than 17 points — or at least half of Brunson’s 34.4.
It places a theoretically lower ceiling on the Knicks’ championship hopes, if only because every other team still in the playoff bracket has a better second scoring punch — Celtics (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown), Bucks (Giannis Antetokounmpo and Dame Lillard), Pacers (Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam), Cavaliers (Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland), Magic (Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner), Clippers (Paul George and James Harden), Mavericks (Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving), Timberwolves (Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns), Nuggets (Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray) and Thunder (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams).
That’s not to suggest it’s impossible for a ball-dominant player to carry his team without another shot-creator threat.
Allen Iverson took the Sixers to the Finals in 2001 with Aaron McKie as the No. 2, and Dirk Nowitzki won a championship with Jason Terry as Dallas’ second-leading scorer in 2011.
But there have been clear times in the Philly series the Knicks missed somebody who might ease the burden on Brunson.
It doesn’t help that Donte DiVincenzo, the Knicks’ No. 2 scorer after Randle’s injury, shot just 33 percent in the opening five games of the series.
That’s been exacerbated by the injury to Bojan Bogdanovic, the team’s best offensive threat off the bench who underwent season-ending surgery to his ankle after getting fallen on by Nic Batum in Game 4.
Randle, who is eligible for a contract extension in the summer, also had season-ending surgery and will miss the entire playoffs.
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The impact of his absence is more nuanced than Hart’s suggestion of 24 points and nine rebounds (somebody else will attempt the shots that Randle isn’t around to take), and there are phases of the game the Knicks are better without their All-Star (Hart is a better offensive rebounder and defender).
But when things get bogged down in the half-court offense — when Brunson is either subbed out, trapped or struggling like in the fourth quarter of Game 5 — they could use a Randle.
“Obviously would much prefer that we have Julius, but our reality is he’s not here,” Brunson said. “We’re not gonna replace him individually, but I think we found a way to replace him as a team. And that’s what this is about right now is our team overcoming things and being ready for this opportunity. I think we’ve put a lot of work to be in this position.”