I said it during the off-season when we still had Randle and I'll say it again. He's going to have a monster year and we will definitely regret not finding a way to work it out with him. It's going to be a real bummer. Quote me, write it down, do whatever you want.
You and me both. The "smash bro" down low we most needed and now who will punish us every time we play them. Our defenders will be drawing straws each time to see who gets stuck with the bulk of the physical abuse.
We’ll never miss him. I like him a lot, and a lot of things about him, but it doesn’t fool me into thinking that he’s not replaceable with his limited skill set. We did a great job signing solid talent at different positions, and as a group we will be able to replace his production and not skip a beat.
Skills wise yes I agree. But I'm more referring to his fairly unique physicality and speed and quickness while having that limited but pretty effective skill set. We are SOFT down low now to deal with physical big men with skills capable of dominating. Kind of ironic Jules was forced to become that kind of player over the course of last season so he could get off the bench.
I’ll miss the tough nosed D effort, ability to switch, the bull in the china shop moves, and coast to coast charging calls for sure. I think he’s in a good situation to try to maximize his next contract, that was never going to happen here unfortunately.
All true. I'll miss him a lot. He was my favorite young Laker and I wanted to see what he could do at small ball center alongside Lebron. But it became clear very quickly that he and his agent didn't want to stick around here. Also the money he would have made went to KCP and that was obviously the price of doing business and securing Lebron to LA. Wise choice on the Lakers' side in that regard. Ultimately Randle probably wasn't the guy to get us over the hump. I'll admit that he didn't have the most apparent basketball IQ and you do need that to win championships. He improved quite a bit but perhaps not dramatically enough to warrant a commitment from us especially since we wanted to have room for another max level player next summer. Ah well. I loved his bully ball and his ability to switch on guards. I enjoyed watching opponents go flying when he pounded them down low. He had a little mini-Shaq about him in that regard. It was fun to see him inflict damage.
Randle would not have been that player to get us over the hump BUT he would have been a solid contributor both on effort, attitude and desire. Intangibles you can't quantify. Right now we don't have that physical presence on our squad. Hell, I even like his offensive fouls knowing Randle just bowled over some poor soul on the other team.
I still can't believe we lost him for nothing... I know we're saving cap space for next year, and we got lebron, but Randle was literally our best player consistently every night
It's going to hurt when he has the best year of his career. He's going to be in the conversation for Most Improved Player.
Randle being given every opportunity certainly on a new team, to step his game up and become a star quality player (whether ever voted into the Game itself or not) ..... WATCH ....starts today. https://www.nba.com/pelicans/news/pelicans-announce-2018-preseason-schedule
Julius watch: 15 points/ 5 rebounds/ 5 assists/1 block on 5/8 shooting (0/2 from deep). 3 turnovers 3 fouls and a +9 overall. Looks like almost exactly the same type of player. For what it's worth his counterparts on the Bulls in the game: Jabari Parker- 15/8/4 in 25 minutes on 5/14 shooting +13 Bobby Portis- 21/5 with 2 steals on 10/19 shooting +2 Wendell Carter Jr.- 11/7/2 on 5/8 shooting +8
I watched that pre-season game and I really think Randle is going to struggle with the freedom of movement emphasis while trying to defend. He loves to use his body and arms to get position. With that said a ton of teams are having a hard time with this new emphasis from the officials. I kind of worry much like defense in football can't do much against the offense without being flagged the same thing is going to happen in basketball.
That's crazy even without the T Rex outfit on. From slow speeds he manages to get the right bounce set up, gun it and do it..... and especially the 2 back to back at the end. But looks funny as hell.
