And the nice thing would be the balance of it all. Three man break, the perfect number. All 3 are young players with a ton of gas in the tank, can handle the ball, good decision makers, and can finish. Two trailers would be Hibbert and Kobe, good for having a few players back defensivly so the other team couldn't just score so easily right back on the other end (yes, having Kobe back there would be good even if he isn't the defender he once was). This should be a no brainer IMO
Agreed. I feel like we were pushing the ball up court more in the preseason than now. We should get back to that especially since Randle is rebounding well right now.
i think we'll have to get used to the low fg% for a big, perhaps for the long haul. the good news is that once he gets it up on the glass, he tends to go moses malone on it, which is fun.
I think eventually he'll skill some stuff in there and the percentage will go up. I don't think he'll ever be as efficient as a traditional big, but I think he can be more efficient than he is now for sure. A jumper and a right hand and some proper spacing will give him a few percentage points to play with. I actually agree with Byron about this one. Julius can average 15/15 right now if he boxes out. Still, the kid is clearly a beast. You only have to watch him for a minute to see some truly unique abilities on the floor.
He should concentrate on rebounding... especially offensive rebounds. He is an easy read for opponents at this point of his career.
He had a nice stretch in the 3rd where he showed some fire. Were he snatched an alley oop out of the air, grabbed a couple mad rebounds. Couldn't reward him on the other end, and instead of pushing after rebounding he passed it to a guard, not sure if by design or not. He had a few good post ups against Green, couldn't get to the basket though and settled for a fade away 10 footer. Other times he had it was with 6 seconds on the shot clock.
I've been so disappointed by his lack of fire and I don't blame him. I think it's a design that they've taken the ball out of his hands and given it to the guards more, specifically Kobe and Russell and Lou. He's passing a LOT more instead of taking it to his defender. I haven't seen him play with real confidence since the 2nd or 3rd game of the season.
This is exactly why Byron needs to go. The rotations, the wins and losses...those are all secondary. Russell and Randle are kids. And like all kids, they are still being molded into the men they will one day become. These two could be the second coming of Larry Johnson and Steve Nash, but they will end up being Derek Williams and Kendall Marshall because they have ZERO leadership coming from their coach and Kobe.
Has Julius plateau'd? We've kinda been seeing recently how limited he is in his repertoire. Or is this more the result of playing under the systemless Byron Scott?
Byron's system, if we can even call it that. Like we were saying during the game chat, we look like a rec league team out there. If you told me those guys were playing together for the first time last night, I would honestly believe it.
Randle needs to start working better off-the-ball, dive, cut, I'd like to see him more involved in pick in roll situations. Needs to be put in situation where he's attacking off of balls reversal against a shifting, off balance defense, constantly moving attacking the rim In Space. Of course, weakside rotation needs too get better, and generally needs to be more locked in on that end. He has the ability to be a plus defender, though. His rebounding has been very good, his intermediate fall away looks great, had some good moments on defense, can facilitate and pass as we know, and I think he'll get better as the season progresses.
There is no working off the ball in this offense. The only person that makes cuts in this "offense" is when we dump the ball into the post and run 1 triangle set where both the guards cut and clear out. Other than that everyone just stands around and sets a random pick while the ball gets tossed around the 3 point line with no real purpose. And if it ends up in Kobe's hands the ball ain't moving again. If you want to know how simple our sets are, no matter who the post man is (I.e. the best post player on our team or the worst post player on our team) he will get the ball and have to ISO. Which is why we see Randle ISO and then complain when Bass/Nance/Hibbert are getting ISO post ups. This "offense" isn't designed to play to strength or capitalize on the weakness of the defense, it's simpleton basketball 101. Boron thinks it's an "offense", when in reality it just exploits our own players. Which is why everyone has been screaming let DAR/JC run the offense and pick and roll because they probe/drive/shoot with a purpose (As does Randle) to get the best looks we can get, while turds like Kobe/Lou want to ISO and embarrass themselves. Long story short - You suck when you run ISO and that's all we've run for Randle. Kobe and Boron need to go. Until then our young guys are succeeding on raw skill.
