I kinda like Nance starting over Julius next to Kobe. It's quite obvious that Nance plays better defense and sets better picks. When Kobe is out, Julius creates havoc in the paint so that's a plus, but he's just a bit too reckless out there.
I disagree. Julius has been playing far better since being in the starting lineup. There's no longer any justification for not keeping him in the starting lineup.
I'm not so sure if Julius is playing far better when factoring Kobe in the starting lineup. 2 games without Kobe: 19.5 pts, 50 fg%, 12.5 reb 5 games with Kobe: 10.6 pts, 42fg%, 10.8 reb I think it just coincides with the fact that Nance's production have gone down since his injury. When Nance was playing good, I felt he was a better fit in that starting lineup.
It has nothing to do with Kobe and everything to do with Julius playing well in the starting lineup. Early in the year Julius was playing a very high level with Kobe in the starting lineup. It's not up to Kobe whether Julius performs on the court. The last 7 games since Julius has been inserted back into the starting lineup: Points- 13.4 Rebounds- 11.3 Assists- 1.3 Blocks- 0.9 FG%- 45 Julius has made 23 shots from outside the paint and inside the three point line this season, 6 of them have come since he's been put into the starting lineup and 13 of them in January as a whole. Blocks by month: November: 9 December: 2 January: 10 He's improving dramatically, playing well, playing within a team concept, and we're going to penalize him for what? There is literally only one reason not to play Julius in the starting lineup moving forward and it's to lose basketball games. That's it.
I don't agree that starting Nance will lead to losing games.... In fact we have a much better winning percentage (and defense in the paint) with Nance in the starting lineup. In January, we are giving up 109.1 pts agaisnt teams with Julius starting. With Nance starting, that number goes down to 100.8 pts. I think there is a legitimate argument between starting Nance and Julius.
The eye test and the stats show that the starting lineup absolutely sucks. I don't know how anyone could argue anything different. That starting lineup with Nance, Lou, Kobe, Clarkson and Hibby digs us a double digit deficit every single game. How is it even debatable? That lineup straight up sucks. We were better starting Russell and Randle. They were both playing well when they got benched in the first place for seemingly no reason. Were we winning a lot of games? No, but we sure aren't winning any now. Whether deliberate or not Boron is in tank mode. It might just be because he's an imbecile or it might be because he was on instruction to stealth tank from the FO at that point (December) because we were already a lost cause. This is nothing against Nance whose development was the only silver lining in that move. I love Nance. But he's so hesitant to bring it offensively in the starting lineup - Julius usually presents some kind of matchup problem for the opposition, too big or too quick. Nance is much better at running Boron's "offense" but that's not helping anything. We don't score points. Also Randle is the guy who needs more minutes, period. This is his first actual playing season in the NBA and he's raw and needs the work. Nance is already closer to what he's going to become in the NBA as he is a four year college player and he's a little older as well. He should be coming off the bench with Lou who has made a career as a sixth man and a great one at that.
Los Angeles LakersVerified account@Lakers Larry Nance Jr. (knee) will not play tonight. Julius Randle will continue to start. Well, I never want one of our players to be out but at least the world and our FO will continue to see Randle in the starting lineup and hopefully when Lance is back they'll understand more than Randle needs to stay there.
Moving Randle back to the bench would be awful. He's so much more confident and engaged as a starter. Just play small. Start Randle and Nance together. Roy isn't giving us much anyway. It'll make us quicker and more athletic. I want both starting.
To be fair, we are digging double digit leads (in the 1st or 3rd quarter) with either of them starting, but your argument of Nance being closer to his ceiling I can agree with. However, I also think our improvement on defense with Nance is greater than our improvement on offense with Julius.
I'll be honest, I want Black starting with Randle and Nance coming in as the first big off the bench. I think Black can handle the starting centers of other teams better than Nance/Randle. Then bring Nance in for Black and go small against the other team's backups where they are likely to go small as well. But apparently Black slaughtered Byron's cat, chinchilla and dwarf hamsters, so that isn't going to happen.
