Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett explain how Knicks must 'be themselves' amid Julius Randle injury

With just five regular-season games left and the Knicks in a tight race to avoid the NBA Play-In Tournament, New York suffered a tough blow on Thursday when they announced that All-Star forward Julius Randle is expected to miss at least two weeks with a sprained left ankle.

The Knicks are currently fifth in the Eastern Conference with a 44-33 record. They are four games behind the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers, 2.5 games ahead of the sixth-place Nets, and four games up on the seventh-place Miami Heat. While the Knicks have all but avoided the Play-In, the team must now navigate the remainder of their regular season without their star player.

Point guard Jalen Brunson spoke, after Friday's shootaround, about the team's "next-man-up mentality" going forward, saying that it needs to be "a group effort" on the court without Randle.

"Yeah, we keep our spirits up, making sure that he's focusing on getting back as healthy and as fast as he can," Brunson said. "And I think, for us, (it's about) just going out there and just try to win ball games. It's a next-man-up mentality and, for us, it's a group effort. Nothing really changes besides the fact that he's not playing tonight, so we just try to keep it going."

While it's currently unclear if head coach Tom Thibodeau is going to start forward Obi Toppin in place of Randle, Toppin likely gets more minutes in the rotation over the final stretch. Brunson was asked if the team needs to change its style of play, due to the differences in the Toppin and Randle's game, and said it can still be successful by the players being themselves on the floor.

"I think, for us, everyone has to be themselves," Brunson said. "Don't try and be someone you're not. I just think like I said it's a collective effort. Julius plays a unique style of basketball. You have guys who play differently but are still very effective. So we just got to be ourselves and not really be Julius. Julius brings a whole different dynamic to our team. We just got to be ourselves and just help each other out.

"I think most importantly we got to be ourselves. However, our team is built on the court. Those five on the court, just be themselves. Obviously, Julius is great in halfcourt. He's great in transition. Whatever your style of play is on the court, just be that person to the best of your abilities."

RJ Barrett expressed a similar mindset to Brunson when asked what the Knicks need to do to win games without Randle leading the way, saying that they have to stick to their identities.

"You know, with Ju being out, we got to kind of figure that out collectively," Barrett said. "Especially with who plays the four when Obi subs out or whatever, stuff like that. We'll figure it out.

"Of course, you have to make some adjustments. But you still stay true to your identity, trying to figure it out -- like, just how to get some ball movement, how to be more effective with the new lineup that we're going to have for a little bit will be key."

With Randle sidelined, the 6-foot-6, 214 pound Barrett could play some of the four if the Knicks decide to go with a slightly smaller lineup. He does have experience playing the position with the bench unit and is confident in his ability to play physically down low.

"Think it gives me an advantage -- we have another ball handler out there," Barrett said. "As well as I can play physical, I can get rebounds and push and stuff -- so I'm not too, too out of my element being down there. I'll say it's obviously different because I'm not really on the wing and sometimes we got to figure it out, sometimes we got two guys on the wing now instead of one. Just stuff like that. I'm comfortable, I've done it before, I'm sure I can do it again."

Barrett went on to say that the Knicks would need to try and score more in transition and continue sharing the ball without Randle on the court.

"Just playing together," Barrett said. "Whoever we kind of put into that lineup, just make sure we run. We get rebounds, we get stops, we get rebounds and run. That way we still kind of get into that flow. Moving the ball is a huge key. That's what helped us last game in Miami in the second half, just going to what we saw was working and moving the ball, sharing the ball, getting everybody involved."

The former No. 3 pick out of Duke even expressed confidence that this year's Knicks are much more equipped to win games without Randle compared to last season.

"One-hundred percent," Barrett said. "I think it could be anybody's night for sure. The way I come in looking at it, I just want to make the right plays whether I'm scoring, facilitating, rebounding, playing defense. I just want to make the right plays. Whenever one guy goes down, we always step up. It's a focus. I think it takes more focus, especially with having being down an All-Star. I'm very confident in our team and how we can handle things."