Really nice game tonight from Randle. That's the activity we've been missing from him while he was recovering from pneumonia. Good to see him return to his earlier form from this season. He got jobbed by the refs on a bunch of cheap fouls.
A couple really dumb fouls too. Why is he pressuring Carmelo at the half-court line? Kobe could do it, but Kobe was an elite defender in his prime. You're not Kobe, Julius! You want to be Kobe? Get better at help defense first. Still, all-in-all it was a good game from him. He showed good activity and effort. I liked his mobility out there. Putting him next to Tarik really seemed to give them both more energy. I know Julius wasn't super efficient around the rim, but Porzingis can do that to you. My favorite part of Julius's game was his effort against Porzingis actually. It seemed like he was playing with that edge again. Porzingis still had 16/9/2 but he was only 5/14 and 0/5 from deep. Julius did a great job of running Porzingis off the free throw line and playing solid, physical defense against him.
Good question. I think part of it is scheme, but part of it is that Julius struggles to put it all together on the floor. He has his triple double games, but he has games where he's scoring and it's almost like he forgets to rebound. Last night he was working really hard defensively, but that meant he lost focus in other areas. Also keep in mind last night he was guarding Porzingis so he was away from the rim a lot. Ingram ended up crashing the glass more than usual.
i actually like the strategy. guys like melo and harden (even kobe some back in the day) don't want you to pressure them that far out--they're not pgs and don't know how not to let you dictate the move via pressure. the mistake was putting his hands on him; that was super dumb. refs are all watching that play and only that play at that moment. i liked that he went back at him after getting stuffed and used his strength to bump him off for the clear lay-in a couple times. didn't randle block kp's jumpshot in isolation, too? hadn't seen that before.
If Julius had shown me any sort of consistency of effort defensively, I would have trusted him in that situation. Instead he came off like Sasha Vujacic giving me hustle points instead of smart play. Yes he did block a jumper from Porzingis which I thought was impossible. I'm almost positive he fouled him, but what was important was Julius giving great effort defensively on the perimeter. He played well against Porzingis.
Good interview. He's a thoughtful young man and it gives good insight to why he is the way he is at times on the court. Not an excuse for some of his lapses, but at least context for them. He's the kind of guy to beat himself up when he shouldn't. He's the kind of kid who won't take another shot if he misses. He really has to outgrow the fear of making a mistake.
Great interview and up close information for outsiders of Julius the person..... thoughtful and smart like Tarik. sirron shouldn't have done the drooling Julius Enstein gif. :Randallconfused:
The issues we have with our young players is one is a touch laid back and the other acts too cautious. The injuries had really impacted the budding continuity and chemistry they were building early on so now with the full youth movement in gear no reason they can't figure it out.
