Maybe he's told to stay away from where (close to the basket) he's most likely to reinjure his leg? Doesn't make sense if they're letting him play, but fighting for rebounds and doing the dirty work does raise the probability of getting injured.
Randle keys his game off having ball in hands. not a good player to move and fight for offensive position.
Don't know - watching the end of game on replay and he looks great when he rebounds and tries to go coast to coast. I think he is working on his game in real time and also trying to avoid getting tied up with the scrubs out there who are not even D-League material
Have any of our bigs consistently done duck ins? Aside from the occasional one here or there, it seems our bigs duty is to screen and reverse the ball to the PG at the top of the key. We literally didn't even try to get a big a look in the first 3 games, this most recent game was the first where Black got more than 1 post up off a roll.
Interesting point. The game against T-Wolves Upshaw had one. Black had one. (Talking QTR 1). Haven't seen each game in full detail to comment but that is a sign of Princeton offense which could be a problem
For the record Upshaw had great position a handful of times and the guards almost never gave him the ball.
The one thing that bothers me about Lotus is that he doesn't actively seek rebounds or to play defense. He kinda just "does it" if he's there and not really engaged. Same thing on offense, he doesn't really move or set solid screens and just goes and walks around. The only time he's really engaged is when he has the ball in his hands.
Agreed. I'm not THAT worried about it because Kobe and Byron will set him straight as he spends time around hard nosed guys, but definitely it's frustrating that in five games he never once looked like a beast on the glass. I thought he had more rebounds than he was given credit for, but his box outs numbers are terrible.
Pincus article.... Lakers' Julius Randle frustrated by limited court time in Las Vegas Lakers forward Julius Randle couldn't hide his disappointment with the results of his second summer league with the team. "It's just frustrating," he said. "It's frustrating." Answer to the next question in the media scrum? "It's frustrating," Randle mumbled. Five times he used the same word, summing up his young NBA career. On opening night of the 2014-15 regular season, Randle broke his right tibia, knocking him out for the season. After surgery on his leg, he later underwent a procedure to replace a screw in his right foot, addressing an issue dating back to a high school injury. The Lakers since have worked Randle back very slowly, holding him to five-minute stretches with a cap at 20 minutes per game. "He understands that it's a bigger picture than just the summer league," said Coach Byron Scott, who was on hand to watch his assistant Mark Madsen run the team. "This was to knock off some of the rust and get him back into playing basketball. We didn't want to play him 35 to 40 minutes a game, and then he takes a step back." Randle understands intellectually, but emotionally, that's a little harder to process. "It's just frustrating, it's been so long," he said. "I've never sat out that long. To get a little taste now, I have to wait a couple of more months." Through four games over the past week (the Lakers sat him one game on the second night of a back-to-back), Randle averaged 11.5 points with 4.0 rebounds, while shooting just 39.5% from the floor. On Wednesday, Randle had his best game, with 17 points in 21 minutes of play, one more minute than his allotted playing quota. "I would rate that Julius had a very strong summer league. "I thought Julius was great, but I think he was frustrated," said Madsen, who used Randle's key word. "I think the team was frustrated that, in the sense, right when he was catching his rhythm ... we'd take him out." The good news is that Randle, and the rest of the summer-league squad, got through Las Vegas with health. Randle will spend the rest of the summer trying to ready himself for training camp, preseason and beyond, with the expectation of not having further limits on his playing time. "I hope so. I hope so," he said, straying from his darker mantra. The Lakers need Randle to be a special player. He believes he can deliver, but needs repetition against competition to get his timing back, after sitting so long on the sidelines in one of the briefest rookie seasons on record. "It's just precautionary as part of the progression back," Madsen said. "We don't want to suffer another setback." Randle gets it, but that doesn't make it any easier. "It's killing me, man, but I have to keep it all in perspective," Randle said Wednesday after the loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Fortunately, the Lakers' 1-4 record in Las Vegas is inconsequential. Randle did successfully get back on the court, and at times, he looked like the player who inspired the Lakers to select him with the seventh overall pick in 2014. Frustrating as that may be, it's still a win for both Randle and the Lakers. Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus. http://www.latimes.com/sports/laker...-julius-randle-frustrated-20150718-story.html
After the first two games, I thought the game slowed down for him and showed an improvement in his game. I like what Scott said; 'Randle understands the big picture, and the summer league games were an opportunity for him to knock off some rust.' That's a very realistic way of looking at it. I'm glad with the strides he made; however, I do understand the lingering concerns about his game. Nevertheless, I'm not too worried. This is going to be a development year for Clarkson, Russell, and Randle. What I'm hoping is that Randle takes the invitation given by Scott and not only competes for the starting job but beats Bass out for starting position. I think a healthy, motivated, Randle gives us a more unique, dynamic, and versatile starting unit. Bass could work as a 'security blanket.'
