The Julius Randle Thread

[vtime]

Extend Randle ASAP.

[minimus]

Read on Twitter

[minimus]

Watch on YouTube

[Shaka_Zulu]

Extend Randle ASAP.

His aggressive scoring and playmaking is good as expected. Nice to see. He put pressure on paint and can easily find teammates all the time.


But he is absolutely disastrous defensively. Super low effort, doesn't even try. Combine lack of D with his lack of size (same with Naz), and it virtually breaks our defensive identity of last season so far.


Someone needs to sit down with Randle and convince him to buy in with defensive effort. But I doubt that, he is a stubborn type with huge ego and big mouth that tends to chirp back at teammates or coaches. Its not only in talent he is downgrade from Kat, but also attitude. Kat was a franchise player willing to put in the work of a role player for sake of team. Randle persona seems opposite of that.

So don't expect a selfless buy in type, like I would say from DDV.


But hope he suprises me.

[younggunsmn]

I've noticed Randle and Dante have been having some issues with scheme defensively.

Randle did a bunch of unnecessary switching in the Dallas game and was having conflicts with Rudy about what they were doing.
Dante was sticking on Klay at all times at the cost of playing help defense and that seemed to really hurt.

I also don't know if FInch has a firm grasp on what kind of scheme he wants us to run this year.
Looks like a bunch of vanilla drop and switching so far which we are executing with very poor fundamentals right now anyway.

Team needs a LOT of work before the defense looks anything like the team we finished last year with.
Randle has decent lateral quickness and enough bulk that he doesn't get pushed around.
Dante has a very high BBIQ and great hands.

We've got a lot to work with, but it's going to be a process.

[minimus]

Can someone convince Randle to play defense the way he did last game in clutch?

[vtime]

Extend Randle ASAP.

His aggressive scoring and playmaking is good as expected. Nice to see. He put pressure on paint and can easily find teammates all the time.


But he is absolutely disastrous defensively. Super low effort, doesn't even try. Combine lack of D with his lack of size (same with Naz), and it virtually breaks our defensive identity of last season so far.


Someone needs to sit down with Randle and convince him to buy in with defensive effort. But I doubt that, he is a stubborn type with huge ego and big mouth that tends to chirp back at teammates or coaches. Its not only in talent he is downgrade from Kat, but also attitude. Kat was a franchise player willing to put in the work of a role player for sake of team. Randle persona seems opposite of that.

So don't expect a selfless buy in type, like I would say from DDV.


But hope he suprises me.

There are several tweet videos of him playing really good defense down the stretch last night. Nothing since his arrival has indicated selfishness or attitude. He’s done nothing but praise Finch. I think maybe this is a bad rap he got in NY from bitter media/fans, as this was not something that came out of LA or New Orleans either.

[Shaka_Zulu]

I'm not talking about Nuggets game alone, he was OK defensively. But in overall he is so far one of the worst interior defenders I seen in Wolves shirt. He tries a little on perimeter, and is physical, but in overall his approach to defence is matador. Just get out the way, hope no one punks him.

He is a PF that thinks he is a wing, he has like no defensive presence inside. Add to pairing him with Naz who is also bad defensively, and our interior defence is open lane turnstile when Gobert sits.



It's really shocking what a huge fall off defensively Randle is to Kat. A expected some fall off, but not by this huge margin.


I don't care as much he is doing better than expected offensively, when his type of no defense leads to just trading buckets. It effects overall scheme too, and maybe group effort, because EVERYONEs defence looks off compared to last season so far except NAW, who is the same dog as allways.

[Nick K]

Watch on YouTube

The defense is bad. Randle isn't a serious player on that end.

The offense is great. I don't always love Randle's decision making, but it's always nice to have a really strong guy who is that skilled. The shots going to come and go as it has his whole career.

That is right on!! I like his offense and his quickness inside. He has good moves inside. The problem is he is a matador on defense. Kat is a far, far better defender. No wonder Thibs wanted Kat so bad. Obviously, He can't shoot like Kat either. Getting DD in the deal made it a wash trade overall. And then there is the apron and the money involved which was the bottom line. My guess is Rudy signing the extension for quite a bit less has been in the mix before the Kat trade.

Finch has to ride Randle's azz to force him to be a much better defender. I'm not sure even Finch can do that.

Randle looks exactly as you said, not a serious player on that end. He wants to take the easy way out defensively. I bet that drove Thibs nuts. Of course, anything that drives Thibs nuts makes me happy all over.

[Dunk93]

As a randle fan, watching him play every night in ny, as good as he was offensively, he's was just as bad defensively. Infuriating to watch on that side of the court. Soft. Low iq. Lacks mental toughness.

He will always get his, but at a valuable cost to the success of a team. He's also turnover prone and easily distracted by poor officiating. I feel like when he got injured last year it was addition by subtraction.

