The Knicks have now taken three straight gut-punching losses to the Nets, Bulls, and Nuggets. Within these losses exists one common theme, which is a lack of effort from their best players.

I dove into deeper detail about the Nets game in last Thursday’s article, so feel free to check that out for a more in-depth analysis, but this article will be more focused on the faults of the Bulls and Nuggets matchups.

With the Bulls game, I am not going to knock Julius Randle too hard, as he actually had a pretty good game, finishing with 30, 12, and 6 with many key buckets down the stretch. I will say, however, those back to back missed free throws really hurt the Knicks as they could have closed out the game differently had those gone down. However, there was still moments in the game where the effort from the starters was lackadaisical, especially when it came to communicating where Caruso was on the floor when he was sneaking around the court. Things like that led to great defensive plays by Chicago, who walked away with a 4 point win.

In the Nuggets game, the effort was simply disgusting to watch defensively. One play sticks out in my head about Julius Randle, and it was when he was walking through the motions on an offensive possession, was upset he did not get the call, then proceeded to jog back on defense. Once he was back, he did not get in the right help spot for Jokic, who got a wide open layup while Randle was 4 feet away from him. They went on to trail by 30, and lose by 14.

The team needs a leader, and Julius Randle is not providing that leadership. He’s the teams best player, and just because he got paid doesn’t mean the city won’t turn on him like they did in 2020.

The Knicks get a chance tomorrow against San Antonio to right some wrongs.