Photo Credit: Twitter @BleacherReport

The New York Knicks’ star power forward had both a resurgent and breakout season in 2020-21.

New York Knicks star forward Julius Randle has won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Randle had a career season and averaged 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and six assists per game. He shot 45.6% from the field and a career-best 41.1% from three. Randle also led the league in minutes with 37.6 per game.

This was a big step forward for Julius Randle after his first season with the Knicks. He averaged 19.5 points and 9.7 rebounds, but shot just 27.7% from three and was both out of shape and inefficient.

Randle then got stronger in the pandemic-lengthened offseason and came back a completely new player. He also proved a strong leader in the Knicks locker room.

Simply put, Julius Randle earned this award.

Josh Benjamin has been a staff writer at ESNY since 2018. He has had opinions about everything, especially the Yankees and Knicks. He co-hosts the “Bleacher Creatures” podcast and is always looking for new pieces of sports history to uncover, usually with a Yankee Tavern chicken parm sub in hand.