definitely the nutrition aspect too. I follow his trainer and Randle on Instragram and Randle's wife mentioned that lets not forget the 4 meals she always has ready for him. Great work for sure.
Got shredded in 5 weeks (although he did push his gut out in the first pic for better "transformation" effect). Absolutely no, uh... enhancement was going on there.
Crazy transformation in 5 weeks. I give him credit, that's what grinding your body in the off season means.
In MouthDing's recent article he brought up the question around Julius and it's basically what we all see from afar: Julius really struggles hearing criticism (Russell too) and he doesn't let things bug him enough. When a message is delivered too harshly, it goes in one ear and out the other. MouthDing says that Walton was hoping Randle would take the Draymond approach of having every little criticism be fuel to his fire. Instead, most things wash off of him without much change. We'll see where this leads to. First step looks fantastic obviously as he took the weight issue to heart. We've seen videos of him shooting differently as well. Do we see a more fired up version of Julius? Some of my favorite moments of his were when he went at Tyson Chandler and Demarcus Cousins.
The thing I see with Julius is this, and it's evident in the style of game he plays today. He was most definitely the big dog on campus in high school. Dunking on everybody, making flashy plays look easy, and just dominating inside with his size and athleticism. So not much effort was put on fundamentals for a guy like Randle. Once he got to college, he was ranked as one of the highest prospects to start the year. But over the course of the season, he wasn't as dominant as most though he was, still an above average prospect, but a lot of questions around his game allowed him to slip to 7 to us. I think as the game progressively becomes more challenging to him, the more he shies away from constructive criticism that would make him better. Slow down, use your feet, work on your jumper. Ultimately, what Julius needs is a mentor to show him that nothing comes easy. That he's going to have to work for every possession and every point and rebound. That there is someone always better than you and to take the criticism and work on himself. Julius is one of the more rare athletes with the special combination of size and speed. Let's hope he sticks around long enough to finally figure it out.
Magic is an additional mentor who also has the ultimate juice to make him pay attention to his suggestions and advice. He sure ain't fat any more.
at this point, i don't think there's "agreeing with" ding. he's obviously fed info from the organization. now, maybe some if it is intentionally manipulative, but still... reading between the lines it says randle thinks he knows better than the coaching staff and russell's a drunk. they're hoping both change.
Maybe the Spurs will trade us Aldridge and their 29th pick for Deng and Randle? We'd have 3 consecutive worthless picks! Maybe when we brought people in for workouts in the 28 range, we found too many people we liked so we just started trading for as many picks as possible in that range?
I'm really hoping we can hang on to Randle right now. Hopefully Pacers will bite on Clarkson, 27 and 28 and maybe Nance.
In my view that's about maturity and proper upbringing, and I don't have much patience for the lack of either of them. It got DLO booted out of here. I like JR, but if he is the same as DLO in that regard then make sure he gets packaged. I really think Magic is looking for the character of player he puts on this roster. Part of that character is love for the game, love for the lakers, and a competitive spirit to do whatever is necessary to win at a championship level. That would include your ability to take constructive criticism and to be self motivated. In my opinion that is why a lot of these lottery picks don't pan out. (DLO vs Booker.)
From all the reports, Randle and Dlo's mental problems are very different. Dlo wouldn't listen to anyone and was too headstrong. Randle has too long of a memory and cares too much when the team is losing, and gets depressed and down on himself in game. In the end, it might be a similar problem where he needs to be moved because of it, but I'd take Randle's problems in preference all day as I think it's fxiable.
wasn't the randle complaint (in the ding article) that he basically shuts down in the face of criticism and doesn't adjust his play? the latter part was readily apparent on the court. my sense from reading was that randle cares, he just can't be convinced you know better than him. russell seems not to care either way.
