See my thing with his demotion (and the fact that Byron said "I'm going to demote him!") is that it didn't work. It didn't make him focus on other things, it didn't force him to pay attention to anything specific, and he's still making the same mistakes. So again, we come back to: some of that is on Julius, but a lot of that is also on the coaching staff. It's their JOB to reach him and make him understand where to be and the importance of being there. It's Byron's JOB to get the best out of his players and if they're not growing and learning then a large part of that is the teacher they have. If my kid is failing, I'm going to blame my kid but I'm also going to go to the teacher and ask why they're failing. If they're failing because they're not trying, that's one thing. If they're failing because they simply don't understand then it's on me and it's on their teacher to figure out why and fix it.
He's got elite talents right now that translate to NBA production. How many other prospects can say that? Towns. I think that's about it. Porzingis maybe.
Julius Randle and D'Angelo Russell should have both been right in the thick of it for ROTY (with Julius' award being the People's ROTY because of the technicality with a few minutes played that first game) They would have been right in the conversation if Boron had let all the young guns play out this season what they were practicing together, including Tarik Black, and building all summer in anticipation. But NO, dumb*** "have -to- break- them- down -and- mold-them" drill sergeant wannabe with his foxhole smack, drops them out of the competition completely by dropping them to second string, right at the f****** time they were really starting to blow up and play progressively better by the game. Right in THAT f****** run. Dumbest handling of star potential, cornerstone rookie players ever.
It's not just 'letting the you guys, though'. They need a system that's is tailored toward their strengths. Randle, Clarkson, and Russell have been misused and under developed.
Well of course, that's a given. He first should have been a competent coach. So he compounds it by being a prick and not even giving them a fighting chance to be in the conversation with the rest of the top rookies. I don't care what DAR or Julius say to tow the company line, that has to hurt and frustrate the s*** out of them. You're only a rookie once. DAR deserved the same shot as Towns and Okafor. Or Mudiay the turnover machine early on.
Randle in a way needs to be tamed, but not in the way Byron is doing so. Instead of giving Randle a system to operate in, Byron trolls out the same garbage every game and to correct Randle's faults he benches him. It's comical how bad this as gotten.
the other possibility is that the child is simply unable to learn geometry. that's the fear I'm talking about here. I've been pleasantly surprised by randle's rebounding. his ball skills, speed, and strength are things I expected. his jumper is as expected. his right hand is even worse than I expected, but not far off. the only thing that's disappointing me is the feel for the game. to some degree, I'm not sure it can be coached. just like I'm not sure it can be (crappily) coached OUT of Russell.
Well I'll be honest Jerry West saying Julius doesn't have a head for the game is disconcerting for me. When the greatest basketball talent evaluator in the world shows a concern that we do too, it validates what we're saying. However, the last few games whenever I actually tune in I'm watching a different Julius Randle. Lately I'm seeing a lot better decision making. I actually watched most of the game yesterday and while the defense isn't perfect, it's better. His decision making offensively is close to 100% better. His rebounding continues to be elite. I like what I'm seeing right now.
In his last 9 games: 6 double doubles 6 games 50%+ on FGs 5 games 2+ assists 13.2 points 11.3 rebounds
Pretty superb game last night. He brought the energy and when he wasn't in he was missed. 15 and 12 with 50% shooting. 6th double double in 9 games. I'll forgive that airball he shot from mid-range because of those two Beast-mode dunks he made. Those were epic.
What's weird about this is to rebound at the level he is, there has to be natural instincts. You don't pull down that many rebounds in limited playing time if you don't have a nose for the ball. So he obviously has elite instincts in that regard. But defensively, man, you would think he would accidentally be in the right spot more often than this. But I will say, his defense has been better recently. He's at least been in the vicinity of the right place to make a play. It's just too tough to separate the coaching from his lack of awareness. It's not like Randle is the ONLY player on our squad that looks lost. Even Hibbert, the anchor of an ELITE defense in the past is often floating in weird spaces and caught completely out of position. It is entirely possible that Randle's feel for the game and awareness are adequate, but he just has no idea where he should be in Scott's "systems" or that other people don't either which makes everyone look lost.
I think @abeer3 and I are both hoping it's the system and not Julius. I'm afraid it could be both, but encouraged by his recent play. It's FINALLY looking like it's coming to him. I know this is his rookie season, but it's been tough watching him make the same mistakes every night. For instance in Russell's season we've seen peaks and valleys as he gets acclimated to the game. He's played well and he's played poorly and while there's been less growth than you'd like to see, we've seen the thought process behind his development. With Julius it's been one solid straight line that's not gone up or down really and it didn't start in a comfortable place so it's been solidly below the desired spot. Now it's slowly rising, but it took him 50 games or so to get it. Personally, after everything we've heard about this kid's work ethic I'm inclined to think he would have gotten it sooner with a better coach.
yeah, i think real's a bit more optimistic than i am, but i can see savory's theory here. for the record, i had no idea that west made that comment about randle, but that's exactly what i've seen. again, i hope that the right system will help jumpstart his intuition, but if not, it's a limiting factor. for example, all of the draymond green type aspirations would have to go out the window--green has exceptional feel for where to be on both ends. once his skills sharpened a bit, he took off. that's the hope for randle, but he might not be able to do it like green. good news is that he has more physical tools, though.
One of my buddies was fortunate enough to watch the last Lakers/Warriors game up in Jerry's box. My buddy works with one of Jerry's sons up in the bay area. He was not high on Randle at all, but was decently supportive of Clarkson and Russell. I don't think Julius can be Draymond, but you have to also remember that Draymond was a 4 year college player. He had a lot of time to figure those things out. Look at a kid like Harrison Barnes on Draymond's team and his awareness from the day he got drafted to what we see from him now is night and day. Harrison played TWO years in college and still wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed coming out. There's a big curve to go on there. I'd hoped Julius was more adaptable, but he's learning now. He's showing great growth since re-entering the starting lineup. His timing as a help defender is still bad, but he's showing positive signs in almost every other aspect. The ball isn't sticking in his hands as often, he's attacking the glass still, he's rotating better, and he's beginning to find himself in the right places now. I think we're starting to see a ceiling on him a bit, but I still see tremendous potential.
So 4 point, 4 board per game Trey Lyles gets to go in the US vs the World game for the injured Mirotic. I know it's the other team, but WTF Julius got snubbed. Such crap. Go back to the Rookie/Sophomore setup so we don't have to see turds in the game while guys putting up a double double have to sit at home. Thank you Byron and the NBA.
I mean there's an issue already when Smart beats him in. Smart hasn't done crap this season and started less games. The reality is I don't think they wanted more than 2 guys from any one team in there in order to get people excited about a bunch of teams around the league. Still crap though. They should have moved Clarkson to the World team.
