Interesting to see the style his shot takes because he's undersized. I think if he had better footwork and body positioning he wouldn't have to short arm shots like that as much, but he's got decent touch. In fact he puts too much english on it sometimes. Hopefully this summer he can just get in the gym with Kobe and Worthy and really get his post game on point. I wish he'd post up more often actually.
nice thing about the above clip is that he was in position to grab that offensive board had he missed. that's another way to use his quickness to his advantage.
$10 paypal right to your account for whoever can find stats or real close photos of both Julius' and Kobe's hands on a ball with the seams for reference. Are his hands really smaller than Kobes or by a whole bunch? Honest interest here. I keep looking. I have found a few sets of 2 that have looked semi - OK to compare them. As a huge fan of his and knowing what it would do for his game .... when this beast can use his handles, footwork, quickness and finally adding a shot ...... plus take it to the rack either hand, cup the ball like Kobe and dunk one handed when needed...... Look the hell out. He's working on the finishing with his right hand now, he's working on his shot now and he should start working on this like years ago. He'd have to have much smaller hands than Kobe to not be able to one arm jam with the cupping grip. Ummm that is $10 once to the first set of pics or published hand stats that we can agree answers the question.
I would be all in on this type of deal actually. I was hoping we would do something like that last year with the Sixers....but I think this could be on the table next year if the Sixers badly want Simmons. I would try to extract the 2nd pick and maybe two players from the Sixers....maybe one of their centers and then that dude Dario Saric that they basically stashed away in Europe for years.... Also, trodgers, to answer your question....yes, he's already pretty good, but its numbers on a bad team. I can't put too much stock into that yet. But I do like what I'm seeing from him. He's already better than what I thought he would be. But that's the thing....he is showing enough promise that we probably could get something really nice for him. It's sell high really. And if you have a shot at a top 15 player? You should probably take that deal. Yes, getting Simmons probably means we have to think about trading Randle...but that's a good problem to have because we know that Randle is pretty darn good already so his trade value would be pretty high and Lakers will probably not settle for anything less than a top 10-15 player is my guess.
By what .... 1/3" ... 1/2" at most? But factor in how big the palms are. Photo is inconclusive. No $10 prize going anywhere yet. But my point is .....my god are Julius' hands THAT much flipping smaller [if they are with palms as well] than Kobe's? He could not with all his beast strength and coordination learn how to CUP the ball with both this hands and wrists/forearms and stuff that sumbit**? Why do you excuse him so much on this realdeal? Do you truly think this guy can't CUP and go up and jam the mother f******* ball? You and I seem to be the only ones talking about this. I don't get your he can't do it excuses at all. Hey even brothers fight. This ain't even fisticuffs. I just flat out find this hard to believe.
I don't think he can cup the ball regularly, no. He's very athletic, but he needs space to showcase his hops. I don't think he's got the kind athleticism needed to hammer stuff one handed around the rim that often. Throw in his short fingers and he can't palm the ball very easily either so he's forced to flip shots around near the rim. It's an issue with him because a) while he handles the ball well for his size he tends to leave the ball out there where a quick guard/someone with quick hands can tap it and b) he will not be able to jump into slam with one hand very often. It just won't happen. Ultimately it's not that big of a deal. It just takes more time and effort to develop skill over athleticism. Kobe's hands aren't big either. In fact, Phil Jackson brought that up all the time in his comparisons between the two. Jordan's ability to palm the ball made his acrobatics easier. Kobe had to do more with less in order to approximate Jordan's moves. Julius will have to follow suit.
