more clarification: in the clip provided, the dream shake was wholly unnecessary. that was my point. he would have scored more easily without it. also, the dream shake was even more deadly because it was paired with a highly accurate turnaround jumper. Julius still looks uncomfortable in the post to me, which is why he's always seeking touches facing up 18 ft from the hoop. again, my hopes are that big game james is going to really get to him on all this stuff. if he does, look out. like I said earlier, even without a jumper, if he just figures out how to play more efficiently, he can score 18-20ppg for a long time.
Just not a good game for Julius. Got some rebounds but seems like he's gonna struggle against these good front courts (Atlanta, Spurs)
Bigger, lengthier front courts. We have discussed it repeatedly: he needs to work on a jumper next year.
Yea Worthy seemed almost exasperated by it on the post-game (Julius needing a jumper). It made it seem like it's something he's told Julius about over and over.
Generally, I am pleased with his progress. The jumper will be inconsistent for the remaining part of the year. Next summer, he'll have some work to do.
Definitely needs a jumper, but doesn't help Julius that we play so slow. Makes no damn sense for a team so athletic and young. If you play slow against the Spurs you have no shot. They're too long, too big, and overall great defensively.
I felt like Julius should have started. Nance didn't get it done and he was in for a LOT of minutes in that first half. Randle never got a feel for the game until the second half and it was too late. He was cold as ice out there. Nice boards though. And some good defense as well.
He has to learn how to switch up his approach at times, against the bigger teams to be specific. The length really bothers him around the basket, yet he keeps aggressively driving expecting it to change. This is where the development of his jumper is needed.
everyone's talking about the jumper again, but in his first couple of sequences, he got right around defenders only to bring the ball right back into their arms because he may not actually have a right hand. are we sure it isn't a prosthesis? it's that bad. boris diaw was clowning him just by overplaying his left.
Think people are being way to hard on Julius. This kid is a rookie. He missed all of his rookie season and despite getting to watch from the bench that's not experience like playing in actual games. He's very raw obviously yet he's still had a solid rookie campaign to this point. We can't expect the kid to be a seasoned vet when he's just getting started. These things like going to his right, not going back into defenders bodies, making redundant spins, and defensive rotations. All those things come with experience. It takes time for a young big to learn the game and how to be able to adjust and attack and be able to finish consistently around the basket. The thing I love is his energy. It's always there. That's something that can be, needs to be, and is consistent.
I've been wondering about the jumper issue with Randle, being that growing up, and very much still since he came to the Lakers ..... Kobe is his guy, his idol, the guy he wanted to play like. We all know Julius is a HARD worker. Does that include, whenever possible at home and on the road even, all the extra hours being put in on hitting those piss ant short Js, that Kobe always did whenever needed for his shooting game? After the "4 air balls" as a rookie, same night. Whenever in a slump or not in a slump. Until the last couple of years with the injuries and this year when he just can't, being he doesn't even practice with the team much and needs all the time he can get for physical treatment. It's so frustrating to see him have no confidence in those same short distance shots that Russell and Clarkson can knock down at good %, and have to go pedal to the metal always straight into the teeth of the defensive front lines with his still limited offensive repertoire and as of yet lack of a finishing right hand.
When Julius brings his A-game, he is virtually unstoppable and makes us a different team. We know what we'll get from the other players. Julius is the X-factor. We need him to be in beast mode more often than not.
See my post above though, certainly not an original thought. His "A" game needs to include 40-50% on short Js to keep the bigs honest. Now his "A" game is really a B to B+ game. Personally I am confident he will get there, maybe even this season. Put in the time on the J and the right hand finishing.
Problem is we're seeing now that it's not so hard to slow his beast mode if you have a competent team with a big front court. Julius can pretty much only go left, has no jumper, and has maybe 3 moves to go to. He simply can't rely on his speed and physically overpowering everyone with bully ball. He needs to look to expand his game and he needs to start really soon. I'm a little disappointed that he didn't develop more of a jumper during that year off. He's still really good so far, but he has a long way to go to reach his ceiling.
THe only thing I'm looking at right now is 20 minutes. That is unacceptable regardless of whether we're getting blown out or not.
We need to stop being so hard on him about his lack of a mid-range jumper and his no right hand. We all know he doesn't have it. We all say it after every game as if it's something that we are just now figuring out. But he is a ROOKIE (four all for all intensive porpoises). I wonder what we would have been saying about Kobe his rookie year had internet message boards been a thing then. It's very unlikely he's all of a sudden going to develop a jumper mid-season. There just isn't a lot of spare time to add a totally new and HUGE facet to one's game throughout the grind and travel of the 82 game marathon. This season is about him learning tricks of the trade, getting used to the speed of the game, etc. Let's be honest. If he added a legit jumper and developed a right hand he'd already be an all-star. He's a rookie and rookies usually have a ton to add after their first season, no matter who they are.
Kind of hard to develop a jumper when you're busy rehabbing after a season ending injury. What rookie doesn't have a long way to go to reach their ceiling? Most undersized rookie power forwards are gonna struggle with length in their first couple of seasons. Even with all that he's still averaging a near double double playing under Byron freaking Scott. That's pretty impressive for a kid who is still very limited offensively. If we actually pushed the ball like we should with this type of team Julius would be more efficient. He wouldn't have to go one on one in the half court all the time against a great defense like San Antonio. If we ditched this Princeton offense we could get into quicker sets and action with Russell and Randle and attacking teams with a two man screen and roll.
