When Julius met Evan: A tale of two two-man games
The Evan Fournier experience has paid big dividends so far, replacing last year’s Reggie Bullock at the 2 with a more dynamic player as Julius Randle’s two-man game partner. But just how stark has the difference been?
Well then, what a difference a Frenchman who can dribble and pass makes, right?
The offensive upgrade from Reggie Bullock to Evan Fournier is something like the upgrade in alcoholic sophistication from a back-of-the-truck bottle of moonshine — that gamely gets the job done but has a very serious impact on your liver's ability to do important liver-type-things — to a top shelf Cabernet Sauvignon that slips down like soap on silk and tastes like liquid dopamine.
It’s only been four games, but Julius Randle and the Knicks' offense are drunk on the difference already: Fournier is shooting 46% on a whopping 35 3-point attempts so far, and the Knicks — per Cleaning the Glass — have the third-best offense in the NBA.
Yes, our Knicks, third best, in that NBA.
Last season, Randle assisted Reggie 117 times in 65 games, good for 1.8 dimes a game. Reggie returned the favor 36 times, good for 0.5 dimes a game.
This season, Randle has assisted Evan 12 times in 4 games, good for three dimes a game. Evan has returned the favor four times, good for one dime a game.
Which is a very simple but significant way of saying: the Randle-Fournier two-man game, so far, is twice as deadly than the Randle-Bullock two-man game — in both directions, whether Julius is the creator or the created for. So that's, deadliness cubed? Deadlier to the power of four? What's the mathematical term for maximum defensive deadness? The stock action of both duos was the dribble hand-off, but the possibilities of this years DHO’s are exponentially more fun than what Bullock’s budget ball-in-hand abilities allowed for.
The rest of this piece can be found exclusively on our Patreon for patrons of the Spinning and Winning level and higher. We hope to see you there!
