The situation with Randle is perhaps the most intriguing. The fourth-year forward played just 11 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to Memphis. He was held to just eight minutes one week earlier in a victory against the league-leading Houston Rockets. “Julius has shown us how great he can be,” Walton said. “And I believe in Julius and I continue to challenge him and some nights when he doesn’t play big minutes, it’s because other guys are rolling. “And some nights it’s because I don’t believe he is playing up to the standard that he set for himself. I want him to feel and realize the difference in those nights as part of his growth as a player.” In other words, "I'm f***ing with him"
You want a player to be great or play to his abilities? Let him play through it! Mistakes will happen. A short leash never does work unless that player is of marginal talent. Randle is not a superstar tier player but he isn't a scrub either.
BS. Randle has the shortest leash on the team for no good reason. Yes, he has his one or two offensive fouls and a bad drive here and there when he should have passed to a guard, but he more than makes up for it with scoring in bunches and defense. Meanwhile KCP can take the lowest percentage shots imaginable and never hear a word. It has to be frustrating when KCP doesn’t have this freedom because he’s a vet, he’s 24 and Randle is 23. I hope the FO can live with selling our souls to appease LeBron’s agent, while most likely pissing off Paul George’s agent in the meantime.
walton's comments on randle make perfect sense, but yes, i'd like to hear his response for why kcp is always playing.
Tis the season to be jolly? Or is it folly? Not too long ago, we were 10-15 and it seemed like we were a team with so much promise that could fix our short term woes with a few made free throws and our long term goals with a closer or 2 (aka 2018plan). But a disappointing Eminem album and a divisive Star Wars movie later, here we are back to grinching things up to close out the year. The promising thing is that I know for a fact this FO ain't going to take this lying down and they will be proactive about making amends. But here is what I don't get....all the Randle apologists making it sound like we owe the kid something. Like he's helped lead this team to title contention and wasn't part of the worst Lakers era in our illustrious history... When did this guy become LO? LO just helped us win a title and then the Lakers dragged his negotiations through the mud while we threw guaranteed money at Artest at the start of free agency.....yeh, we did LO dirty and we're not even getting to the salary dump portion of that tragic tale. But doing Randle dirty...really??? Do I hear the Mamba saying anything about Randle even after playing with the guy...yet he seems to have words of endearment towards Kuz. The only saving grace for Randle is that he shares an agent with PG. Otherwise dude has had opportunities to prove himself before we got to this point. He had a red shirt rookie campaign, that actually could work out to his own benefit...seems to have worked for guys like Blake and Simmons. Year 2 had him avg. a modest double double, but nothing drastically improved in year 3. And here we are in year 4, and other than being in better condition, dude still plays like a rabid dog. So of course, he's going to be leashed and if you pair in the trade noise, it makes perfect sense why he's not sent out there for 30+ minutes a night risking an injury. Trade insinuations aside, In his last 15 games, he's had 4 occurrences where he's played with 5 fouls and 5 occurrences where he's played with 4 fouls. In the 18 minutes he played on Christmas day vs the Wolves he drew 4 fouls (and 3 of those minutes were garbage time minutes at the end of the game). In the last game vs the Grizz, he played 11 mins and drew 2 fouls (staying true to that trajectory of averaging just under 4 fouls per game). In the 12 games that he's played in December, he's only been a net positive twice and in the Houston game where he played only 8 mins, we ended up winning that game. If he's clearly not in the future plans, why should the coach play him extended minutes when he's incapable of staying on the floor due to the style and intensity of his play and when he's on the floor, he's not really impacting the game as a net positive? I would be up in arms with Luke if he was shaving minutes off of Zo, Kuz and BI (our true keepers), but guys that we intend to trade or not keep past this season, he doesn't owe them anything. The problem is BLo and the starting lineup...nope, we're still losing. The problem is Nance starting and taking away minutes from Kuz/Randle....nope, we're still losing. Maybe we need to start Randle....uh, the rule is fouling out with 6 still, right? So many fans are trying to figure out this puzzle, but just maybe it has something to do with this team's lack of talent. If anything this should open you guys more up to the 2018plan, cause this team will continue to lose due to our youth and lack of cohesiveness (major pieces of our core have started playing together this year, so of course its going to take time). But at least we're not being blown out like previous years and at least we can point to correcting some of our own mistakes to earn a few more Ws (ie free throw woes). You got help on the horizon and most of you have this pessimistic outlook towards it...so that is why it justifies that we make good with Randle? Really? Please remind me why we owe Randle anything at this point. The same way management has made this a business decision and initiated a minute restriction to exaggerate his trade value and spare him from injury, the same can be said about Randle making a business decision by putting in the work last summer heading into a contract year. Dude has not helped us win anything prior to this season and has even had the tutelage of the Mamba....yet it takes a contract year to get into the best shape of his life? Really? I'm sorry, the story shouldn't be Randle being mistreated...it should be how promising Zo, BI, Kuz look and how putting a star next to them will make us a title contender as we're only 6 losses out of playoff contention even with all the moaning and groaning around here. Now try to enjoy the rest of the holidays.
