I was questioning who else on our team brings more energy for an entire game (1st to 4th quarter) consistently? The answer is no one. And his effort in the 4th quarter? No human can exert that much energy for an entire game. It's impressive that he even has that extra gear. Not many players do.
JR is playing himself into the hearts of Laker fans. It’s hard to lose players like that. 2018 Plan revision “x” lol
I was actually referring to this part of your post earlier. Nance is not the player Julius is, and not worth risking anything imo. That's certainly part of the reason, but I give credit to the improvement he made in the offseason, specifically his conditioning and time spent studying film. Most everyone on this board was saying that Julius was too stupid (ie low bball IQ) to become a good defender. He's proven them wrong. Boogie is fools gold imo. He's a natural born loser that brings too much baggage. The Pelicans were better without him.
Another terrific game from Randle: 12, 6 and 3 with 57% shooting and 4 of 5 from the line. Difference maker down the stretch when he is allowed to play. Keeper.
I'd rather it be PG-13 + Cousins and we unload Clarkson in order to keep Randle as our backup off the bench behind both Cousins and Kuzma. Granted Clarkson has saved our butts a couple times this season too. God I hate you Deng.
I choose to hate anyone who was involved in that deal. That includes Deng's parents for even conceiving him.
Trade KCP + Nance/Zubac for PG13 and he opts in for 2018. Stretch Deng. Then we can potentially get Cousins and keep both Randle and Clarkson. If it’s not entirely enough cap room then it’s pretty close.
we need to find a way to keep randle. He has turned into a BEAST defensively. Get rid of Lopez please and give Randle 38mpg.
Our new star analytics dude better be keeping tabs and in Magic's ear on all of Julius's positive stats. Starting to make his cringeworthy and less than smart plays seem fairly irrelevant now. Like Jordan is stepping up into the Lou Williams prototype as asked by the staff .... Julius is stepping up into Dramond Green's role in the NBA.
I still want him to cut down on his careless turnovers, but it's certainly tough to argue with how effective he's been defensively lately. Who would have thought he'd make such a stark turnaround? We all knew he had it in him, but it wasn't until he got this crazy bench treatment did he start paying attention and executing on that end.
Something fun to track: Ortg/Drtg through the years: 2014: 41/119 (only played 14 minutes) 2015: 97/108 2016: 107/112 2017: 106/103 To be fair, he's seeing more minutes against bench players and it's a really small comparative sample size, but this is by far the best Julius has ever looked and he could still keep growing if he took/made more outside shots.
Let's pump the brakes a little bit. This is all about him embracing his new role. I'm excited for Jules play of late but dude has to completely buy in to his new role for me to buy in on him as a key cog moving forward. Luke doesn't need to play head games with this guy. He needs to be mad all the time and when he gets some burn on the floor, let the opposition have it. It shouldn't be a gimmick. Why am I speculative? He got in the best shape of his life at the dawn of a contract year and when he needed to look all cute for his wedding pics. Granted Magic challenged him and he accepted it...but you can't ignore the other aspects as to why he got into shape. I just have to look to BI in year 2 of his rookie contract to justify my critique on Jule's motives. Again, he has to know he's going to spell LaBron minutes and going to eat against the opposing 2nd unit. If he embraces that role along with being our small ball 5 switch everything defensive unit to end games, then he has a place in our future. However if he expects the max and to start at the 4, in spite of LaBron's availability, then he can go find that role elsewhere...Cause it ain't going to be here! Don't get me wrong...Best case scenario is that he embraces this new role, helps extend LaBron's Laker playing days, his contract doesn't impede our 2 max player free agency approach and becomes part of a defensive dynamo lineup of: Zo, Georgie, BI, Brony, Jules
yeah, looming over everything is whether this is the result of his playing lower minutes against inferior competition or if it's genuine change. the latter is possible, but i don't think we can know. i wonder if management will test this theory at some point this year--say by starting him at pf (or even c) and playing him 30-35mpg for a stretch. i also wonder whether they would prefer not to do that until after the trade deadline. if his strong play can help make something else they want to have happen happen, they don't want to jeopardize his trade value by exposing him as a non-starter going forward. after the trade deadline, however, experimenting might be wise, as the lakers need to get an accurate sense of his value heading into his RFA.
I was about to respond to your first paragraph with your second one. I don't think they test anything right now with Julius until the trade deadline passes. If they get blown away by an offer or if maybe someone is willing to take Deng to take Julius, I think they still might do it... But once the deadline is past, I could see them starting him. If he looks like a viable small-ball Center, that does nothing but help our cause.
