Knicks: Comparing older versions of Julius Randle to today’s

Last year’s Julius Randle vs Today’s Knicks Julius Randle

After one season in New Orleans, Randle signed a 3-year deal to come to New York. In his first season, he experienced some ups and downs as the Knicks fought amongst the bottom half of the Eastern Conference, and had their season cut short due to the COVID-19 virus.

Last season in New York, Julius Randle scored 19.5 points per game, slightly lower than in New Orleans, as well as 9.7 rebounds per game and 3.1 assists per game.

His scoring numbers while slightly less than that of this year, are still similar. Last season he shot 15.7 shots per game at 46%, compared to this year where Randle is shooting 16.9 shots per game at a slightly higher 48%.

An all-around improvement from in his second season on the Knicks.

In his first season, Randle began to shoot the three more often and struggled. He shot 3.6 three-pointers per game, about one less attempt than this season, but only made about 27% of those shots.

This season he’s shooting 4.5 threes per game at a far improved 40%. This statistic in particular helps to show the improvement made by Randle this season and it also shows how much work he’d put in during the offseason, especially with his shot.

Another area Randle has significantly grown from last season is his passing. He’s averaging 2.4 more assists per game and already has almost twice as many games with at least five assists, only 31 games into the season.

He’s rebounding at a higher rate this season with 1.2 more rebounds per game compared to last. The defensive end is again where Randle is grabbing the majority of his boards with 2.1 more defensive rebounds per game this season.

Some of these increases could be attributed to the additional four minutes per game Thibodeau is playing Randle so far this season.

It’s pretty clear now that Julius Randle has improved drastically from years past. Let’s hope he’s a key piece when the Knicks really turn things around and compete for a championship annually.

Julius Randle has experienced his fair share of struggles throughout his career but he clearly worked very hard in the extended offseason to improve upon different aspects of his game and it has translated to his best season and a potential spot in the All-Star game.

He is shooting the three-point shot more than he ever has before and is shooting it far more efficiently as well.

Randle is taking the most shots of his career and it’s equivalating to the most points of his career.

He’s distributing better than ever before totaling the most assists of his career. Randle is also attacking the boards grabbing more rebounds than he has in any previous season.

He’s playing the most minutes of his career and it’s probably because he’s playing so damn well. When a starter has shown improvement across all aspects of their game why wouldn’t the coach play them more?

While he has shown steady progression throughout his career he has never made such a large jump from one season to another.

This season he’s not only been the best player on the Knicks, he’s been one of the best forwards in the Eastern Conference. Not only that, he’s helping make his teammates better, which is exactly what fans hope their star player can do.