half a season in, my major concern about randle from the offseason persists: he's not a smart basketball player. he's lost in team schemes on both ends, but especially on d. he's made strides with his shot, and he's gotten a bit better as a finisher (not enough better in either, but better nonetheless). my point has been that even if he gets a jumper and a right hand (or partial right hand), basketball is still a team game and he just turns off when he doesn't have the ball. harden's like that, too, but he can score like crazy, so his team can live his issues (until the playoffs). randle's not good enough individually to be so disengaged when he's not directly in the action.
Agreed, but he isn't doing it. When do you finally conclude if he can't or won't bring it every night? I've got to think the clock is ticking on his "potential" and pretty soon he'll be who he is. I'm pulling for him, but I think he still would benefit from having a true Alpha around for a few years.
This is only his second year really. I'm not convinced any of the youngsters are what they are and won't become more.
People seem to forget how much Randle has improved from last season. - setting screens - finishing with right hand - midrange J - control in paint, especially driving into paint - playmaking, dribble hand-offs Can you make a similar list for Russell or Clarkson? Not really because they've regressed.
Totally agree with you tada. He's also raised his shooting percentage to 50% and he's being asked to set the table more for others which he's doing as evidenced by his assists. He's improved. Russell might have improved a little to my eyes but the numbers aren't great and don't show much. Clarkson doesn't seem much improved - a little maybe defensively.
Wouldn't say they've regressed vs aren't progressing in some areas as much as we'd hope for in an impatient time frame.
our young guys suck, all of them, trade them all for Cousins! The janitors in Staples need a challenge, the lazy bums.
For what it's worth, Julius isn't shooting 50%. He's at 48.5%, and he's below 44% this month. So whether the early season numbers revealed a new facility or a hot start remains to be seen, in my view. He has declined as a rebounder, too. This is all balanced with some clear improvements: passing and decision-making on offense paramount.
I don't think it's accurate to say that he's declined as a rebounder. It's just that the frontcourt duo of Deng-Mozgov have rebounded better than Kobe-Hibbert by about 4 boards. 8.5 boards in 29.6 minutes is still very repectable and he's still among the league's elite PF's in that department. His shooting efficiency has improved by 5% and if he's injury free I'd bet he'll get that back to 50% by year's end. So really, he's improved his overall game by quite a margin.
Yeah, my mistake - last I checked a couple/few weeks ago he was right at 50%. He's slipped a tiny bit but 48.5% is still pretty darned close. Point being and it's a big point, he's increased his shooting percentage greatly from last year. At the same time he's averaging 3.9 assists a game - just as much as our point guard in Russell, which is just fantastic. Rebounds are down a little but as tada mentioned Deng is doing a good job on that end and Moz - both together grabbing quite a bit more than Hibbert who sucked in that department. Less boards to go around and less emphasis on that end for Randle in the half court set where he is setting the table for others and handling the ball more. He's still got a couple triple doubles which shows some improvement as well. Randle is our most improved young player from last year though and I don't think that's debatable. Maybe it's the injuries that are holding Russell back. Not sure what the issue is with Clarkson but I expected a little more honestly. Again, he's gotten a bit better defensively which is at least hopeful. Maybe it's coming off the bench? I don't know.
His TS is at 53.9%; I'd like to see what he's doing from 10' feet on in comparison to last year. I'll look it up today.
Randle shooting comparison: 2k15-16 vs. 2k16-17 56.8% 0-3 feet 64.9% 36.2% 3-10 feet 31.5% 25.4% 16-arc 40.0%
matched my expectations really well: significant improvement from midrange, mild improvement at the rim, really bad in floater territory. he really needs that shot. i miss that little turnaround in the lane he used some last year. very hard to stop that shot from someone as big and quick as randle.
