NoDopeOnSundays wrote:I saw Nikola Vucevic mentioned in here, and I can't believe some of you don't see the parallels between Randle and him. The Magic looked like they were ready to move on from him, he was going into the last year of his deal and they drafted a young center to potentially groom for the future. Then Vucevic has a career year, they sign him to a 4 year $100 million, they glue their draft pick to the bench despite nice advanced stats, they go 42-40 and earn the right to lose 4-1 to the Raptors, then they go 33-40 and still make the playoffs because this is the East after all, and lose 4-1 to the Bucks.
Vucevic is a nice player, he'd be a great number 3 guy on the Raptors or Celtics, but you don't build around him. Randle could be a good number 3, or an excellent 6th man, you don't build around him as part of your core. There isn't a single contending team that would have Randle as part of their core, and we're about to build around him as though he's Embiid
There definitely are parallels between Vucevic and Randle.
I think there's a major difference however in that Vucevic is a center who can't protect the rim (and isn't a generational genius like Jokic to make up for it), which means his teams will always have a ceiling, unless surrounded by All-NBA talent across the line-up. It just makes everything more difficult.
Randle can play alongside a defensive center that anchors the defense. Granted, ideally he would be playing with a Myles Turner who can create more space for him on offense, but you get my point.
