Julius Randle Discussion: MIP

I think most colleges and universities are cool with the F bomb. Lots of professors use it in class (I don't). But remember that this site censors that f***ing stuff.

BTW, I wouldn't censor myself because of the mere presence of women. They can drop 'em, too.

 

The "bad words" I use outside class are far more prevalent than in class. I use them in class only in the context of appropriate discussions. I have zero problem with bad language. But some students are turned off by it, and I love language, so I want to demonstrate how to say things clearly and effectively without all-purpose words like F. Master the others first.

 

As I have said many times, I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger on a Randle trade if the right offer comes along...

He is not a foundational piece by any stretch of imagination. The Lakers need to establish and attitutde and culture and thats primarily a mental/personal quality rather than basketball talent (which he has).

 

I think the assumption we get from Fish is that Julius doesn't take the game seriously or work hard, but I don't think that's it. I think Julius just doesn't open his own game enough. He's risk averse and thus doesn't develop enough. He improved in so many areas this year, but it wasn't until late in the year that he started shooting threes when he had said he worked all summer on it. He's too afraid to fail. Defensively he's as inconsistent as any of our kids, but I think I've never understood why. He said early in his career he wanted to emulate what Draymond Green does, well okay then he needs to remember where Green makes his money.

I'm not giving up on him yet, but if he can net us a veteran star then I'm absolutely interested. I like Julius and I think he'll have a very good NBA career. I disagree with anyone saying he's not a foundational piece or whatever the case may be. He's got a tremendous physical profile and I still believe when he turns up his aggressiveness he's as effective as almost any other young player. Still, if you can package Julius for a legitimate All-Star, I do it. I do the same for any of our kids though besides Ingram.

edit- I don't mean to sound like I don't think he has a mentality issue. My point is his mentality issue isn't laziness, it's taking chances. He's not a chance taker and so he holds himself back. Sometimes you have to get dunked on defensively...

 

Yeah sort of in a way. Honestly I had the same issue at his age. Some people never grow out of it and some do. You have to be willing to take chances. I mean Randle has shown he's not going to back down from a fight, but he is afraid of missing a shot. I have a lot of criticisms of Russell, but he's certainly never been afraid of the moment. Russell might be the inverse problem of Randle.

One is too afraid to take chances and one is not afraid enough of taking chances.

 

I think there are way too many instances where Randle is just not engaged in the game. I think it is a mixture between laziness and immaturity(leaning heavily towards the laziness) I know players can't go hard for 48 minutes but Randle takes off play after play.

Last nights game was a terrible game for Randle. His box score doesn't reflect it but it was a total "mail in the effort" game. Getting outworked, no boxing out, letting guys blow by him. Out of all our young guys I think he has the highest number of these type of lack of effort games. It's totally frustrating because he has so much talent.

 

It's a tough one for me. I love Randle and have been one of his biggest fans/proponents here. However, he's got a LOT to work on. And to me most of it isn't offseason stuff (except of course his shooting and working on that right hand) - most of it is attentiveness to detail within game. Defense, which is his GLARING weakness is effort and smarts over skill. Those really are mental aspects as Fish pointed out. You don't need the abundance of talent he has already shown to focus on those two things. You need to have your head together and you need the desire to shut down and destroy your opponent. I've seen small glimpses of Randle with that intention - great switches on guards, jumping in the passing lane and disrupting passes, blocking the hell out of someone in the lane. But it's only been that - occasional glimpses. His focus is so far off this most of the time. I also miss the monster rebounder that he was last year. This year again, glimpses, but not focus on the boards. He's very distracted a lot on the court and I wonder at times if he doesn't seem to exhibit a bit of ADHD type of behavior.

Bottom line, I like the kid a lot. He's got some intangibles that I love and at times can demonstrate the heart of a lion out there. But I just don't know if he's going to make the cut here long term. As ever, we'll see. Like therealdeal mentioned, I'd be ok with trading Randle/Clarkson and Houston's pick for Paul George. But I wouldn't trade Randle just for the sake of trading.

 

Watching this you'd think Julius was a defensive stalwart all season.

This is a video I'd watch a thousand times if I were Julius. Look at what he can do (should do). If he can do it sometimes, he can do it all the time.