I don't think he lost his touch. He just doesn't have it. You either have it or you don't, and not something you can develop. It's even worse because he has small hands. He has trouble catching passes, fumbling them away quite often. Having said that, he could work on ways of creating better shots for himself during the offseason. For now though, he should look to dunk everything.
I'm with weezy in terms of frustration with his lack of development. the phantom screens and lazy challenges on defense aren't things that take offseason work to fix (like his jumper or dead right hand)--that stuff can and should be fixed right now. for a guy that supposedly has several folks (mwp, worthy, draymond green, etc.) in his ear, he appears to be deaf. but again, I'm not giving up until this is what I'm seeing at this time next year. I refuse to believe he's that lazy or stupid until he proves it.
I just think he's making things harder on himself when he initiates contact. What he tends to do is lower his shoulder, initiate contact, and throw up an awkward shot with his left. In college, it would work because he could power through guys much easier than he could against NBA size and length at the 4. So by initiating the contact instead of letting the contact come to him, he's limiting two of his skills when he's driving to the basket: his ability to rise to the basket and being able to absorb contact and finish. Also, he's getting called for charges trying to move guys down low and he won't get as many fouls called for him the way he's attacking.
The worst to me is not challenging shots. The only thing I can think of is that he doesn't want to risk a foul and then get taken out of the game. He picks up fouls almost as quickly as rebounds. There's so much room for improvement. Honestly with Nance Jr. doing the little things (when he's healthy), I think it's quite clear and obvious that Randle should be coming off the bench. The fumbling he might never be able to fix though. That's part of the problem with small hands. What I want to see though is more focused effort. There was a small stretch where he was playing de facto Center because Nance Jr. was guarding Ryan Anderson against the Pelicans so Randle was left at the rim. During that time he challenged shots and while he had mixed success it was refreshing to see. Why isn't he doing that now? Why is he playing NO defense at all? The rational side of me says it's because the team sucks and he's an emotional guy who has given up on his coach/this situation. The non-rational part of me says he'll never figure it out.
trying to focus on the positive: he rebounds every night. that's a useful skill that already exists. he rarely has a low-rebound game, so he can't be completely lazy/disengaged.
And let's not get away from the other side too: if he had some direction, he'd be a better player. Julius clearly isn't responding to what Byron is saying and doing. Benching didn't help Julius figure it out, maybe teaching would. Maybe coaching would help Julius get where he needs to be.
What a concept, the idea as someone posted a couple days ago with the photos of young Lew Alcindor and John Wooden with the Wizard of Westwood showing Lew something on the court, and in much later life Wooden being still cherished by Kareem in his own mature years now.... with the caption of Wooden saying something about the key to coaching is teaching your messages in such a way that they benefit the player and do not make him resent the coach for the corrections. Kind of the exact opposite of this s*** : and this s***:
This off season JR has got to work on a jumper and really badly needs to be able to attack with his right. 50% AT the rim, defenders know he's going left and can crowd and bump and change the shot. If you look at his shot chart this season, there is a huge empty hole to the right of the rim.
Our organization doesn't meet the required level on coaching and players development right now . period .
Everybody is saying he sould look up to Draymond Green which I think is not true. They are not the same player. I think offesively he should watch over the summer alot of Cousins's footwork and offesive attack and on defensive end Ben Wallace who was an undersized defensive genious.
He does need to get something going on the right hand even if just modestly in the beginning.. One or two moves would go along way. Also very important for Julius would be to develop that in the key pull up jump shot. Something to give the defense more than one thing to think about. Julius with hard work, which he seems capable of, will develop into a good player.. maybe very good. It is likely however, with his style of play that he will always be both exciting to watch and frustrating at the same time. I'm still of the opinion that's he is a great value for his draft position.
What I wonder about is why not having a right hand is such an issue for him? I've never seen Zach Randolph use his right hand. I've seen Ginobli use his right hand once. I've never seen Harden finish with his right hand. Odom in 7 years or so with us finished with his right hand maybe a dozen times. Yet they were all effective impact players. What did they have that Randle doesn't have?
Lamar was never great at it either, even through the championship years. It's all footwork and control in my opinion. Zach in the post, Ginobili/Harden/Odom on the drive. All of these guys are in control when they attack. Randle is thinking too much about going to his right, that all he really needs to do is slow down, take his time with his footwork, and elevate.
all of them have both a face up jumper and excellent touch in the paint with their strong hand (the bigs have big hands). odom maybe didn't have the former, but that was why he spent his career as a sub-15ppg scorer for the most part. zbo and odom both have/had great length, too. randle's going to have to be able to finish with his right. even a simple layup going that way would really open up his game. guys are giving him the running righty hook from 4 feet, and he won't take it.
The painful truth is that he's not so good with his left hand either. Good game last night though. Even with a raw offensive game, he's still a 15/12 player, which is good for a 2nd year player by anyone's standards. I expect much more from him though. I expect him to be a BEAST every night..... eventually.
