You're right. Julius needs to be more consistent in that respect. Especially because our starters seem to feed off his energy more than anyone else. He's probably our most important player and Luke knows that.
Earlier in the month. He's had five miserable games this month, but he does have five good to excellent games in a row. Here's to consistency, big man.
Why are you going all the way back to when Julius returned from the hip injury....? Are you expecting him to be super human with Kobe-esque pain tolerance? He was our most consistent player to start the season (about 20 games), slowed down after the hip injury, and back to being consistent again. I see no "string of stinkers" when he's healthy. In fact I see the exact opposite; string of great performances.
"Honey ...... why is Luke calling you at home tonight?" Uhh ..... umm ...my .... my .... errr .....attitude was a little bad at practice today. Your what?? Listen up Lotus Flower or whatever they call you now ..... we have another mouth to feed and = Button Pushed.
The others are - Durant / Cousins / Griffin / Giannis / Harden / Westbrook / Millsap I understand some of the consistency and stinker concerns, but not to the level being discussed. If he was having that many (And that bad of games) and still averaging 14/9/4, that would be mean he's putting up monster games to compensate which is not the case (And that's not a knock on Randle). However, I think he is cheating himself out of a 16-17 points / 11 rebound line with some of those stinker games mixed in, but that is splitting hairs at this point. From the tweet above he's in good company, all but one of those guys are vets and Randle is still a youngin' that is getting better. Randle definitely benefits from having a healthy lineup around him (mainly DAR/Young), when you start putting Calderon/Huertas/MWP in the game, Randle can't dominate the game in which he is best served, pass first, score second. Anyway, I'm thoroughly enjoying his play this season (Randle homer raises his hand here), he still has stuff to work on, but the trajectory of his game is definitely still straight up.
I look at this in a very simple manner. His play is already well above average, especially for a guy his age. Now, since he has so many holes in his game -- there is so much more space to improve. He is going to be an absolute monster (Webber?) in his prime.
Randle is slowly fulfilling his destiny of being this team's Draymond Green. Sure the comparison is sort of on the nose, but I think it's where we're headed and I don't just mean production wise. The team is best when Randle is operating at the top of the key with his bull-in-a-china-cabinet approach having guys cut and screen around the perimeter. He is naturally looking to get the open man the ball, but is beginning to recognize when and where it's his turn to attack which is what opened up Draymond's game. The comparison goes further in that the team feeds off his energy. When Randle is locked in, the team follows suit, and I'm not sure there's anyone as disruptive on this team as Randle when he wants to be. If he can bring intensity and focus to every possession like Draymond does, the team will follow him. It's not in Russell's nature to lead guys that way and there's no other options on the team to do it. Still, Randle's game will take the next leap when he defends the basket more effectively. Then another leap when he starts taking and making more jumpers. At that point he very well could be an All-Star. I've always seen the potential there and boy are these glimpses tantalizing.
LOL ..... isn't this about the time, when things are starting to click for him again to take his game to next higher level ..... that Luke should bench him for 6 weeks to make sure his point is getting through?
Remember reading this somewhere but can't find it again. Randle has had 3 triple doubles, his draft class has had 4.
