He and Russell have gotten away on their talent basically all year with varying degrees of improvement. I'd say throughout the year Julius has been more consistent, but that's the difference between a tiny bit and none at all. Like I say: give me effort. All I want is effort. I don't care how good you are, look at how the fan base has embraced Nwaba and freaking Corey Brewer. If everyone on our team showed consistency of effort like Nwaba, we'd have a good 10 more wins today and the league would look at us the way they look at Minnesota: the next dangerous team.
He does jog up court almost nonchalantly with his back turned and loses track. Drives me bonkers so I can imagine how the coaching staff feels.
Among the "little things" our young players have not shown improvements on this season ... This should be fixed by now but it isn't
Randle was terrible against the Cavs. He lack of defense was infuriating. Always ball watching, jogging back in transition, hands ALWAYS down closing on shooters (they hit like 5 threes right in his face), got dunked on on multiple occassions,...just awful. He also needs to stop acting like he is the PG of this team because he is a constant ball stopper. If he could operate out of the post and hit shooters, then that would be valuable. But he doesn't have any post moves to begin with. Having him always face up 20 foot away from the rim where he just dribbles and eats the clock and can't do anything by himself. I wonder when finally the patience is over with him...
Whoa. I didn't expect that level of hate coming in here. I mean his defense was what it's been all year long so... hopefully this isn't the first time you noticed it! If anything it's been better the last few games so that should tell you something. I thought he was fine last night. I didn't think he fell asleep defensively any more or any less than any other person on the team besides the usual Nwaba. Clarkson, Randle, Russell, and Ingram consistently fall asleep off the ball. Very consistently. There's times when two or three of them are standing in the key while the Cavs are moving the ball around the perimeter with ease. On a positive note, he was setting some bone crushing screens for D'Angelo and I liked that he was looking for his guys. He found ways to impact things without scoring on the offensive end. I wish he'd hit the glass harder though. I said in the D'Angelo thread, games like this are important for other guys on the team besides D'Angelo because they have to learn how to play off someone else who is hot. Randle would rather be the guy who is scoring 40 points, that much is clear. It's also clear he will have a much harder time getting to 40 points than D'Angelo. So it's important for him to play with someone else doing it so that he can figure out his spots and his flow matched up with another guy on fire. To his credit a bit, he looked to get the ball in Russell's hands probably more than any other teammate. To his non-credit: his lack of passion defensively is a big reason we don't play good defense and Randle hasn't figured out when to be aggressive when someone else is hot. When Russell comes out, Randle should turn up the heat and look for his own. He should also not be afraid to take the open shot even when D'Angelo was on the floor. Just because someone has 30 points, doesn't mean nobody else shoots or D'Angelo is going to get doubled and tripled into oblivion. These are things the kids have to learn. Overall Randle has been underwhelming to me even with that big 30+ point game. He's got to be more consistent defensively. There was a game a few weeks ago where he started with 3 steals in the 1st. I want that Randle back. Find the balance kid.
Admittedly I missed the 1st half, but the play that annoyed me more than any other was Julius's weakside steal at the end of the game. If he can do that then, why can't he do it early in the game? It's there. He's got the footspeed to play the passing lanes consistently and he just doesn't... If we could move him this summer in some package to bring back Paul George, re-signing Thomas Robinson would make me feel better. Robinson is half as talented and probably even a little dumber, but he's going to work every second he's on the floor. I'd also look into finding a shooting big man. TJ Leaf with that late 1st would be interesting if he falls there.
if all of our fans can see the crippling flaws in randle's game, i'm guessing they haven't escaped bird's notice. i think our only reasonable shot at a george trade involves landing a top 3 pick and it serving as the centerpiece in the deal. otherwise, you're giving up russell or ingram. and honestly, the latter would have made more sense had the lakers not tied up the cap room in deng and mozgov. but they did. i'm not a fan of falling prey to sunk cost effects, but those FA moves pretty much determined that you need to be trying to build on the young guys.
Gonna need the top 3 pick thrown in there too. As a matter of fact, might need to be top 2. Id do that deal too. In a second.
No. We have the leverage here. He's likely to come here in the offseason, most teams don't want to give up assets to rent him and he decides to bolt. They're in no position to bargain.
But they are in a position to deal with someone else. Unless PG comes out and say Lakers or else, were up against Boston who have the Nets picks.
There's a reason why he wasn't dealt this trade deadline. I'm not saying that PG is dead set on LA, but there is something in the air that GM's aren't taking lightly. Boston was really close, but they don't have any leverage with them. Indiana wants more than just the Nets' pick, which is why the deal never went through. They have something good going on there and I'm sure they don't want to gut some critical pieces for a rental, who may or may not bolt down the line. The way Indiana managed his situation at the trade deadline made things even more toxic there for him.
True but maybe they realize this offseason that they were a PG away from going deep into the playoffs?
It'll take more than the Nets' pick to get PG. I think Jae Crowder was what Indy wanted, maybe Smart+Jaylen Brown. Either way, Boston will have to gut their team to do so for a 2 year window.
They have the '18 Nets pick to trade as well. Those two picks plus Smart or Bradley and Brown or Crowder will get it done? It's a huge risk for a rental but maybe it helps them take the next step and that convinces PG to stay. IT, PG and Horford makes for a solid big 3 in the east. Plus they still have a ton of picks to make deals with.
If George makes the All NBA team, which I think he will. Lakers have to jump on it this summer. The difference between coming to LA in 2018 and making 200 million is almost 70 million. He will not turn down that kind of money. Randle and Clarkson and god willing the top 2 pick with Houston's 1. Paul will need to tell Larry he doesn't want to be in Indy any more. A lot of factors in this one. If George doesnt make an all nba team, than things might change.
That trade would have happened at the deadline had George signed with boston long term. I dont think he wants to go to boston. He wants LA. And he knows if he comes to LA, LA will start to win. It will be a snowball effect. When he commits, others will start to commit.
