Julius Randle Discussion: MIP

http://www.insidesocal.com/lakers/2...eace-intrigued-with-julius-randles-potential/

Very good read.

 

Lakers are sweet for them analytics all day every day now.... yessir. :noyoudidnt:


http://nba.nbcsports.com/2015/09/23...tious-with-randle/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs



Lakers’ trainer understandably cautious with Randle
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By Kurt HelinSep 23, 2015, 3:44 PM EDT

Just 18 minutes into his first NBA game, Julius Randlefractured his tibia on what was an innocent play.

Longtime Lakers’ trainer Gary Vitti — entering his final season — has blamed himself for that. He shouldn’t, every other medical person consulted on this said there was no way to see it coming, but that’s Vitti. Randle had surgery that put a rod and screws in his tibia, and he spent a year in recovery. (While out, Randle also had foot surgery.) He was healthy enough to play in Summer League in Las Vegas.

But heading into the season, Vitti is still leaning toward caution and thinking long-term, as he told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.

“The plan is we get to the first day of training camp, we talk to our doctors and hopefully he will be able to participate in everything. But men plan and God laughs. So that’s the plan. That’s the mid-range plan. I said there were three goals. First is to get him to play in summer league. Second goal was to get him at first day of training camp and get him to do everything. Third goal is to get him to play in the first regular season game without restrictions.”

So what are he and the doctors watching? That answer provides a brilliant look into the advanced analytics available in the NBA that are becoming the trend for monitoring player health.

“Number one is pain. The things that we look at are pain, inflammation and swelling as well as talking to him on how he feels. It’s also his performance on the court and his recovery on the court. We look at things like load and intensity. So when we’re in a game at an NBA arena, we have an eye in the sky. The eye in the sky tells us how many accelerations there are to the left and how many accelerations there are to the right as well as how many decelerations. We can tell how many accelerations and decelerations there are and the trajectory of them. That information goes in an algorithm that tells us the average speed that the player played at. We multiply that by the distance that he ran in a game. We multiply that by his body weight. That gives us a number that we call load. We look at that number. But then we also take that number and divide it by time, which is minutes played, and that gives us intensity. So what we want to see as his load goes up, does his intensity go up with it. If it does, then we’re okay.”

If not, there are changes. It’s that simple. And if/when players start wearing body monitoring devices, that will add another level to the discussion.

Hopefully for the Lakers there are no restrictions on Randle, who needs to diversify his offensive moves as he adapts to the next level of defense he will face.

 

Damn, Battle. Great post, man. Love that read. That read makes me more excited for the season. Let's go!!!

 

:metta::crazyron:

 

ROFY, how about ongoing analysis this year for Randle, "People'sROFY". If he's healthy all year could be very interesting weighed against this year's class.

It's Woj, it's Kobe, it's Metta and it's Julius Lotus Flower Randle. (thanks Battle.... great get) For the clicking links challenged amongst us:


Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace lead Lakers' education of Julius Randle

By Adrian Wojnarowski12 hours agoYahoo Sports

LOS ANGELES – Months had passed for Julius Randle, his fractured leg had mended and, still, he sat as a solitary, seething customer in a Southern California restaurant. The trainers had let him back into the gym in March to start his long, lonely return to the Los Angeles Lakers' lineup, and Randle desperately resisted the slow, steady churn of the regimen. He wanted to go longer, harder. He wanted to stay in the gym.


Kobe Bryant responded to him.

"I'm 19 years old," Randle wondered. "How do I have patience?"

"It's the only choice," Bryant told him.

"You'll see."

Now, Randle is sitting in a corner booth of Don Chuy's in Playa Vista on a sunny September afternoon and laughs, "I do see it now."

Randle is forever grateful about the way his boyhood idol climbed down from the posters on his bedroom and into his basketball life.

"The biggest person to help get me through this was Kobe – by far," Randle says.

Suddenly, everything had come to a crashing stop for Julius Randle, a McDonald's All-America who had fast-tracked through a teenager's trifecta fantasy: Kentucky, the draft lottery and the Lakers. He loves L.A., the sun, the surf, the glamour franchise that every young star believes can make them a transcendent star. And then on opening night, Randle heard the crack of his bone and crumpled to the court.

