His frustration is an issue if he doesn't channel it properly. Actually I'd sit a frustrated player too. You don't think the game when you're frustrated. Nothing comes natural when you're forcing which is what it looks like he's doing. Injuries come when you aren't letting it come to you. All part of the maturation process.
He actually has a gozillion But what's important to take from those quotes is that you truly only need a couple of moves that are unguardable. Once those 2 moves get in the head of the defender, even your average moves become difficult to defend. So Randle should work on perfecting those 2 moves before expanding his offense with counter moves, etc.
Well first things first: Julius needs to nail down that elbow jumper. If he gets that down, his drives get easier and easier.
You're right. His obvious strength is in the elbow/high-post area. He already has the driving ability, so all he needs there is a better jumpshot. He needs to keep developing his shot. However, he needs to get back to playing more in the low post area. I believe that's why he was compared to Zbo coming out of college. He's starting to fall in love with playing out in the perimeter, and I don't like it.
I don't disagree. I think his post game is solid already though. The few times he went to the post in Summer League he was successful. He posted up the little kid from Dallas and scored easily. He posted up Towns in that first game and scored easily too. I agree he needs to go that route more often.
Liked what Mitch had to say about Randle in his interview after the press conference today. Talked about how it was frustrating to Randle only playing 5 min stretches, to come in and start to try to get comfortable for a couple minutes and then you look up and you have 1 or 2 minutes til you have to go out and you start to press and can struggle. Said its tough to get a rhythm playing that way, and I think most of us here agree with that. He also said "summer league is nice", but that training camp is the real goal for Randle to play better. Also said in general that we had 5 or 6 19 year olds on our summer league team, and it's tough to expect them to tear it up out there playing against teams with some vets. I don't think excuses need to be made for summer league, but I do think it's cool for Mitch to have the rookies' backs.
5 or 6 19 year olds? I count only Randle and Russell... Clarkson is 23, Brown is 23, A. Brown is 22, Nance is 22, Upshaw is 21, Black is 23... The other guys don't matter...
It's possible I heard that quote wrong, but I think the point was we had a lot of guys with no NBA experience.
I was just being snarky. He's right, our expectations were certainly too high for so many kids new to the scene. I guess we were hoping for more talent/chances to showcase their talent. I thought we'd be focusing on defense and getting out on the break, but instead we were focusing on running Princeton sets for 3 games that got us nowhere.
Well, he won't have any shortage of whiteboard material to motivate him. http://mweb.cbssports.com/nba/eye-o...-eye-openers-mudiay-shines-randle-not-so-much MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER Julius Randle F, Los Angeles Lakers Stats: 11.5 points, four rebounds, 39.5 percent shooting Randle is coming off of a pretty horrific broken leg, but starting in April the reports about his progress had been pretty positive. His showing in Vegas was probably a bit of a step back, as many of the questions some had about him came to fruition. He struggled to finish around the rim, trying to go through everyone as opposed to trying different strategies. He also didn't rebound well, and just generally didn't look as impressive athletically as he did at Kentucky. Overall, I'm not worried about Randle. I like him as a prospect and think he'll continue to develop. As you'll see in the next section, the Lakers were kind of a mess as a whole in Vegas which makes it hard for anyone to find a groove. Still, this wasn't the kind of performance that many were expecting to see from last season's No. 7 pick. MOST DISAPPOINTING TEAM Los Angeles Lakers Record: 1-4 With Randle, D'Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson, along with Robert Upshaw, Italian League MVP Tony Mitchell and a few other NBA players, this had the potential to be the best team in Las Vegas. Instead, no one was put in position to succeed outside of Clarkson, who looked so good in Vegas that even he couldn't be brought down by the rest of the group. Russell struggled some this week, rarely getting a chance to showcase his terrific instincts in the pick-and-roll. A lot of this can be laid at the feet of Mark Madsen and the coaching staff, which really didn't put this team in good positions at all. Instead of playing to the team's strengths on offense, the Lakers ran a ton of Princeton sets and didn't allow their creative guards, namely Russell, to free wheel enough. On defense, they spent a lot of time playing zone (why?), and rotationally, they didn't get interesting guys like Mitchell and Upshaw a ton of minutes to get a strong look at them. So basically, they lost, didn't run anything resembling a useful scheme, and didn't get a look at the interesting guys they needed to get a look at. Not exactly what you're hoping for if you're an organization trying to rebuild.
Randle. Basically you suck. Step it up and prove to us you even belong in a Laker jersey, or we'll treat you like Smush Parker.
Clarkson looked good because he is the best player we had on the floor. The system didn't favor him at the expense of the others. Randle didn't look bad at times because of the offensive sets, he looked bad because he was playing bad. Honestly he's not looked great in either summer league. He had about 3 halves in Pre-Season where he looked comfortable and played very well but so far that is about it. He will need time and I think the pressure on him is beginning to mount. We will see if he can handle it.
A couple things to remember: 1. This Summer League was his first NBA level game since his injury. 2. The Lakers were micromanaging his minutes and he was visibly frustrated. 3. The system, the supporting players. No spacing, the lower talent level just didn't fit Randle's skills. Randle looked his best in Summer League when he got into a good rhythm playing 6-7 minutes, and going ISO. He honestly didn't look bad. I said it in another post, but the one thing that bothered me more than him not hitting shots or just looking rusty overall, was his activity on defense, the boards, and off the ball. I noticed this last year too. He seems to be a guy who needs the ball in his hands to be productive. He shouldn't be that way. He would make an excellent cut man off screens to the basket, a strong rebounder, and capable defender if he actually put the work in. I'm hoping Byron and Kobe will instill that on him.
It doesn't help when you don't design an offense that emphasizes these things in the 'system' or too the player or in this case, Randle. It'd help if Scott emphasized these things too him; moving without the ball, boxing out, screening, etc, and he still might; I just haven't seen it.
This pretty much sums up my feelings on Randle and the Summer league in general. Although, I also worry about Randle's defense and rebounding. He has ELITE athleticism for a man his size. He could be Draymond Green on steroids. It's up to him.