Could be prove everyone wrong with the wolves? Time will tell.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

As i say, he is a dog on offense and a bit of Kitty in defense. I'm surprised as well about his TO. Bit of KAT in this area...

[Loaf_of_bread]

This is not an original from me, but so true:

Randle is the dlo of PF's.

[Loaf_of_bread]

I'm not talking about Nuggets game alone, he was OK defensively. But in overall he is so far one of the worst interior defenders I seen in Wolves shirt. He tries a little on perimeter, and is physical, but in overall his approach to defence is matador. Just get out the way, hope no one punks him.

He is a PF that thinks he is a wing, he has like no defensive presence inside. Add to pairing him with Naz who is also bad defensively, and our interior defence is open lane turnstile when Gobert sits.



It's really shocking what a huge fall off defensively Randle is to Kat. A expected some fall off, but not by this huge margin.


I don't care as much he is doing better than expected offensively, when his type of no defense leads to just trading buckets. It effects overall scheme too, and maybe group effort, because EVERYONEs defence looks off compared to last season so far except NAW, who is the same dog as allways.

I missed this, and was thinking the same a few days ago..

"Matador", (in reference to bull fighting) is a perfect reference to how Randle plays defense.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Associating Randle and defense in the same sentence seems a bit strange for me. Wonder how long it will last until there is some issue in the locker room? Don't think Rudy, Jaden and others will enjoy it for long...

[Slim Tubby]

Al Jefferson 2.0



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[El Hespiritu]

Most of what I read here is just and fair.
Still Late pre Season nonetheless.

My take:

Give him a fair chance to prove he can belong into a Top tier NBA team defense.
Deadline could be that NBA Cup Championship Game dates.

For what I know about Finch, he might be taking a similar approach.

From there on... just uneducated guesses:

-If he can make it to a decent extent we're all good.

-If he just can't make it at all, sixth man him up to a 2nd unit scoring leader.

-If his ego can't stand that role just trade him before Trade Deadline whatever the outcome.

Can't see any other possible development of events on this matter.
Insisting all season long on forcefully fitting him in would be just beating a dead horse plus a locker room toxine.

[Loaf_of_bread]

Most of what I read here is just and fair.
Still Late pre Season nonetheless.

My take:

Give him a fair chance to prove he can belong into a Top tier NBA team defense.
Deadline could be that NBA Cup Championship Game dates.

For what I know about Finch, he might be taking a similar approach.

From there on... just uneducated guesses:

-If he can make it to a decent extent we're all good.

-If he just can't make it at all, sixth man him up to a 2nd unit scoring leader.

-If his ego can't stand that role just trade him before Trade Deadline whatever the outcome.

Can't see any other possible development of events on this matter.
Insisting all season long on forcefully fitting him in would be just beating a dead horse plus a locker room toxine.

Thanks for the re-cap of what you have read.

[El Hespiritu]

Just and fair.

[Dubious Handles]

I followed Randle since his stint with the Lakers, so maybe I can give my humble opinion based on the couple games I've seen so far:

For this to work, Randle has to buy-in on the defensive game plan. I dont think the FO envisioned the team losing its defensive identity after the trade, otherwise it doesnt make sense to trade KAT, who is lightyears better than Randle on offense (imo, at least within the context of modern nba offense). It's mostly a matter of effort, but he has to actually put in the effort. He will never be a good team defender, he just has to be passable, put his hands up contest shots and rotate when needed. He doesnt do that. He also doesnt box out a lot. On defense he mostly hovers around the paint area and watches the ball, he catches defensive rebounds and quickly plays the open court, where he thrives. He does a good job though on man to man defense. His playstyle and aggressiveness often depends on who the opponents PF is, you will notice the patterns soon

The next problem is that it's a contract year for him, so that makes the former goal less attainable. In his mind, he is probably thinking he has to score a lot to get a nice fat contract.

The first games arent encouraging, the team defensive rating has fallen by ~ 9 points and the record is bad in terms of opponent quality, especially for the west. But I dont think its fair to judge this fast, these things take time.

Lastly, I dont think he has much value around the league. The Lakers and Pelicans let him walk for nothing, and the Knicks didnt have him in their long term plans either. GM's talk, and by this point, if the Wolves are looking to move on from him as well, a mid-season trade will be at best a salary dump.

I didn't get the trade from the Wolves' perspective when it happened. Randle is a good fit for run and gun types of offense, which Finch doesnt run, and the Rudy extension made it more confusing to me.

[Dalvin]

I wonder if Connelly can fleece someone for him. Like what he did to D'Lo, where he turned him into Conley, NAW and 3 seconds.
The current restrictions as a 2nd apron team is really hindering most of the possible movements, which sucks.