Los Angeles Lakers: Analysis of Julius Randle after two seasons in the NBA

– Defense

The largest area of concern regarding Randle’s game is his inability to defend effectively. The Dallas native’s defensive rating, which calculates the amount of points allowed per 100 possessions rests at a sub par 113 which places Julius as one of the worst defenders in this category this year. To put this into context, out of all players this season there are only 30 players with a worse defensive rating, most of which are likely inflated compared to Randle who played considerably more games as well as minutes.

Furthermore, this season, the power forward allowed his opposition to convert on just under 50 percent of their field goal attempts overall, which is 2.8 percent higher than the average players field goal percentages for the year. Even more concerning is that Randle consistently allows players he is guarding shoot slightly above the league average percentage from almost all distances on the court except for when opponents are less than six feet from the basket.

This means that although Julius enjoys marginal defensive success near the hoop, which is of course important considering his position, when asked to guard further from the basket he is less effective.

On a more positive note, although Randle’s defensive performance is still in clear need of improvement, he has improved in some areas on the defensive end in comparison to his 2015-2016 campaign. Specifically, last season Randle allowed opponents to shoot just under 4 percent better than he did this year from less than six feet away from the basket, and approximately two percent better from less than 10 feet. This said, Julius has regressed this season in the field goal percentage he allows from greater than 15 feet as he held his match-ups to 36.6 percent shooting the prior season, while allowing them to convert 40.1 percent this year.