Julius Randle joined the New York Knicks under the team’s previous leadership, at a time when doing so was even less in vogue than it is now. He signed alongside a number of other power forwards including Marcus Morris and Bobby Portis – moves Knicks’ team president Steve Mills was chided for at the time.
But unlike most of the Knicks’ recent free agents, Randle looked like the right signing. He was not only a part of the team’s resurgence, he spearheaded it. Randle and the 2020-21 Knicks finished the season as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference – the first time in eight years the team qualified for the playoffs. Randle turned a major corner. He averaged 24.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game while shooting a career-best 41.1% on three-point attempts.
