I was fine with how Randle played even though he can be a bit lazy on boxing out properly at times and relying too much on his power and athleticism. I did like that he owned up to that turnover in the final minute when were up 99-97 with less than a minute left. Should have back it out, but it's preseason. We'll learn.
We have conscientious young men on our team. A less mature individual would have been indifferent about it. They won't be any immediate reprimands for mistakes but our players are expected to grow from it.
He's getting better. There are still lapses here and there, but I can totally see what he can become; he's a freak in transition. He's starting to 'think' the game more than he probably ever has...that's a very good thing.
Yeah I see the improvements as well. His energy in the 3rd quarter was incredible. Let's not forget that he's capable of a 13-10-5 type stat line in basically his second year.... at age 21. Patience is key. Not everyone develops at the speed of D'Angelo. It's encouraging to see that his right hand is much improved. And when his jumper starts to fall.... watch out.
D-LO and Randle had a very nice 1-4 action on the pick in roll that result in a Randle basket; that was nice. There was another sequence when he contested hard on the close out forced the miss, got the ball and dribbled up court and passed it to I believe Nick who made an open 3...this is going to be a fun year.
I loved his offense for the most part last night. Didn't force it too much, great stuff of the rebound and push, some nice drive and kick, a good p and r sequence with Russell that they should do more of, and he was pretty patient and effective overall. On D, however, the small ball experiment was largely a fail last night IMO because Randle's help D and rim protection is just horrible right now. Maybe it'll get better. But he just doesn't seem to have good instincts in that regard. His hard switches on guards are good, but often times he commits when he should just shade and leaves the big to roll without any protection. He needs a TON of work still on help D. I don't see him playing the small ball center any time soon. It's not fun to watch that. At this stage of his career he's going to need a real rim protecting center with him at all times I think. Luckily we've got some with Mozgov, Zubac, and even Black and Yi to some extent.
Much improved on offense but his defensive awareness is still mostly atrocious. Howz about that sequence when he was ball watching completely alone 15ft from anyone and worried about protecting the paint, thus losing red hot Tolliver wide open for the 3?
He needs a ton of work if the team wants to use him as the Center. He doesn't box out well and he doesn't have a feel for rim protecting.
I think Real's buddy that talked to Jerry West wasn't lying and West was right. I think Randle can be a nice contributor in this league, but he ain't going to be the player we hoped for. He's all physical tools with zero mental game. You can look like a beast and get away with it at the hs and college level cause you're just bigger and faster, but when that advantage shrinks, players that are smarter than you can cover that athletic advantage.
For better or for worse, I do have to give Randle props. Come hell or hot water he thinks he can dribble through everyone down the floor. Again last night he tried to do this and caused a turnover. Another time he weaved through 4-5 guys with impressive ball control and dribble moves before he was fouled.
He's no longer an untouchable trade asset to me. Before I was very hesitant to think about it, but now, for the right piece(s), I'm totally ok with it. Hopefully he changes my opinion back.
I agree but only to a very short extent. Randle looks like he'll never be All-Star material, but he's learning and growing still. His growth is just slower than it should be. He's playing well right now, but his learning curve takes longer than the other kids. My only true concern at this point (because he's shown good growth everywhere else) is why he won't take a shot still. He said he spent all summer on it. We've seen it looks a little better. Why won't he pull the trigger? He's absolutely GOT to take the open jumper when he has it. Otherwise, I'm never going to really be disappointed in a constant double-double threat that can change the game in transition. There's still plenty of value in that player. I think people around here are pretty unnaturally tough on him and it's probably because he's not a very media friendly kid. If he had Jordan's or even D'Angelo's personality I think people would like him more.
Still way too early for this kind of talk. I've used this example before and even though its a completely different position I think it holds some weight. Steph Curry was very average his first 3-5 years with ankle problems and play making abilities before exploding into stardom the last 3 years. Randle is in his 2nd year of actually playing even though he's got 3 years of service. It's my belief that until a players 5th year it's hard to know what he's really going to be, especially if there are injuries like Curry had in his early part of his career.
But Steph's problems were physical. Randle just doesn't seem to have natural basketball awareness. Those natural basketball instincts that separate the serviceable from the good to great. If it were mental mistakes, those can be corrected. But it seems like more than that. He seems lost at times, especially on defense.
It's really noticeable when you see a player like D'Angelo Russell picking up the finer points of the game and all the options in something like pick and roll. That may prove to be a very unfair comparison down the road, but as far as basketball IQ, they are not on the same level it appears.
we, and the lakers, have no choice but to ride this out. randle's trade value is pretty low, and his ceiling is still pretty high. you just roll with it. i'll say this: if he looks like this at the end of this year, i'd start worrying about how to handle contract negotiations. could have a motiejunas situation or worse.
We're in the pre-season. It's way too early to say Randle is never gonna be what we hope. This guy is coming off a double double season and last year was a much better player in the second half than the first half much like Russell. It's a new system, a completely different brand of basketball than this team is used to be playing and it's gonna take some time for all the players to get a grasp on. There's been countless players throughout the history of the league who didn't play nearly as well as Randle in his first year end up being All Star players in the NBA. The guy has plenty of time to figure it out. If we're deep into the season and he hasn't improved at all I'll start to get a little concerned, but we're in the second game of pre-season for God's sake. I'm amazed at the overreaction every year from meaningless exhibition games.
