His shooting percentage is falling down to Earth like we suspected it would, but even so it's pretty crazy that the kid just put up a 21/11 game with a steal, a block, and an assist and nobody is talking about it. He also played an insane 42 minutes last night. So I guess he's got the opposite leash that Randle does.
This really irritates me about Luke. He has to start giving Randle more minutes at the 4 and bring those down for Kuzma. I think it's dangerous to play the rookie this many minutes. He's going to burn him out and we're already seeing that his numbers are coming down to earth with so many minutes. It just isn't smart. I know he's playing great but he's asking for it with this playing Kuzma too much and limiting Randle thing. I hope I'm wrong but it truly concerns me. It's stubborn and stupid. Love Kuzma in the starting lineup but bring those minutes down and split them with Randle. Luke is acting like an idiot.
What is needed to get what's written here to Luke? He really should read it and then take a hard look at what he's doing. There's nothing false or inaccurate in what you said and we could be so much stronger. 15 more minutes a night from the Beast ... why in the f*** would you not Luke? Against all that size last night why was Randle never in there with Lopez? He hasn't been yet FFS this whole season. EDIT. Well I guess we would know why if its because of the other thinking this is to keep him healthy hopefully for a trade. That kind of handling would really suck with what the team needs now and this being the most critical career year in Julius's life to date with a brand new family.
You'd think with so many asst coaches and the culture they are building that Luke would hear this from somebody. My guess is that there is something we don't know guiding things at the bigger picture level. It seems too obvious to ignore, so it can't be that easy. It just can't. Right?
i really think that luke believes he's found the optimal role for randle, and it's primarily as a backup 5. he might be right. with randle's newfound interest in weakside shotblocking, he's not as bad defensively as i'd have expected at the 5. there's no way it simply hasn't occurred to luke to play randle and lopez together.
Then he's just being stubborn which isn't cool either. We can't play Kuz 40 minutes per game while Nance is out. It's just asking for trouble. Not that he doesn't deserve minutes, it's just a dangerous thing to do and there isn't a good reason for it when Randle is playing well and just showed us that he can play great pick and roll with Lonzo. Not to mention I'd love to see Randle rebounding beside Lopez and also seeing what the two could do with Randle posting up or cutting off ball.
To be a little fair, Randle logged his season high in minutes against Milwaukee at 27 minutes. I thought Kuzma and Randle with Ball showed promise, but needs time to work on their chemistry. They had a play develop where Randle wanted Kuzma to cut away and leave the side empty for a 1-5 pick and roll with Ball/Randle, but Kuzma instead came up over the top and then cut behind Randle (much smarter). I think the three of them could be dangerous as strong-side pick and roll trio.
That was an improvement to see him up to 27 but Kuzma still played 41 minutes and I think that has to come down. He's a rookie and I'm concerned about burning him out early this way. Randle is third year and should be playing 30 plus and he's in the best shape of his life. He should play more.
I'm not disagreeing. I'm hoping Luke is finally listening to reason and playing Julius more. It's interesting he'd play that many minutes against a Bucks team that's really perfect for making Julius's life difficult.
Side note to the article above: Before the year is over Kuzma is going to hammer a dunk on someone. In that MIL game Kuz for the 3rd time this year tried to dunk on someone but got fouled trying to do so and lost the ball, couldn't convert. Kuz plays with an edge to him, a confidence that you can definitely notice. I love this about him and its one of the exciting things about him and his future. Playing with an edge and knowing how to channel that can be very dangerous for the opposition. Nobody was better at this than Kobe. Not saying Kuz is the next Kobe either.
