NBA: Top 10 candidates for 2019-20 Most Improved Player

Second-year players aren’t often considered candidates for Most Improved Player, but Thomas Robinson of the New York Knicks isn’t an ordinary case.

For starters, Robinson was not a lottery pick in 2018. Heck, he wasn’t even a first-round selection.

Instead, the Knicks took a shot at the athletic but raw 7-foot-1 center who did not play in 2017-18 after leaving Western Kentucky University before the collegiate season began.

What New York got was a bright spot in an awful season. Robinson wound up starting 19 games and appearing in 66 as a rookie, putting up 7.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in just 20.6 minutes per game.

He finished second in the NBA in blocks per game and posted a swaterrific 4.3 blocks per 36 minutes.

Offensively, Robinson is a raw as they come, shooting 69.4 percent while seldom venturing outside the restricted area. How seldom? Of his 291 attempts last season, 263 came from inside of three feet, including 128 dunks.

He didn’t attempt a 3-pointer as a rookie. Robinson only took two shots longer than 10 feet and the average distance of a Robinson attempt was just 1.5 feet.

So he’s at best a work in progress offensively.

Defensively, like many young shot blockers, he’ll have to keep himself on the floor. He averaged 3.3 fouls committed per game last season, despite playing less than half the game on average, with a 5.7 fouls per 36 minutes rate that could mean the backups should stay plenty loose.

The per-36 rates always come with some risks when a player is only in the 20-minutes-per-game range, but his 1.4 steals and 11.2 rebounds per-36 bode well for a nice leap now that he’s the likely starter at the 5 for a team looking to give its youngsters as much playing time as possible.

The Knicks, like their neighbors across the bridge in Brooklyn, have never had a Most Improved Player winner.