I'm not saying he should start every game at 5. The great thing is when we do go small he's a legit small ball 5. Golden State starts a true center but goes small with Draymond. That should be our blue print as well. But really we need to see what happens this offseason. Now if we were somehow able to get PG and Lebron I would hope we would try our hardest to keep Randle, if at possible. That lineup would murder the opposition with Randle at 5. If we were to land PG and Cousins however, I feel that Randle would be a bit more dispensable. But hey, these would be good problems to have. I just don't think we should be moving Randle for peanuts when we have absolutely zero certainty that we are getting even one top FA at this time. It's not a risk I believe we should be taking. If you trade someone away I'd prefer it to be KCP or Clarkson. Cousins and PG are not going to be on the block at the deadline. So we are just talking about dumping salary for a pick here most likely.
While Randle has some potential to be Draymond, I don't think Randle has the mindset of of Draymond to fully devote himself to be a defensive stalwart like Draymond does or have the basketball IQ. I do think Randle offers a little bit more offensively, where Draymond is a better shooter, Randle is a much better finisher around the rim. The only way I'm in favor of letting Randle go is if it rids of Deng or gets us assets that would help in getting rid of Deng, like multiple draft considerations, or of course, gets us a star like PG or Cousins in return, which is less likely. Otherwise, I hold until we do figure out the situation.
Agreed. RE: the Draymond thing, I was dead set against Randle at small ball center, but he thoroughly proved me wrong in that department. True he neither has the basketball IQ of Draymond nor the absolute mindset and dedication to D, but he's as close as we've got and he's not really that far off. His D has been truly impressive this year. His ability to switch on smaller guys has been fantastic. He's the only big on our team who can do that. His man on D for the most part has been excellent this year too except, as you mentioned, a few times against true centers such as Embiid and DJ. Even then he got the best of Embiid the second time around in Philly after getting abused the first time here.
Think how much better he would be if he always had his hands up like a great defensive player does. WTF. Why this has not been beaten into his head by the organization by now is beyond me. It is so obvious and easily correctable. Make him f****** do it. He played with and against and around "Ron Artest" for 2 years for crissakes.
Heck of a game indeed, but there were a fair amount of times that game where we saw the same out of control Randle. Certainly not to say he wasn't the only one throwing the ball around. But I thought Luke said it best after the game in the presser on the difference between him starting now and when he was coming off the bench.
What did he say about that? Did he acknowledge that he has more impact as a starter and playing more minutes? I still feel not starting Julius could have been some FO strategy. But sure would have loved to have a recording of that team meeting and what was said by whom. Boom Randle is a starter ever since.
Last night was the good and the bad from him. Really a great game to watch if you want to understand him as a player. Good: Interior scoring and rebounding. Can start the fast break. Strong presence inside. On-ball defense. Bad: Turnover prone. Won’t pass the ball up in transition. Ball-stopper in the half court. Off-ball defense. There were times last night when I would have traded him on the spot and other times I hoped we keep him forever. That’s the Randle experience in a nutshell.
Wasn’t it something about his Qualifying Offer being lower if he started a certain amount of games after a certain amount of time?
Last night Julius had more maddening moments than he’s had all season for me. Overall he was a beast and had a tremendous impact, but he definitely had some brain farts. I do want to point out that 3 on 1 fastbreak real quick though. When Julius got the ball, he had his head down for a moment and was a little too casual. However, by the time he looked up, KCP was running basically down to where Lonzo was, so the defender could cover both from the paint. Could Randle have still thrown a lob? Yes, but if you've watched this team on the fastbreak, do you really want Randle throwing a lob from 30+ feet out? I hope not.
Yes there was some clause like that but the number of games was really low like 10 or so I think. You're going to reward all of his summer of work stepping up to Magic's challenge by keeping him on the bench for that. But others have said for the ltd minutes blowing up his per and such. The flip side is when he gets his head out of his a** and has really big games going forward that should look a whole lot more attractive I would think.
I hate when Randle in close proximity of defensive players thinks it's a good idea to start some of his aggressive moves with 9 foot tall level with his head dribbles. About as smart as rarely having his hands up properly on defense.
the benching to save like 1mill on his QO doesnt fly.....unless hes a greedy d****** like Noel, no way he would take a qualifying offer...unless theres some wink wink under table deal where mgmt tell him n his agent they'll reward him for taking QO n give him a big contract next yr if they do manage to get 2max guys here
I dunno about that one. I know that’s what he projects to, but when you actually PLAY him that many minutes what seems to happen is his defensive effort drops and he makes more dumb plays. Maybe both out of fatigue? His sweet spot seems to be 25-30 mins, if he actually played 36, seems we wouldn’t get as energetic and effective player.
There's so many things to the Randle story. We were routed in games where he was our starting 5, but Zo and BLo were out and BI/Kuz were playing hurt and/or poorly conditioned for extended minutes. Then we bring back Zo and BLo and plug Jules in at the starting 4 and look great. But then you consider the talent we played against (lowly ATL and Sac w/o GHill, and with the free throws we missed and the turnovers we had, we could have also lost these games against better teams as well) and how a newly released KCP clearly picked up his play and maybe Jules looked better because of it (also you guys can't deny how BLo's effective shooting had opened up the area for Jules to operate.) I still think the FO is forcing Luke to limit his minutes for either a possible trade or to leverage him in contract extensions. Pair that with the favorable words Mintz had towards Luke and the way Jules is being handled seems to be as part of some "master plan" that we, the fans, seem to have an idea of, but clearly don't know the fine print that's involved.
