NY Knicks: 4 Reasons Julius Randle Deserves MIP Award

NY Knicks: How Does Julius Randle Stack Up to the Competition?

A SLAM Online article from February of this year listed five possible candidates for this award:  Julius Randle, Chris Boucher, Jerami Grant, Collin Sexton, and Christian Wood.

A Magic Together on NBA.com article from March also ranked Sexton (#7), Grant (#3), and Randle (#1) in their top candidates for the Most Improved Player Award.

So, given that Grant and Sexton are the only other players listed in both sources, those are the two we will compare to Julius Randle for the purposes of this article.

Let’s begin with Jerami Grant who like Randle is 26 years old.

Grant certainly has a case for the MIP award. He has nearly doubled his points per game from 12.0 last season with Denver to 22.6 this season with Detroit. His TPA is also up from 16.79 in 2019-2020 (his highest previous number) to 36.92 this year.

However, that TPA number is nothing compared to either Randle’s total this year or the jump he has made. Grant doesn’t stuff the stat sheet like Randle, plays for a worse team, and has a lower Value Over Replacement Player than Randle.

In plain language: Julius Randle has been robbed if Grant wins this award over him.

That goes double for Collin Sexton. Almost point by point.

Yes, he has made growth in most of the statistics listed above, and yes, he appears to be settling into his role in Cleveland, but he does not impact his team or the league standings as a whole in the way that Julius Randle does.

So, how does Julius Randle compare to the competition? I’d argue there is no competition.