I'm on the other side of that fence. I hope Randle comes off the bench for a while. He needs a lot of mental conditioning to adjust to the NBA. He seems very easily frustrated, impulsive with the ball and generally pre-thinking everything. The pressure of starting on this franchise with these expectations I think will be a much larger risk to him than anything else. I worry a little about Russell and I worry a lot about Randle in this respect. I also think Scott's comments were aimed directly at this issue. He is trying to deflect or redirect any criticism of Randle because he's so easily frustrated IMHO. Scott will be doing a lot of that as these kids group I believe. He's got the right attitude and demeanor to be the guy that takes the brunt of the media hits for them and that's what good coaches do.
Nice post. I think Randle CAN handle starting but I am like you and hope that he doesn't. I see the same exact personality traits as you. Easily frustrated, impulsive, one-track mind that doesn't let the game come to him. I think it's in his personality and it's going to be hard to tune down. That being said having him earn his PT is one way to keep him humble and teach him to play the right way. Regarding Scott - I don't think very highly of him as an X's and O's guy, but if there's one thing he's great for, it's being a motivator. I think he'll be right for our kids in that sense for sure.
I'm sure the fact that Vonleh played great in summer league also didn't help Randle. They probably have a silent rivalry since the draft last year.
I don't really have an opinion on Scott. He's been a coach of bad teams and been in the finals a couple times as well. The criticism here seems to be centered on the offensive structure rather on the quality of the people running it. Thus is the fate of most coaches on poor teams. Borderline NBA players will not look good in any system over time. My guess is that we will have probably 2 more coaches before we are in true contention again so what Scott does is somewhat irrelevant in our climb back to prominence.
True but if you saw the post in the x's and o's thread....that motion set looks much better than the princeton sets we were running. Changing the structure won't turn us into an all-star team but it will lead to better shots and a more structured offense. I think that would be a step in the right direction. Kobe, Hibbert, D'Angelo, and hell maybe Randle....that's not exactly a group devoid of talent. Put the right system in and they might look decent.
You can't tell anything meaningful from our summer league as far as the offense is concerned. I reject the thought that the Princeton will not result in good shots. What we saw from them was the most basic of sets executed very poorly and very mechanically. It looked like a pre-game walkthrough more than execution. I'll reserve judgment until December or so. It will take that long for the team to gel using this type of approach. I'm a big supporter of motion and read/react offenses over NBA traditional pick and roll. You get more out of ALL of your talent with motion while the pick and roll centric stuff relies on one or two people way too much to get deep in the playoffs. Actually I really like the 4 in-1 out Motion offense. It's very similar to what SA runs and has several opportunities for pick and roll sets with in it.
If he hadn't been hurt the first game of last season, he was on a really nice roll going into it. The weight would have come off naturally and he might have gone on the Clarkson improvement curve with similar minutes. Just my opinion. He's "frustrated" because he wants to play so damn bad it's killing him. For his own good, of course, they sat him completely the 2nd game, and then the games he played he was trying to get back to where he was with all the rust on him, but near impossible when they would sit him after 5 minutes each quarter when he was just getting into somewhat of his coming back groove. He said this. He got a taste only, after never having been out in his playing career an extended period, but now has to wait a few more months for the pre-season games.
I personally love the fact that he's frustrated. Love the ferocity, hunger, and fire. Those are alpha qualities that will strike fear into the heart of any opponent. As for him being one-dimensional on offense, I'm fine with that too. As the great Kobe Byant is quoted saying... "How many people think you have to have a lot of moves? I have two. On the perimeter, I have two moves. On the post, two moves. That's it. On the perimeter, I'll go right, pull up, shoot; left, pull up, shoot. In the post, turn left shoulder, fadeaway; turn right, fadeaway." "I was just talking to Nick Young. To be unstoppable, you have to first be predictable, because if you're unpredictable you don't know what the heck you're going to do, so how can you dictate to the defense what you're going to do?" Julius should keep developing that jumpshot and moves around the rim (he's got a great spin move that he didn't use much this summer) With those two moves he's going to be unstoppable.