After losing his entire rookie season to that fractured tibia in his right leg – as well as getting a screw reinserted into his right foot to stabilize an old high school injury – Randle returns with a transformed body and ethic: He's never eaten so well, never developed his frame so fiercely, never felt stronger and surer starting a basketball season. He's a hulking 6-foot-9 forward with such possibility, a cornerstone of this Lakers future, the prospect that general manager Mitch Kupchak refused to include in those brief trade talks for Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins.

Kobe Bryant's education of Julius Randle started on the floor in training camp, and stayed a constant presence once Randle was carried out of the season on a stretcher. It started in one-on-one games and long talks and Randle feeling humbled when he'd get to the arena for a preseason game and Bryant, soaked in sweat, was finishing a hard workout. "He's a five-time champion and an MVP, and I'm thinking to myself, "What's my excuse?"

Bryant lost his season to a rotator cuff tear in February, but balanced his own angst with months of pushing and prodding of his teenage teammate. Bryant always chooses his pupils carefully, rewarding those who demonstrate a serious-mindedness to the craft. More than that, Bryant understands Randle is one of the burgeoning talents who could give him reason to postpone retirement.


Metta World Peace. So much of the Lakers' intrigue with bringing back World Peace at 35 years old centers on how impactful he's been in the gym for the young players, especially Randle.

Every day, Randle is mesmerized with the intellect of World Peace. Everything Randle tries on World Peace – the pump fake, the jab step, the subtle moves to create a sliver of space and a shot – are seldom successful.

Maybe Metta used to be stronger. Maybe he used to be quicker. All Randle knows is this, he says: "He isn't biting on anything. He has the greatest hands I've ever seen play. You've got to give him everything you've got to get a bucket on him. Everything.

"I played one on one against Kobe in the preseason last year, and you'd play perfect defense against him; you can guess right on everything and it still doesn't matter. He's still going to make the shot. Metta is the same way. He's going to guess everything right. He disrupts your rhythm. You're going to have to make the tough shot over him."

After World Peace didn't like the way Randle was stopping the ball in a practice facility pickup game, he shot him a text later in the afternoon. "Go watch how the Spurs move without the ball," World Peace instructed Randle. So, Randle turned on his laptop and started watching the simple genius of the Spurs.

As Randle proudly remembers, "The next week, [Metta] said, "I can see you've been watching the film.'" He goes out of his way to make things easy for me."

Julius Randle has grown close to guard D'Angelo Russell, the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft, and has started to understand the enormity of the burden for this young core. Someday, this franchise will belong to them and that's so much of the reason these days and nights with Kobe and Metta matter to Randle, make him want to learn everything before time whisks them away for good. This is a famous franchise, a big, big job and there's so much Julius Randle wants to learn before they're gone for good.

 

Lakers have such an abundance of old players willing to help, it's up to the you guys to open themselves up to it. Ronron and Kobe in your ear? It's impossible to ask for any better help.

 

In fact, I think this is one of the greatest assets the Lakers have. Old showtime champions like Magic, Coop, Kareem, Byron, etc., have mentored or influenced our young players to championship success in the league over the past 20+ years (Kobe in particular). My hope is that as these Showtime players transition out of those roles, guys like Kobe, Fish, Metta, and Fox take the torch as mentors for a new wave of young talent. I think this unique tradition we have should be a major selling pitch we use to future Free Agents as well...let them know they'll always have a role in this organization, even beyond their playing years.

 

And Byron too. Players and champions all of them. The gym rat mentality and chip on shoulders to put in the hard work with what they learn from the fabulous veterans on this team. Exactly why I am expecting so much out of our young guys if health is with us for all of the squad, this year. Say by Christmas to get it really cooking. And then you got D'Angelo what me worry ... I'm going to figure it out and show y'all why I was the best player in the draft. He said that, "quote, unquote" on media day. So many alpha dogs on this roster. Think about it. :Yes:

 

Playoffs

 

MWP is going to turn this boy into a man. Couldn't ask for a better mentor for him this year. Love those reads about their progress together.

 

Yea, Ron looks great, toned, solid!

 

Thick!