After last season was suspended and the Knicks were not invited to the bubble, Randle used all his spare time to improve his game and worked vigorously in his hometown of Dallas. With the help of his longtime coach, Tyler Relph, Randle will look to improve not only his game but himself.
Going into this season, Randle looks lighter and faster on his feet, which is a credit to all the conditioning work he did in the off-season. Randle is also shooting basketball at an efficient pace, the best he has in his entire career, which shows that he was looking to enter this season as a better player, which he has done.
Randle had to know that last season wasn’t the best of him because not only was the media talking about his game and his form every day, but the fan base had already seen enough. In last night’s post game against the Atlanta Hawks, Randle knew he had to redeem himself.
He said: “I felt like I let the team down last year”. This is admirable because not only is Randle taking responsibility for last season, but for Randle self-assessing himself is not the easiest thing to do.
Randle could have easily folded under pressure from the media and New York fans after last season, but he did the exact opposite. He has been working quietly on his game and has stayed prepared for this season. Now, if that’s not something New Yorkers on the whole can appreciate, well I don’t know what it is.