You know you're a young stud when one of the greatest players at your respective positions is giving you respect. It's like when Westbrook impressed Kobe. Not an easy guy to impress. Randle is like a combination of Lamar Odom and Zach Randolph. The handles, the athleticism, the toughness, rebounding, physicality in the post, ability to create off the dribble and has some crafty finishes in the paint, and dude has fantastic energy. Julius is gonna be a hell of a player in this league. People always talk about who will be that next great Lakers big man. Well this kid right here can potentially fit that mold.
Jordan and D'Angelo are going to be ridiculously good defensively in a few years. I could already see the potential. This play really had me excited. Nice combo-block!
The young guys have a lot of very encouraging signs. Our core right now is D'Angelo, Jordan, and Randle with Hibbert maybe being included too. Well between those four I'm seeing good things. 1. Randle speaks for himself. Sure it was against a team with no interior defense, but so what? It's good that he used that opportunity to flex a little bit. His ability to get out in transition is so Malone-esque too. When we replace Kobe with an athletic wing next summer, that fast break is going to be something to behold. 2. Russell is inching forward. Right now he's got a randomly short leash, but he still needs to play with more fire anyway. I think he's intimidated right now by not just the lights and the pressure of LA, but the fact that he's very clearly a 19 year old kid playing with grown *** men. It must be weird seeing your teammate a year older than you look like a tank while you're a twiggy little guy still. Couple that with an offense not suited to him and certain teammates not playing team ball... Got to be a rough way to start. Even so, he showed some great flashes with Randle yesterday and you can see the wheels turning in his head so to speak. It's a common thing for kids to be thinking too much. He'll improve. 3. Clarkson's role in this team is up in the air. He doesn't know if he's a floor spacer, a creator, a ball hander, or what but he's doing a lot of little things. D'Angelo should be taking cues from how hard Clarkson works off the ball. 4. Defensively the three of them are far from perfect, but there's some seriously great signs from them. D'Angelo is a passable one-on-one defender thanks to his size. As he puts muscle on his frame, he'll be able to recover a little better and you could see more of those blocks on drives. Randle's one-on-one defense has looked great. Clarkson showed two big blocks yesterday and his activity is half of what good defense is. 5. I love the Hibbert/Randle connection. Two bigs that can pass well and when Randle attacks eventually he'll learn when he's triple teamed to either throw something at the rim and let Roy get it or to find Roy for a little 10-15 foot jumper. They're going to have a great connection even before this season is over.
I'm optimistic that Kobe will have an efficient game tonight. I'm optimistic that Byron will have better rotations. Mind you, I have nothing to base any of this off of, but I'm optimistic. I'm just choosing to be......
I'm optimistic that I think we have the next great Lakers big man in Julius Randle. I'm optimistic that Russell has shown flashes of being a GREAT point guard if our d****** coach would let him off the leash. I'm optimistic that Jordan Clarkson can and will be a Manu Ginobli like steal for us as a second round pick. My God that kid looked amazing. Off the dribble, on the attack, and his three point shot looked silly smooth. In short I think we have three guys who can all be stars in this league. A potential championship core once we get a competent coach who will allow these young kids to blossom, grow, and have an actual system that will utilize their skill sets.
It's exciting to watch Randle out there growing before our very eyes. Manning up game by game and not stepping down to challenged. Clarkson has no fear either. Won't back down in crunch time and clutch at the FT line.
First game I thought Clarkson/Randle/Russell all perform very efficiently. Love the distribution of shots, too. Nance, Tarik, and Metta. All positive performances.
I'm optimistic about Russell. He was a lot more aggressive and decisive out there. Showed a lot more passion and fire. No hesitation. Was attacking. Didn't just settle for three's. That mid range shot is a thing of beauty right now. That crossover on Jack was great too. Good veteran move creating space with his forearm. I liked what I saw from Randle too. His defense was a lot better in this game. Had some hard drives, had a nice steal and a finish. Active on the glass. That's what you wanna see. Not just about scoring, but the energy and activity on the boards and defensively. Thought Clarkson had some good attacks after Russ went out. Needs to relax with some of the three's because really he's been able to attack whenever he wants. Inserting Ron, Lance Jr. and Black getting minutes again just elevated our energy level and gave us a spark off the bench. That was lacking. That's we need. Guys who will come in and compete and get after it defensively. We have enough guys who can score. Need hustle, energy, effort, and defense, defense, and more defense.
Seriously though I'm incredibly optimistic about this team. I know it was a bad a Nets team, but you know what? In a team with Kobe, Hibbert (a two-time All-Star), Metta (a former DPOY), Lou Williams (reigning 6MOY), and guys like Bass and Huertas who are consummate pros... Clarkson and Randle are maybe our two best players. Two guys under 25 years old are our two best players with a team that has some serious veteran talent. Clarkson's ability to change direction and get to the rim at will is truly remarkable. Randle's ability to literally do whatever he wants on the floor is unbelievable for a 20 year old kid. Russell showed some real flashes for maybe the first time in his career. He showed some incredible shooting ability to go along with his already fantastic decision making and passing and his better than expected defense... When that Coach Nick guy said we don't even need another star, I'm tempted to believe him. Would it be great to have Durant? Sure, but honestly if we just get a kid who can space the floor nicely and play some defense we're in serious business. Someone like Harrison Barnes would be fine. Batum, Jeff Green, or Wilson Chandler all make sense too. Sure Durant would be an embarrassment of riches, but what we've got is already VERY exciting.
I've been wanting to bring this up but it's still so far away. Getting Durant would be great, he's a superstar and if he's willing to come here then you say yes. But honestly, if we keep Hibbert, a guy like Barnes or Batum would be a much better fit.
