I think people are ashamed of results and effort. We were 10-10 at one point, and then improvement stopped and things fell apart. Fans are running out of excuses for poor play, and he is in that group. One game you can see Draymond Green, and in another game he disappears and has no impact. Our players are like a box of chocolate. You never know what you are going to get from game to game. We expect...
My concern is this not only with Julius but a couple other of our young guys. How many great players that lead their teams to championships have their work ethic and focus questioned? A common denominator with great players is drive to be great, to win. Pretty soon if these issues are still issues it will be time to move on. I think Sirron is right. Effort is not acceptable and therefore neither are the results. I want players like Nance that I know are going to show up. A coach can't coach effectively not knowing which Julius or which DLO is going to show. Effort has got to be there. A good coach will look bad with these kind of players.
Winning has a tendency to obscure previous perceived shortcomings. I just dug into some Warriors Forums to see what they were saying about Curry early on. Found three threads right off the bat from 2012. One said his injuries made him not worth having, one said that he might not be better than his dad, and one said that the Warriors should not extend his contract. None of these directly questions his work ethic, mind you, but I think Lakers fans are rather foolish to question Russell's. The point here is that winning obscures things and players change over time. Curry's ankles aren't an issue anyone is talking about now. That was only five years ago they were saying, "Don't extend him." "Move him on draft day." http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1176070
Yeah. I would have been scared to extend Steph too. But Randle is different than our other young guys with questionable work ethic (Russell/Clarkson) on the court. Randle also seems to have a major issue with defensive (and offensive) awareness. He has a nose for the ball when it goes up and is a pretty good rebounder. Other than that, his natural basketball instincts are lacking. He's just always been the fastest strongest kid on the court. Up until college, that was enough. Now? He is a little faster and stronger than most in the league, but the gap has shrunk to the point where an ounce of savvy by whoever he's playing against renders his athletic advantage null and void. The disturbing part is that doesn't seem to be improving. His outside shot is marginally better. He doesn't go bull-in-a-china-shop as often. But overall, he's making the same mistakes he made in his first summer league games. And because he lost his rookie year, next season is the last one before he becomes a restricted free agent. We are going to have to make a choice on him soon.
Never saw an all star in Randle. Always thought he'd be a good blue collar kid around 15 pts and 10 reb
I'm fine with that too. But I was involved in so many battles with the next LBJ/Barkley/CWebb crowd lol
Well that's on them. Expecting the #7 overall pick to be in that category is well that's unlikely to happen. Top three picks such as Russell or Ingram or whoever is the pick probably have a better shot at being that elite superstar and even that is a crapshoot.
He's got the athletic tools to be a tremendous player. So far he's not shown the head to realize that talent. I do however think a kid who averages 15/10 is a really good player.
Absolutely nothing wrong with a 15/10 guy taken with the 7th pick in the draft. All I want to see if he's gonna be here long-term is more effort to improve on defense and more consistency, which can still both come with age.
Yeah there's still time, but it's a definite red flag that he hasn't grown more aware. Ingram and Zubac are making gains in leaps and bounds compared to Randle and to an extent Russell. How many times can you make the same mistake?
Must be frustrating for Thomas Robinson to be on the bench behind more depth. He seems to have performed very well when he's been out there. Love to see him get regular minutes.
He's 21 years old guys. Not even done with his 2nd season. Need to let these guys develop. 4 year window at least unless you get a superstar in their prime for them.
Derrick Williams also averaged 12/6 at the age of 21. Look at him now. Randle is 22 and in his 3rd season. He might not have played in his rookie season but he still learned a lot watching film, being in practices, getting acclimated.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Julius is the new LO. the same criticism that Julius gets is exactly what people said about LO when he began is Laker days. I look forward to fast forwarding 5-10 years from now when Julius has found his niche in this league. He may not be with the Lakers at that time, but how quickly people forget history. I'm sure glad nobody pre-judged my future when I was 22 years old.
