He's below his rebounding numbers from last year when he was a double double, but his points and assists are up, as well as defense, court awareness, playing under control, etc.
Did anyone else see this level of play from him coming based on the preseason? I sure didn't, I don't know how anyone could have. He looked absolutely lost, playing without a purpose, and like he didn't know his role in preseason, and then it's like as soon as the lights came on for game 1 that really matters he's like ok, time to actually play. Obviously he's not been perfect, and as Luke pointed out he has potential to be even better, but I can find very little fault with his game right now. This is the player I thought we were getting with the 7th pick in the draft in 2014. Maybe it is true that it takes a full season to recover after sitting a full year injured, and he's finally starting to get it and finding his role. As much as we are reminded I still forget this is also really only his 2nd year same as Russ.
It's all pretty obvious I think. Julius's desire to be great and: vs his rookie season under and it taking all summer and pre-season to learn what should have been taught and drilled in the right way with him last year. Think where he would be now if Luke had been here last year. All these guys. Plus the injury factor as you say and reports he is finally confident and 100% again physically.