Julius Randle Thanks Alvin Gentry For Most Improved Player Award
New York Knicks star Julius Randle was officially named the NBA’s most improved player for 2020-2021 on Tuesday night.
The award comes after a remarkable season for both Julius Randle and the Knicks, who unexpectedly made the playoffs.
Julius Randle becomes only the second player to win the accolade in his seventh season or later. The last to do it was Hedo Turkoglu, who won Most Improved Player in his 8th season in 2008.
This season, Randle averaged career highs in points (24.1), rebounds (10.2), assists (6.0), 3-point percentage (41.1%) and free throw percentage (81.1%). He won the award with 98/100 first placed votes, ahead of Jerami Grant and Michael Porter Jr.
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His form this season has been thanks to a gradual increase in the mass of three pointers attempted and made. In his first six seasons, Randle made 168 3-pointers while shooting 29.5% from deep.
This season, he made 160 threes on 5.5 attempts a game. Randle credits then-Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry for his improvement from deep.
“For me, that’s all I really needed to hear,” Randle said.Â
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“It was sort of like a confidence booster in a way, but it was also like, ‘Yo, this is the opportunity. This is what I signed up for. This is the opportunity I’ve been waiting on to be able to expand my game.’
“It really started there. Then, last year, I had a down year shooting the ball, so I was able to clean some things up heading into this year and just keep expanding and building on what I already knew I could do. A lot of things in this league is about opportunity and confidence and mindset. Those things kind of came in all at once in New Orleans. I was able to build on that.”
