You guys are undervaluing Randle. What other player can defend 1 thru 5? Randle stopped Boogie and Wall, both Top 3 players at their relative positions, in consecutive possesions. Very few players in the league has that ability. I put his potential over Odom.
This was always the word that hung over Lamar, until he FINALLY got it 08-10. Once everything clicked for LO, he became one of the most talented and versatile players focused. Consistency and focus. For Randle to truly reach his potential, he needs these two things. The last few games, we've been getting this Randle.
Well... Odom could actually. You're undervaluing Odom and basing too much on a small sample size. We've seen now 2-3 years of Randle and this is him at his peak. When he hits a valley, the narrative will change. Odom was a stud and should have been an All-Star. No one is insulting Randle by comparing him to Lamar f***ing Odom.
Odom did not have the strength to defend Boogie imo. Boogie has like 60lb on Odom. His peak? Randle is 23 and still improving. Randle is no where near his peak. At 23 Odom was a pothead with the Clips. Randle is much more stable mentally. All I said is Randle is playing at a level above Odom right now. No more no less.
Yes, but that's not the point. We wouldn't know how many more minutes he could sustain his production because Luke refuses to play him past 20 minutes. I see no evidence of him slowing down when he gets yanked.
Respect your opinion, but I've never seen Odom impact the game defensively for stretches that Randle has shown in the Pelicans and Wizards game. And I haven't missed many Lakers games since we traded Shaq.
@tada I don't know about Real, but I would take that 1st round pick. But let me preface this a bit...I only do it knowing where he stands in contract discussions. Randle is in no-mans land exclusively based off his contract situation. I would love for him to agree to his qualifying offer next summer and play for around $5M for the 2018/19 season. Under this scenario, it doesn't hurt our ability to sign 2 max guys and it allows Randle to continue to come off the bench where I honestly think he can thrive (based off of our limited sample to this point). However if he balks at the QO and he wants $15-17M per, we could be in trouble with retaining him. The beauty of the RFA is that his tax hit is only 12M as we shop for free agents. However with stretching Deng (7.4M) and adding that Randle cap hold, we're looking at nearly $20M locked up in dead cap till that situation gets resolved. That will obviously affect our FA shopping, which is why so many fans are okay with allowing Randle to walk...cause, LaBron/PG/or Boogie vs Randle...duh! If BI, Zo, Kuz, Hart, Nance, etc were all in different portions of their contract right now, we would have a touuuuugh choice ahead. But none of those guys are in Randle's position right now, which makes him the most expendable young core player. I'm not hating on Randle....I would love to keep him via a QO, but that's entirely up to him in accepting it. As for the LO vs Randle discussion, I can't really partake in it, cause LO is the homie and I'm way too biased in defending him. But once Randle wins some chips and has "starter-like" minutes while retaining a high PER....then we can talk comparisons. As of right now, its not even close in IMH(bias AF)O. And that's all I gotta say about that.
Exactly. I'm not going to take a 5 game stretch and extrapolate that to being better than Lamar Odom. It's being a slave to the moment. And yes, I'm willing to trade Randle for a protected 1st. We have the horses to fill in behind his absence although it would hurt. We're going fishing for bigger game this summer and Julius is going to have a hard time filling in. I wouldn't make the trade today, but I'd consider it towards the deadline assuming Julius is still playing well.
Watched the replay of the game, he was really damn good. People are correct, he’s feasting against the bench players of other teams. That’s not a knock, it’s a good thing, he’s proving extremely valuable in that role. As for the minutes, Luke’s explanation does make some sense to me, he’s playing all out, and if knowing he only has limited time is creating this sense of urgency we haven’t seen before in him, great. I also would trade him for a first round pick though. He’s looking to me like he’s finding his role as a great 6th man/energy bench scoring big, but I don’t think the salary he’s going to get is going to reflect that role. He’ll be stuck in some “what’s he really worth” kind of situation, and I think we will trade him before that to get an asset, or move on, unless he plays like this all season long.
@vasashi17 @therealdeal You're both assuming Lebron, George or Boogie are coming. It will be a sad day when we strike out on all 3 and Randle is posting 20/10 with the Rockets.
If he could do this for 35 minutes, he's a max player. He can't yet, and might not ever be able to. I'm definitely curious what the market will say about his value. I'm curious how things will go after Nance misses time and he has increased minutes. He's fun to watch right now, and it's obvious that the work he has been putting in is starting to help. His right hand has been coming along nicely too. He's not near as predictable, but even though mostly predictable, he quick enough to cause people problems. I loved the bump he gave the guy in midair last night while under the hoop to give him some room. That was nothing short of awesome. :Headbang:
Pelicans/Wizards game...that says it all. When you can go toe to toe with a Hall of Famer like Kevin Garnett and the C Bags in the NBA Finals, we'll revisit this. Odom did a hell of a job.
@tada My forecast has me wearing Laker-centric glasses. Team over the player any day of the week. I love LO and I would have him shipped out so fast if it meant #17 was a near certainty. The thing about those stats is just how many Ws is it leading to. Empty stats can be had on a losing team....its not impressive at all. Heck even our youngest player knows that. @Zo
We're in a very interesting spot as a team, and how we do moving forward and what we do may very well depend on how he plays. if the PF spot is locked up with the 3 guys we have for far less combined than a Bron, do you get another starting scorer and resign him? JR may be the real author of this offseason, and that's pretty crazy. But I'm rooting for him to be the best he can be. But another 1st round pick? I'm not down with that. I'm ready to start winning, and he was a 7th pick that is in year 4 and finally producing well. I think we'll determine before the trading deadline if he is in the future plan, or if he's flipped for assets, but I'm not at all excited about losing that productivity for a 1st round pick. (Of course, that depends where in the draft it is, but no one is giving up a top 3 type of pick for a guy not under contract IMHO) Being able to match is a huge advantage though.