"I don't think he can cup the ball regularly, no." If in total there is, I will give you 1/2" difference or more I will buy not regularly. My whole point is occasionally, when he can't jam with two hands and if he could blow by someone on the right side and finish reasonably at some point with his right hand, that it would not have to be as precise of a "touch". If his hands are 1/2" total reach shorter than Kobe's, or certainly yes, if more, then yeah, he's no Kobe dunk monster, but maybe with his combined hops in the same conversation with Blake Griffin's ..... if he were to have it in his head to explode for a tight gripped one armed "dunking" possibility instead of one handed "touch" possibility with the right hand.... that would simplify things mentally for him some times, and with the angles that could be explosively taken. Give me at least that this 6'9" tall human being with above average NBA hops should be able to CUP and dunk one armed once in awhile to add to his repertoire.
all this talk of cupping balls. anyway, I think if your hands aren't large enough to easily control the ball with one hand, your ability to finish (cup or no) is going to suffer. pj was absolutely right about that huge difference between kobe and mj. having really big hands is quite useful in basketball. in order to utilize the "cup" strategy, one must elevate even further above the rim, and the gather will require two hands to get a secure grip. I don't know if it's the golden road to dunk freedom. what surprises me is that men of this size must have hands not much bigger than mine (I'm 5'10"). I mean, randle's hand length beats mine by like an inch, and the width (span) is only like 1/2 an inch longer. that must look odd next to dudes like kawhi leonard, who are their same size with meat hooks.
Yeah he's got surprisingly and relatively small hands, but it's not as uncommon as you'd think. I hear Durant's hands aren't big enough to cup a ball either. The thing is, Julius needs a ton of room to rise up that high. He's not as explosive in small areas as Durant or Griffin or Kobe. As he gets older and more experienced in the NBA, I think he'll figure out ways to dunk one-handed more often, but right now I actually like that he's been about trying to finish two-handed. It leaves nothing in doubt and is a lot harder to block.
that surprises me about Durant. he shows pretty good one-handed ball control on the finish, imo. then again, with his crazy long arms, he can tuck the ball into his forearm and throw down without being worried about clearing the rim and/or defenders' hands.
Another solid game from Julius tonight. Just missed the double double with 11 and 8 but also had three assists and continued his 50% shooting.
strange, after having a big 23 point game and me criticizing him for looking out of control, he seems to be in control now. my sample size for games is probably too small to be making judgments one way or another. either that, or im a terrible analyst.
I think he's still learning what he's going to be offensively, but I love his development the last few games. I really only want to see more defensive activity now. Then this summer work on post game, footwork, jump shot, right hand...
Did a search on Basketball Reference for players averaging 11 ppg / 10 rpg in < 30 minutes at age 21 or younger. The list.... Reggie Harding John Drew Kevin Love Andrew Bynum Julius Randle I think we all get caught up in what we expect from a young player and critique them in the same way we do vets like Kobe, Lou, etc. Has Randle been all that we wanted? No not yet. But has he been doing impressive things for his age and time played so far in the NBA? I'd say yes. Considering he's on the short list above, I think we all should be happy where he is at now and expect him to work on his deficiencies and come back a better player than this year. JC struggled big time when he started out because he was doing the same thing Randle is now, just flying around everywhere 100 mph. Randle has slowed it down the last couple of games and it's showing. Baby steps, but at least we can depend on him for a double double almost every night and for a rookie that's pretty good. (You can edit the above down to rookie season and only Harding and Drew would be on that list. If you wanted more perspective)
^^^ Absolutely. We're so used to Kobe I think it's simply natural that we aren't really impressed by numbers unless they're huge. We also haven't been a team that has relied on big name rookies/high draft picks as long as I've been a fan (since '93). We've mostly been a team that signs or trades for a star, and fills the team with quality vets and at most gets some solid bench play out of late 1st rounders and some 2nd round picks. We aren't really used to seeing top 10 picks have to develop on a bad overall team like a lot of other franchises. Kobe wasn't thought to be one of the best of his class, was closer to not being a lottery pick than being one, got to develop under all-stars and was a special case, and aside from him we only ever had Bynum as a high draft pick that turned into something special. This is a unique situation, for me at least, having not seen the Lakers of the 80's grow from the draft very quickly, we'll need to be patient with these kids.
