There shouldn't be, however, much of a mystery concerning Randolph's whereabouts during the day.

"He loves the gym," says Trail Blazers assistant coach Bill Bayno. "He worked his butt off for me. When Zach gets to the gym he doesn't look at the clock. He works on his game and his conditioning. He just loves to play ball."

Randolph will formally join the Knicks today and hold his first press conference — at the Greenburgh practice facility — since Thursday's stunning trade that sent Channing Frye and Steve Francis to Portland for Randolph, Fred Jones and Dan Dickau.

Last week, Randolph was in Los Angeles training with Bayno, who spent the past 12 months working on Randolph's body and mind. When Bayno speaks about the 6-9, 250-pound Randolph, he paints a different picture of a player known as much for his off-the-court behavior as his vast basketball skills.

Bayno says that Randolph has matured and that his best years are still ahead of him. He talks about Randolph being a likeable guy who has made poor choices in his life and now has seen the error of his ways.

Thomas is confident he can get through to Randolph, who has a long rap sheet of offenses ranging from gun possession to assault. Randolph becomes the Knicks' most controversial acquisition since the team traded for Latrell Sprewell in January 1999.

"I've had off the court problems in my day so I know how tough it can be to manage your off the court life, especially during the season," Bayno says. "But I think Zach probably had his best year in terms of basketball (23.6 points, 10.1 rebounds) and maturing off the court."

Bayno and former Knick Monty Williams are in charge of player development for the Blazers. Bayno got his first big break in college as a grad assistant on P.J. Carlesimo's staff at Seton Hall. He eventually landed at Kansas under Larry Brown before working for John Calipari at UMass and becoming the head coach at UNLV. As a coach trying to resurrect his career, Bayno formed an immediate bond with Randolph.

"Zach is a very coachable player," Bayno said. "I wish him all the luck in the world because I really enjoyed working with him. He always wanted to work. This year we were working on his defense because offensively, he's just a scoring machine."

Randolph's greatest weakness is his inability to defend his position. In many ways he is similar to Eddy Curry: a big man who needs the ball down low. There is a feeling that Randolph and Curry will not work as a tandem because they are too similar.