Anthony Randolph to miss opening week
The New York Knicks will kick of their campaign in the 2010-11 NBA season without Anthony Randolph after the young big man sprained his ankle, the team announced today.
According to reports, the 21-year old forward will be out for a week after hurting his ankle when he landed on his team-mate’s foot during a practice session on Tuesday.
"I'm feeling much better today than I did yesterday," said Randolph, who was acquired by the Knicks along with Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike in the deal that sent David Lee to Golden
State during the off-season.
"It wasn't as bad as it could have been. The other injury is healed up fine. It's healthy," Randolph added.
The 6ft 11in power forward, who missed Golden State Warriors’ final 47 games last season because of a torn ligament in the same ankle that was hurt on Tuesday, was projected to be the team’s
back-up at the four spot.
And now that he’s out, Wilson Chandler will take his role, but the Knicks will have additional problems on the boards after getting out-rebounded by an average of the 12.1 rebounds a game
during their eight pre-season games.
The 23-year-old forward, Chandler was the team’s starting shooting guard last season, but he lost the starting spot to second-round draftee Landry Fields, who had an impressive showing in
the pre-season, where he averaged 8.6 points and 2.9 rebounds a game.
New York Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni made the surprising decision of starting Landry instead of Chandler, but he clarified that they just want to add some depth in their second unit.
"If Wilson was starting and got into foul trouble, we would be a little bit behind depth-wise. But Wilson will be able to spell the four and the three, so there are different reasons why
you want to start Landry, and that would be one of them," D'Antoni said.
The Knicks, which will open the season in Toronto against the Raptors on Wednesday, is expected to use reserve forward Shawne Williams in place of Randolph.
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