The New York Knicks have benefited as a whole from the arrival of OG Anunoby, who my fellow writer Aldo has shown a lot of praise for lately. It’s been well-deserved, considering that the Knicks are still undefeated since he’s come to the Big Apple. He may only be the third-leading scorer on the team with averages of 14.2 points, but he’s also averaging a plus/minus of +22.2 per game while shooting an insane 54.9% off of 4.4 three-point attempts per game.

What I didn’t expect, though, is just how much playing alongside someone like Anunoby would end up benefiting Julius Randle. The seventh pick in the 2014 draft has had his ups and downs in New York, but he’s looking like he’s worth his contract again so far this year. During the Knicks’ 5-0 run, Randle is leading the Knicks in scoring with 28.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. He’s also shooting 49% from the field, 35.7% from three and is making 81.4% of his free throws while taking 8.6 attempts from the charity stripe per game.

These are signs that Randle is playing comfortably and finding the right spots to be aggressive while also trusting in both Anunoby and Jalen Brunson to carry the load when necessary. Part of Randle’s struggles in the past have been related to him trying too hard to make things happen, which of course was helped by the arrival of Brunson and then Anunoby.

At this rate, Randle looks like a bonafide All-Star, though it may be hard to make the Eastern Conference’s team thanks to their plethora of talented big men. However, he deserves a ton of credit for showing up and helping the Knicks prove that they had a good reason to take a risk on bringing Anunoby to town.

The Knicks are in a pretty good position to build off of last year’s success as they currently are in a guaranteed playoff spot in the East and also are in the mix to challenged for the third seed. They also seem to have a better atmosphere in the locker room this season.

Since we give a lot of credit to Brunson’s leadership, we should now also give Randle his due. If he can keep up this kind of play until the end of the season, the Knicks might just make some noise.