Knicks Trade of Julius Randle? Here's the Problem

“There’s just no market out there for him. ... Trust me, if they could have had a deal for him, it would be done already.''

Julius Randle has, in one short year, gone from being maybe the New York Knicks' best player to being ... maybe ... un-tradable.

And why?

“There’s just no market out there for him. ... Trust me, if they could have had a deal for him, it would be done already,” The executive told Heavy.com writer Sean Deveney.

Randle has experienced a sort of "fall from grace'' in terms of the league's opinion of him. And yet - here's what complicates this - the Knicks still seem to think he is a commodity ... for somebody.

“They have taken calls on him, it is not like there is no one in the league who is interested in him,'' Deveney is told by the source. "It’s just a matter of, the Knicks seeing him as a guy who is a star and they want a star return for him. But the rest of the league is thinking, ‘OK, we’ll do you a favor and take his contract, how does that sound?’”

Randle last summer agreed to a contract extension that now pays him an average of about $26 million per season for the next four years. He remains a 20/10 guy on the stat sheet. ... but apparently not in the minds of opposing GMs.

Randle’s long-term future with the Knicks is especially in question as the front office continues to visit with the Utah Jazz about a trade for Donovan Mitchell.  Could Randle be tossed into that deal? Or does he simply end up having to find a way to fit on the bench behind the likes of prized new free agent signee Jalen Brunson, and maybe Mitchell, too?

"It is hard to see where the Knicks have Randle fitting into all that but it is harder to see where they can trade him,'' The the source told Heavy.