I want to see this continue. We're headed on the road against some tougher competition, where the game might slow down, and we're relegated to more half-court action, and that's where I want to see growth. Yesterday, was a fantastic game and a very good match-up for him. Nevertheless, let's see how it continues against a team that plays a different style.
I took it all back JR. You're definitely better and more talented than Nance. The block on Harden in the 4th quarter was siiiiick.
I love how Julius played, but one game doesn't make him superior or inferior to Nance. It's a marathon not a sprint. We have two very talented, young power forwards and whoever is better has yet to be decided.
Randle has nice touch on those close to the basket shots. He still prefers to go left and has yet to show a counter move. Randle plays under control when he brings the ball up the court. He was a handful for Anderson last night in the paint. In the second half Randle showed discipline in running him off the three point line...
Great game from Julius. 9-11 he was getting the rolls on some of those finishes, and we'll take it. 18, 7 and 6 on 81% shooting, plus a great block in crunch time. Nice. The assists were very high but shouldn't be an absolute shocker - in preseason there were a couple games he led the team in assists once with 5. He's really been setting guys up well, whether it's draw and kick inside the paint or to the outside shooter. He really is doing the LO role on offense. And when he's got a size/strength advantage in the post he uses it very effectively as he did last night with Anderson. Still needs to hit that shot. And to be as good as LO or close he's got to improve on D.
There has been questions about why Randle does not take that mid-range shot when defenders lay off him. Well, either he does not have confidence it which I doubt OR he wants to move the ball around as predicated by Walton's offense. Randle has good footwork either facing up or with his back to the basket. He does need to box out more and be more proficient as setting screens. The rub here is that this is really Randle's sophomore season. At least as mentioned last night, Walton loves this group and that they are willing to be coached.
His J looks flat. Probably rushing the release a bit but he needs to keep taking them. Once he gets the timing right it'll start to drop. Julius with a jumpshot would be unstoppable so I'm excited how he progresses. Offensively he was near perfect but he needs to set better screens with solid contact. On defense he needs to keep his hands up and close out better on shooters. Some nitpicking but great game by Julius.
Randle is not a small ball center. His reach in fouls are driving me insane. His defensive awareness is terrible. We need Zu to suit up if we need more centers. Or just play Black as a small ball center.
Don't think this Randle at small ball center experiment is going to work, mainly because of slow rotations. I'd rather go with Randle and Nance, that might work out.
So much physical talent, but no court awareness at all. Sometimes it looks like he's completely oblivious to what's happening around him. Grabbing a defensive board with authority, pushing the ball, looking awesome... then he just passes it out of bounds for no reason.
There were so many times Moz went out to hedge and Randle never picked up Moz's man. It was like a free lane into the paint. He did have a very good offensive game but he gives up just as many points as he scores on defense.
I think Uncle P needs to tell big Julius a bedtime story about the swaggy one way player who could (play d)
He was in beast mode in the first half. Still ended up 7 for 10 with 9 boards 3 steals and three assists. But he really needs to improve defensively if he is going to continue to have stretches at small ball center. No one helped the helper all night so I don't think he's much more a culprit of it than anyone else in that regard. That was a team-wide problem.
