He's not even a second year player other than technically speaking, too. This is his first season of actual play. These are his very first 45 NBA games. I think everyone needs to patient with the young man.
To be fair I've only seen bits and pieces of the last two games BUT the little that I've watched has shown slight improvements from Julius. I've seen sliiiiightly better screens. Sliiiiightly better defense. Sliiiiightly better box out technique. His numbers are there. I really do want to play him at times as an undersized 5 next to Bass or Nance Jr. because it forces him to be aware defensively. It forces him to challenge shots and be more aggressive on that end. Now I expect we and he and will struggle at times in that position BUT it gives him an opportunity to see exactly what I'm looking for from a developmental standpoint.
Nice game by Randle. Double double, 2 blocked shots including that sweet run down, knocked down several open midrange jumpers. All in all nice to see. That last play drawn up by Boron was asinine. No way he should have been shooting that three. Where were the guards? Oh yeah, JC was the inbounds passer, LOL.
Yeah I wouldn't dare put this game on Julius for missing that shot. Heck it was even a pretty decent look so good for him for almost making something out of nothing. Other than that, I'm seeing very encouraging small steps forward. His help defense is improving at a microscopic pace, but as long as one day it reaches "decent", that's all that really matters. His jumper looks so much better. Nice and confident stroke that he steps right into. Mechanically it's not pretty, but I don't think that's ever going to change. I just want to see him continue to pull those with confidence from mid-range. It opened up his lanes to attack and he went hard into the paint. He continues to rebound at a high rate. I actually expect and hope for him to get more than 11 rebounds in a game where he plays 30 minutes, but he was off to a slow start since Dallas hit almost every shot in the 1st quarter and he was the one shooting for us in that time frame. While Byron Scott sucked as per usual, the one thing I liked was that Julius was made the focal point of the offense in Kobe's absence. FINALLY. To start the game we gave Julius the ball and let him do his thing out there. He was hit or miss on actual effectiveness, but it's probably not easy to jump into #1 option offensively after being an afterthought for months.
Very good game. Best I have seen in awhile. I hope to see him channel this performance and progress until the end of the season.
I can at least understand him because he's exciting. I think it's debatable that Randle is as good or better than most of that list. Jabari Parker hasn't been impressive since his return. Okafor hasn't been any more impressive than Julius. Noel hasn't been any more impressive than Julius. Smart and Hood are definitely not as exciting as Julius. They've got 6 guards out of 10 available players. The only real forward is Parker who doesn't deserve to go ahead of Julius. I hope he's absolutely pissed.
You know I'm just going by pure gut now in saying that this is not some outrage to me. Scott f***** him no doubt when he didn't deserve it and, like D'Angelo, was starting to "figure it out" plus was also several games into a "beast mode" run with double doubles and great rebounding. But of all the young guys, I didn't expect Julius Randle to be the guy who kind of lost his mojo over it. Russell still oozes confidence. 2 days ago he was asked if it was tough (and discouraging) to have to go up against (elite PGs every night). He just said no, he still had his confidence and they still had to guard HIM. That, the chink (maybe) in his alpha dog armor (thanks a-hole Boron) but also his lack of progress with his weaknesses. Right hand, finishing in traffic because of compensation for non existent Right hand and super slow progress with his jump shot. I hope it lights a fire! Kobe should talk to him seriously about his own mindset after the 4 air balls in Utah. He already played an equally important role in getting him through mentally and with his rehab after Julius' bad broken leg.
Maybe they didn't want to have 3 players from one team. Not saying it's fair. Just throwing it out there.
Then leave off D'Angelo who has done less statistically than either of Clarkson or Randle. Of our three youngsters only one of them has an elite level talent and that's Julius's rebounding. That's not to say Jordan and D'Angelo can't get there, but right now Julius is doing things his peers simply aren't.
Marcus Smart in over Julius baffles me. Media and the league have been treating the C Bags like their darlings over the past year and a half. Not only is Julius averaging more points and shooting a higher field goal % than Smart this year, he has also played 21 more games than him! Marcus hasn't been healthy for almost 1/2 of this season.
