Randle: I feel like Julius Randle's play wasn't as good as his statline suggests but it also wasn't bad, it was just inconsistent. There would be a stretch of play where Randle attacks the lane and finishes, attacks the lane and finds an open man, then finds the ball in motion and scores again...then there would be a stretch where he dribbles into traffic repeatedly with no positive results. It was the same deal defensively, where there were periods of Randle giving way too much space in screen and roll situations but then other moments where he made rotations that I wasn't expecting. The statline makes Randle look like a juggernaut though. He posted 20 points, 8 boards and 2 assists to 2 TO's along with 2 blocks and a steal on 6/12 shooting plus 7/9 from the free throw line. The thing is, Randle had the ball in his hands A LOT and especially initiated the offense often. From that perspective the 2 assists is too low and the mixed bag defense wasn't good enough. He looks like he'd make a really solid number two option but running the offense through him isn't working so far. Bare in mind though, it's the third game of the preseason and a new role for him; these growing pains could end up worth it considering how productive he was. He's not as far away from making this work as a handful of frustrating isolations might make you think.
I of course also appreciate Pharoah's work
But if we are going to microanalyze Randle all year this will be quite unfair.
He's a solid top 100 NBA player and shouldnt we critiqued like he is Melo.
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