Hey Julius, we decided to reward you with a contract extension and a starting position because you've had such a great attitude. --- said nobody
I keep seeing this narrative on the board but I'm not buying it. He has had his moments, but he has actually responded to adversity well. When Boron first benched him, he responded by playing great ball off the bench. These moments somehow have turned into this lore of Julius always moping when things don't go his way and I think that is an incredible exaggeration. And again, if the team was performing and the lineup was working, this doesn't become a problem. Julius wants to win and like the millions of Lakers fans that have watched basketball in the last year, starting Deng and Nance together is the antithesis of a winning formula.
I get that, but as a player who's touted to have so much talent, he comes off as someone who doesn't put in the effort on every play. Julius responds well to challenges, especially on the court. But, he is not a proactive player. He just doesn't go out and do things a player with good basketball IQ does. The intangibles.
Yet he's still showing more than any of our other forwards and Ingram is showing a regression in IQ. The point isn't to argue how great Julius is, but that he currently gives us a better chance to win than our other options.
The only chance he gave us is leading the team in (-) for the whole season. He started the season well with a whopping -25 when he's on the floor. One legged Griffin punked him the whole game, and this guy couldn't do jack to respond.
really good point. Griffin punked the guy who played the least minutes for the whole game. If you seriously are trying to argue that either Nance or Ingram are better players at this stage, then I'm going to focus on something more worthwhile. Through preseason I think it's pretty cut and try that Randle has outperformed Ingram and Nance. They all need to play better if we're going to show improvement, but until the other 2 guys start making an impact, Randle's rebounding and toughness is sorely needed.
I do not think Ingram has shown a regression in b-ball IQ. This isn't me sticking up for Ingram. I think the problem is Luke and Magic have decided what Ingram is going to do this season, but Ingram just isn't that player right now, maybe ever. Imagine if Popovich forced Kawhi into ISOs when he was in year two? He's being mishandled. He's obviously been given a directive, and he's trying to execute it. And then when he can't it makes him look stupid.
I completely agree he is being misused. I do think there are times he goes ISO against the wishes of the coaching staff, but he's the golden child. Don't get me wrong, I'm not selling on the kid yet and I still have high hopes for him.
Hard to say. The reason I think the ISOs may be by design is they seem to be the only thing being ran for him. If he is our Golden Child that's supposed to score 20ppg, he'd be getting different looks. Our offense ran smoother last year. Even if the coaching staff is not pleased with all the ISOs, their directive for him since the end of last season is be aggressive, be aggressive, be aggressive. If he isn't getting the ball in any other situation other than an ISO, he probably thinks he has to take it to the rim. Once again, I'm not trying to make excuses for him, but he looks like he's been given a directive that he's not able to complete. It's on the coaching staff to clear up any confusion.
He's definitely been given a directive, but I think he's taking it to the extreme right now. I just get tired of the LO treatment back on CL with Randle. I think he's perfectly suited for a Randolph type role. Besides maybe Kuz, we currently have nobody on the roster that is showing enough to get significantly more minutes. The whole premise of my Randle defense. If we are winning or even losing but playing well, I don't care if he's on the bench.
3 fouls and 3 turnovers in 13 minutes. It's just not smart basketball. And he shoots about every time he touches it. It's frustrating for me watching, so I know a guy like Kuzma has to be ready to scream.
This offensive system isn't for Julius. Doesn't suit his game. Julius must be still upset that he's not starting. At this point, let Luol Deng steal all the minutes at back up PF from Julius since he's playing like a bum and not motivated and show Luke to give him a reason why he should not be coming off the bench.
