Julius Randle Discussion: MIP

You bring this argument up so often it's getting boring. I guess AD is not that great either considering his team's results. It's a team sport for a reason. There were many examples of great players who couldn't win due to weak teammates and you know it well enoigh. I'm not saying Randle is one of the greats but you could hop off the hate train once in a while and give him some props when deserved. Not diminishing his accomplishments and game each and every time an opportunity presents itself would also be a start.

 

more importantly how was his defense? stats are nice but defensively was he still doing the pau Gasol defense with the hands down and hope they miss kind of defense?

 

So getting boring kinda like how fans diminish the FO for not keeping Jules while ignoring that it takes two to tango.

Yeah, that's a riveting discussion..ain't it?

 

It takes two to tango and Jules clearly didn't want to stay when he made the final decision. How he was treated prior to it by the entire organization is another thing. We will clearly never agree on that and it seems pointless to me to keep arguing about it.

My point is there is a bunch of Lakers fans around here who really liked Julius and are still rooting for him/happy when he's doing good. You were never a fan and that's of course ok too, can't agree on every player. Still, for me personally it's annoying when we can't even praise the guy after a good game without you making fun of him seemingly each and every time. What's the point? It reminds me of the time Trodgers decided to leave for a longer period after a massive ridicule of Russell.

Makes me enjoy this place less, that's all. If you can't help it fine, I really don't come here to argue and won't comment on it any more.

 

What's annoying is that it's a discussion forum and I can't discuss an opposing outlook towards those thinking the FO made a mistake and treated Jules poorly when he got less from NOP than his QO here and is playing no more minutes in a non-starter role than he was playing here. If we mistreated dude so bad, why choose the same exact situation for himself?

That being said, I don't want to be the guy that ruins folks' times here, so I'll try to be mindful of it. I just don't understand what you'd like others to do on a topic that they disagee with. I wont refute members being fans of the guy, that attitude be f***ed up of me...but attacking the FO for how they treated a dude that's no longer a Laker and wanted out of his restricted free agency and we granted it...nah f*** that noise!

 

I looked at the last page or so and am failing to see people attacking the PO. I see people saying it would have been nice to see a fromtcourt of Randle and Lebron. I saw people commenting on a good game and you came in to diminish his performance and defend the FO. It happens a lot actually.

 

@wallangong abeer's my guy, but this post was directly before mine and what led to my response.

Hey but some members choose to see what they want, including my ire for Jules's success.

Say it with me: he ain't a Laker by his own choice (and our own mercy via renouncing his rights)...get gone with your ridiculous assumptions about wanting success for his career while ignoring the continued insenendo that we messed that situation up. Mintz did and that's blatantly obvious. If you think it was Magic/Rob, then I got a problem with it. Our FO isn't guiltfree tho and I will criticize them when I feel it has merit. The Jules situation...f*** no!

 

@vasashi17

 

@tada I'll do, if y'all do hahaha

Leave the FO and my golden boy (you know that LakerLifer that goes by Magic?) out of it and I'll leave y'all golden boy out of it...deal?

Must be nice for dude to have an outstanding fan base that will continue to rock for him after his Laker days....but I'm sure he reciprocated the love back. So tell me again, where I can find his public appreciation for you guys? He did give y'all one when he left LA, right?

 

I kind of see both sides because no one was in this thread the two previous games where he wasn't putting up great stats, then he has an amazing night and boom, bumped to the top.

Anyway, I'm happy for Jules he's getting the chance he wanted and I hope for him and his family he takes it.

 

Referring to your previous post - I don't see how diminishing Jules' current accomplishments serves the purpose of defending the FO.

You constantly bring up how the relationship ended but fail to recognize how the organization clearly didn't appreciate Randle and made absolutely zero effort to make him feel wanted. I can't recall one occasion where any of the Lakers representatives even mentioned him when discussing the future, when all of the remaining prospects received praise left and right. can you balme him for wanting to leave if he didn't feel wanted? Of course he could've acted more maturely, but it's not like it didn't start with the FO mistreating him. In general I completely agree with what KB24 posted in this respect.

I have absolutely no issue with you defending the FO though, that was never my point, we can continue this back and forth for the next decade as far as I'm concerned.

Now to your last point - why should I care if he thanked the fan base? How many players did when leaving for another team? Remember what Shaq called Lakers fans when he left? Do we not like him or diminish his accomplients because of that? Not comparing the players of course, I just fail to see why this should matter... At all.

 

@SamsonMiodek Im going to do this one time cause I respect you and the Jules's contingent and don't want to continously s*** on a local folk hero. But if you respond using a false premise again, you will force a response outta me to right the wrongs you sow.

We know dude admitted he needed to be more coachable and wore a "pay me" shirt in a contract year. We know Magic challenged him to transform his body, but again it's a contract year, so even if the FO didn't demand that out of him, wouldn't it be in his best interest to shape up? So when it comes to our "demands" and to coaching a self admitted uncoachable player, how exactly did we wrong him?

You say we made "zero effort to make him feel wanted", yet we extended a qualifying offer to keep dude. Also we explained how we wanted to keep him...take it away Rob:

Yet after stating how the Lakers wanted to work out a deal, here comes Mintz undermining the process:

And what did that marketplace tell you, Mintz? That Jules was worth 8.6m compared to the 12.4m we valued him at.

Also let's not ignore how we treated the other parts of our young core. Nance was due for an extension...we traded him and made no comments about extending him past July 2018 free agency.

Our reported untouchable guy was supposedly offered in a godfather deal for Kawhi as well as his name was being floated in Butler trade talks. BI is extension eligible next summer... Have you heard our FO once state how we were going to extend our untouchable guy? Yet we have heard how much we're interested in going after a 2019 free agent, haven't we?

So did we "mistreat" Nance and BI too?

This whole f***ing narrative of how we gave Jules the short end of the stick while serving up the rest of our youth with a golden spoon is absolutely ridiculous.

As for the fan appreciation part, Shaq wasnt part of this new social media NBA Twitter wave...even non-social media having Kawhi thanked the SA fans that supported him while he was there.

As for Shaq, in 2004 he didn't come out on Twitter to say his thanks to Laker fans...instead he bought an entire page out of the LA Times to thank us:

I know, it's not 140 characters...but at least it's something.

 

Excellent break down Vash. You have a way with digging back and finding key quotes to better put things in perspective. Still would have been nice if they at least tossed him a bone with mentioning his name once in awhile like the other high draft picks. And that is about all I got.

 

Coming from an honorary member of the Bullyius Book Club, thx for at least understanding my point of view, LT...even tho I've been a d*** about it.

Now let me offer an olive branch...

35 mins (led team), +21 (led team), 27 pts (led team), 18brds (led team)...all for naught in leading h8s squad to a win...now that's ballin!

Wish he coulda did that for our squad this year, but...I'll just leave it at that.

 

Have been saying... this guy is a future allstar.

 

First off, they don't "suck." They are still clearly in the playoff picture. To answer your question though, they are extremely top heavy with zero depth (have you checked their roster?). They basically have AD, Mirotic, Holiday, Randle and 11 other G-leaguers. The bench loses the lead every time they come in. To make matters worse AD and Mirotic have been riddled with minor injuries throughout the season.

And btw it's the Pelicans.