Sorry I have no energy nor am wanting to take the time at present to respond to all the things I feel wrong about this post.
What do we owe kcp then? Hes playing terribly, his chucking takes away from team ball, his d is medicore but yet he gets 30+mins a nite
This is where I'm at. His leash is way shorter than anyone else's. Hell Kuzma has been terrible defensively and he gets a pass most nights. We know from Randle himself that he likes a harder coach, but this is too much. There's no really good reason for Randle to be playing 8 or 11 minutes the same way it wouldn't make a ton of sense for Clarkson to play that few minutes. We need our best players on the floor and like you said, if we're punishing mistakes or playing only those guys who earn minutes... KCP should be getting 11 minutes a night behind Hart.
We owe him nothing...which is why he's only on a 1 year deal..by design. Since he caught a case, yeah, he's been really bad. But in extended minutes, we're still a better team with him on the court as opposed to off of it. Also dude is putting up a ridiculous steals percentage....mediocre defense isn't a term I would use for that type of effort. But I do agree that his legal battles seem to have hurt his mental approach to these recent games.
Hes been chucking since day 1, its a problem now cause hes only shooting 30% or so but still chucks...n i didnt say his effort was medicore, i said his actual d is medicore. Steals dont represent being a good defender, just like blocks dont always equate to be a good defender either...n to add to your statement, the team also has better stats with randle over nance but ill give nance the nod for his consistent hustle but we are severly limited offensively with him though
You want to further discuss this in the KCP thread...I'm game. But he's been one of our defensive leaders and has been playing bad of late, cause he caught a case. Hopefully he snaps out of it. But I do agree that we do not owe him anything...Rich Paul on the other hand...we might be catering to. And frankly, we should. The way we are losing these games tells me we are stars away from being legitimate. Getting to 2 stars this summer should be the end game. And if Randle is an impediment in any way, then we should trade him (which it seems like we are).
We send DLo packing, while we were trying to get a "hellbent" PG. Heck it seems like Randle and DLo didn't have much love for each other, yet they both share the same agent. So if PG wants to get to LA, it doesn't mean that we need to keep Randle or make him happy. We just got to make sure we send him to a desirable destination (ie making Mintz happy) and that is why I think we're waiting on trading him till we get the package and location just right. I''m still looking at Chicago and Niko being able to move once Jan. 15 drops. I think that would be a perfect landing spot for Randle and Mintz wouldn't object to that market and that young core of Markkenen, Dunn, LaVine for Randle to join up with. Niko's team option would be a valuable piece for 2018. Woj also mentioned the Noel trade scenario...and I would definitely think that's another nice landing spot for Randle. We can try to bring back D.Harris in that deal to help burden the load for Zo. Either way....some of yall are way too down in the dumps right now. Mitch and Jimmy left a mess and you don't expect Magic and Pelinka to get a little dirty cleaning it up?
