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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 05-23-2014, 08:01 PM:

It's going to be interesting to see where he goes. I'm thinking between 5-9 but you never know.

Word is that Randle has slipped a bit in the eyes of NBA people and the scouts bring up all the assorted concerns.

Excerpt 1:

The comparisons to Zach Randolph have to stop. I’ve watched Zach since he was 12. Zach had it; he has great feet and can shoot. He’s not Zach.

Excerpt 2:

Awful passer, but he doesn’t want to pass anyway. He goes one way, tries to knock everyone over. He’s so left-hand dominant it was comical. If you put him in a gym by himself, could he make a right-handed layup? He’s a good athlete but didn’t always use it. A lot of his stuff, offensively, won’t work in the NBA. It’s going to be a huge adjustment for him.

There are plenty of positives, and it’s obvious that one of the scouts that Russillo spoke with was higher on Randle than the other two.

My take: I think it will be a huge adjustment. I like Julius. Good kid and all that. But his offensive game needs a lot of development. He has to work at his mid-range shot and finding other ways to score rather than just taking the ball to the basket. Is he a hard worker? We’re about to find out.

He can rebound, however. Big-time. We all know that. He maybe had the best anticipation of any UK player in recent memory as far as getting the ball off the glass. Maybe since Chuck Hayes. And Julius is a better prospect than Chuck.

Link

Posted by Trey Ball (Member # 332) on 05-23-2014, 11:35 PM:

I think those are all pretty fair comments. I do disagree that he is a better prospect than Chuck Hayes however. I would agree he is a better offensive prospect than Chuck, even with the concerns they listed. However, Julius is not anywhere close to Chuck Hayes as a defensive prospect IMO. For all the criticism that James Young, Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, or anyone else received this past year for their defense they were all better than Julius. He may be the worst defensive player, who played significant minutes, in the last 30 years at UK. Never in position to help, never great at pushing opponent out of the post, etc and here is the thing I don't think it was from lack of effort. I think he tried to do what was asked of him, but he just couldn't get it done. Maybe he never had to play defense before, so I do think his defense will improve because it certainly can't get worse.

I said the entire 4 years that Chuck Hayes was on the UK campus that he was the best all around defender that I have ever seen and I stand by those words today. I also believe Chuck Hayes NBA career validates that opinion somewhat as he made his mark on the defensive end.

[ 05-23-2014, 11:40 PM: Message edited by: Trey Ball ]

Posted by ukcatfannfl (Member # 1425) on 05-24-2014, 08:43 AM:

Two points trey:

Hayes - he made the NBA because of his defense and rebounding certainly not on his offense as you pointed out!

Randle - IMO we lost the UConn game in large part because of his inability to defend the pick and roll/pop on their guards. He gave them 3-4 ft each time and they knocked down the three or long two. If Willie had been in the game that would not have happened and we would have won!

[ 05-24-2014, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: ukcatfannfl ]

Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 05-25-2014, 01:20 PM:

Randle forced the ball a lot on offense but was able to get away with it but it isn't going to be that easy in the NBA. It will be interesting to see how he performs against the next level. He is going to have to make some adjustments and needs to improve on his outside shooting if he expects to be a solid NBA player.