Coaches and managers can overthink these things sometimes. Buck Showalter, as sharp as any knife in the drawer, was guilty of that last autumn, guilty of profound overthinking, when he held Jacob deGrom out of Game 1 of the Mets’ wild-card series against San Diego, hoping to save him entirely for an NLDS he ended up only watching on television.
Every football coach who has switched to a prevent defense after his regular defense played brilliantly for 55 minutes is guilty of overthinking. Hell, even Norman Dale was going to use Jimmy Chitwood as a decoy before the rest of his Hickory High players nearly went on strike and Jimmy assured him: “I’ll make it.”
(And yes, that’s two straight days of Chitwood/Dale references; hey, we don’t get playoff basketball around here every year. We can get carried away. Sue us.)
But there’s a decision that wouldn’t be overthinking for Tom Thibodeau. Unless Julius Randle can practice full bore on Thursday or Friday, it would be wise for the Knicks coach to keep Randle in street clothes Saturday for Game 1 of the playoff series opener with Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. This isn’t being cute. This isn’t being the smartest guy in the room.
It’s just plain smart
“He’s doing well overall,” Thibodeau said Wednesday afternoon of Randle, who attended practice at the Knicks’ Westchester County facility, but didn’t engage in full contact, and hasn’t since spraining his left ankle 14 days ago against Miami at Madison Square Garden.
“He’s been cleared for parts of practice, but he hasn’t been fully cleared yet,” Thibodeau said. “But he’s making good progress.”
The Knicks must only play Julius Randle in Game 1 if he is 100 percent healthy, The Post’s Mike Vaccaro writes.
Julius Randle is helped off the court after spraining his ankle during the Knicks’ game against the Heat on March 29.
The NBA actually did the Knicks a favor Wednesday, announcing the rest of the Cavaliers-Knicks schedule and revealing that Game 2 won’t be played until Tuesday. That’ll be 20 days since the ankle went one way and the rest of Randle went the other against the Heat. Anyone who ever has sprained an ankle (with the possible exception of Patrick Mahomes) knows: After 20 days, you won’t quite be at full strength.
But it’s sure better than 17.
And look, the Knicks’ mission is simple, if they want to make this playoff appearance more than just a toe-dipping formality: steal a game in Cleveland. There is no extra credit given for swiping Game 1 over Game 2. Keep Randle off the foot a few extra days, maximize the house-money aspect of playing such a game, and then be ready to get after it in Game 2 — assuming the rest really does help Randle.
Julius Randle in street clothes during the Knicks’ game against the Pacers on April 9.
“It’s hard to say,” Thibodeau said of whether he was optimistic he’d be able to write Randle’s name onto the whiteboard Saturday afternoon. “You just take it day by day. The thing I like is that each day he’s been better. So if he’s ready, he’s ready. If he needs more time, we’ll give him more time.”
Erring on the side of caution is erring on the side of wisdom in this case. Randle will surely be resistant, unless his ankle is still barking at him Saturday like an angry Westy. There are a lot of things you can criticize about Randle’s game if you really want to do that, but the man wants to play. Before the ankle betrayed him, he’d played all 77 games. In four seasons as a Knick, he has played 285 of a possible 302 games.
In a time when we’ve sadly begun to take for granted stars who collect personal days like baseball cards, Randle is one who punches the clock every day. And if Thibodeau tells him he’s sitting out Game 1, that’s not going to make him happy.
Julius Randle remains questionable for the Knicks’ Game 1 clash against the Cavaliers.
But if it makes him healthy — make that, healthier — for Game 2, it’s the right move. There is little question that Jalen Brunson also will benefit greatly from sitting out the final three games of the regular season, the better to rejuvenate his own array of aches, pains and physical nuisances.
“You worry about everything if you’re a head coach,” Thibodeau said earlier this week. “That’s the big question always: rest versus rhythm. And in [Brunson’s] case, it was needed because of the injury. Same with Julius. And so, that’s always a concern, but there’s always a silver lining. We say, well, hopefully the rest helps. And then we know that we’re going to have to be at our best when the ball goes up on Saturday.”
Will they be better if Randle can be there when it does? Of course. Will they be better if Randle is, say, 70 percent, and favoring the ankle, which almost always invites other trouble? Thibodeau has to make that call. He should err on the side of the big picture. Giving Randle three extra days would honor that.
