Kobe and Metta are holding the team chemistry together, they are being the good cops to Byron's dumb cop (wait). It's weird though, his 3 point shots look way better than his mid range shots, better arch and all that science.
*gasp* You just inadvertently confirmed Byron's asinine comments about you guys previously not being ready to play. Bad idea bro.
This kid can be special. He has a Lebron body, a Westbrook attitude, in the future can shoot the 3 like Bosh, Rebound the ball like Barkley. Now all he need is a good coach and develop some defence.
Very nice game tonight for Julius - great energy! 15 and 9 in 23 minutes. So close to another double double. Had some sweet jams on the break. Rock solid.
We play the Suns tomorrow who just gave up 142 points to the Kings tonight. Hope Julius has a big game against em tomorrow
I don't know...I'm starting to wonder a bit about that dynamic. I don't agree with Byron's approach (if it is indeed true that he never tells them why they're benched, etc.--that just seems crazy), but I do notice what I think he's noticing. like you said: randle hasn't really changed the way he's playing, and anyone watching knows that there are some issues with his overall style of play. I was thrilled to see him actually finish a play with his right hand against boston, though. I honestly think it was the first one all season long. the three point shot is encouraging, too. hit enough to keep folks honest and it will open up the floor for the team. all in all, it's hard to be upset with what randle's brought in his rookie year thus far. I just get frustrated that he hasn't found ways to make the game easier for himself and his teammates.
I hear you. There's things to Randle's game that need a lot of work. Larry Nance Jr. is not as good as Julius, but he's more willing to do all the small things. He boxes out fairly regularly, he moves the ball quickly, he makes decisions more quickly, etc. etc. Julius is still a ball stopper, he doesn't help defensively, he doesn't always challenge shooters. His effort is there on the glass, but not always there defensively which is frustrating. My thing is: Has Byron told him or D'Angelo what they're not doing right? I don't think so. Everything we've heard is that he didn't talk to the kids before their benching and his only advice to them is that it's a "Man's League" and they need to figure it out. If they're not being coached and told what they need to improve on during the season, then what is our coaching staff there for? They're not running any sort of coherent offense or defense. They're not making adjustments (can't figure out a simple trap at the end of the Sixers game). They're not coaching the young guys to improve. Julius has shown flashes of absolute brilliance that is stunning. He's also shown that he's not working on the things he needs to work on. Bring him off the bench until he figures it out, that's okay. But make sure he knows what the hell he needs to work on to get better.
^^ And play him more than 20 minutes a game please. If he sucked it would be one thing but he's one of our brightest young stars. Give him minutes. Many nights he is a matchup problem for the opposition and we don't take anywhere near enough advantage of it. Byron's starting unit isn't good. We should be playing our best players to give us every opportunity to win. Same goes for Russell. The offense is so stagnant most of the time without him. The kids should play, period.
He lost his aggressiveness on offense after he sat out the entire third, but his rebounding was rock solid and early on he was playing very unselfishly and making plays for others.
when randle gets the ball in the pinch post, he needs to decide quicker what he's going to do... The dude stops literally everything.
I don't see any improvement in his IQ or feel for the game though. He still makes the same mistakes out there. He can't set a screen, has terrible awareness on both sides of the ball (other than rebounding), just stops the ball when he gets it.
He set a few good screens and rolled early on tonight Ras. I'm seeing some baby steps in those regards.
Yep a lot of glaring mistakes that he still makes out there. He still seems disinterested when things aren't going his way.
Come on dude Phoenix is the worst team in the NBA right now and he scores 2 points? Seriously? He made a lot of boneheaded plays in the 4th outside of a couple of hustle plays that got Bass a basket. Kinda disappointed in him. Hopefully he can bounce back from this next.
I saw that very differently. He gave Huertas the rock, had Ronnie Price on him and was calling for the ball but Huertas held it for 10 seconds then jacked up a three. That's on Huertas who was terrible tonight. Not recognizing and taking advantage of the mismatch.
Huertas was telling him to get deeper position since he had price on him but Randle just stood there with his arms out at the top of the key. Randle's bball iq seems very low.
The problem with that is Randle was 17 feet from the rim, probably the one place he couldn't make a shot unguarded. Back down your man, THEN call for the ball.