Crunching some numbers on their shooting: Within 3' of the rim: Randle takes 45% of his shots here, shoots 54%. Nance takes 41% of his shots here, shoots 71%. 3-10' from the rim: Randle taks 28% of his shots here, shoots 37% Nance takes 17% of his shots here, shoots 42% 10-16' from the rim: Randle takes 8% of his shots here, shoots 13%. Nance takes 17% of his shots here, shoots 35%. Long 2: Randle takes 15% of from here, shoots 29%. Nance takes 9% of his shots here, shoots 44%. Threes Randle takes 4% of his shots from distance, shoots 29% (few from the corner, and he has yet to make one) Nance takes 2% of his shots from distance, shoots 33% (all from the corner, mind you) Big Differences Randle creates a lot of his own shots, with only 44% of his shots being assisted. Nance is assisted on 77% of his shots. Nance dunks A LOT more. 16% of his shots are dunks. 8% of Julius's are. Randle gets closer to the rim. His average shot distance is 6.6'. Nance's is 8.4'. Julius needs to develop his 10+ foot shot. Check out his PPS by distance: 0-3' 1.07 3-10' .74 10-16' .26 long 2 .58 3pt .86 Nance's distribution is a bit more even: 0-3' 1.43 3-10' .85 10-16' .70 long 2 .88 3ppt 1.03 I'd love to see Julius develop a midrange jumper. I'd love to see Nance develop a three-point shot. Would make both players far more effective.
So in other words we're better off with Nance when surrounded with players that can create opportunities for him, like DAR and Kobe. And I think we're definitely better defensively with Nance. I think many Laker fans are quick to defend Randle (understandably) but I really like all our young players equally and I really don't have a bias of who to start. Real mentioned Randle being penalized unfairly if he were to get benched, but I kinda feel the same way about Nance and his injury because we were playing better basketball back in December and early January.
The thing is neitherJulius or D'Angelo should have been demoted to 2nd string. I love Nance too and glad he has shown he belongs. But both those guys were starting to really come on and then all of a sudden boom ..... Clown Coach f**** with them and unquestionably has set them back in their development this year. There would have been opportunities for both Nance and Brown to start in the normal course of the season, and if not starting to get significant minutes. We sure as hell didn't need to see if Lou Williams could cut it in the NBA. Both Randle and Russell should have been coached and handled properly without Boron's crap methods of jerking with them in the lineup and with quotes in the media about all their shortcomings.
so, I go out of town and randle goes off. I come back and tune in for the hornets game, and he looks like one of the worst basketball players ever. i REALLY hope that it's just an acclimation thing and not a hoop iq thing, but man...he's constantly just doing the wrong thing. on marvin Williams' 95th wide open three of the first half, he simply got lost. just got lost. no off-ball screen, no miscommunication and the pick and roll, just randle having a lapse in attention. i had to rewind the play to verify it. pair this with his total unfamiliarity with the concepts of ball-you-man and general defensive stance, and you've got a lot of easy buckets for the opposition. on offense, he zigs when he should zag, almost as a rule. the bitter irony on a move in the first half is that he went to a bizarre righty hook in, like, the ONE situation where he could have just kept the ball in his strong hand. two plays later, he takes the layup with his left whilst the defender is on his left hip and eats leather. i just don't have words for how crazy all of that is. someone tell me about the great things that happened in the 24/13 game now.
I don't think he was THAT bad, but he isn't learning. I just don't know how bad it actually is though. I can't imagine how hard it must be to learn rotations, where to be, etc. when you're being jerked around so bad by your coach. Not saying he is blameless because my opinion of him has changed from borderline all star to Keneth Faried.
Randle will improve in the off season along with dlo just wait and have patience. Remember with BS as our couch we have zero offensive schemes and zero motivation on defense
