Thibodeau credited Randle for his professional approach during Knicks training. He noted that Randle arrived in New York early to train with the coaches before the official start of individual training on 21 September.
“He’s a professional professional. He’s in great shape. He’s willing to work and do whatever you ask. Having that kind of leadership is important to our team,” Thibodeau said. “We need consistency on the part of our whole team and we also need everyone to want to keep improving and I think he has shown it and he has shown it to me in the last three or four weeks.”
Randle was the Knicks’ biggest addition to free agency last summer. The club asked him to be the number 1 offensive option and a team leader. As such, he received a greater weight of criticism when the club finished 21-45.
It will be interesting to see how the new Knicks regime views Randle. Based on the numbers and the eye test, the Knicks lineups with Randle and RJ Barrett did not perform well last season.