Los Angeles Lakers power forward/center Julius Randle received some high praise from Sacramento Kings head coach, Dave Joerger.
The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Sacramento Kings for the first time this season on Tuesday night. While neither team has a great record, there is a lot of young talent on both teams for fans to get excited about.
One young Lakers player that has stood out this season is Julius Randle. Randle has come a long way from his rookie season when he broke his leg in his first regular season game. After being a starter his whole career, Randle was moved to the second unit this season.
It was a move that didn’t sit well with him at the start. Randle gave a minimum amount of effort the first two games of the season, sleeping walking through the games. However, after those lackluster performances, Randle has really turned things around.
Randle embraced his role off the bench and produced. The work that he put in during the offseason looked to be paying off. He got into better shape and lost a ton of weight, which was helping him defensively.
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Randle is in the midst of his best defensive season of his career, putting up his best defensive rating according to Basketball-Reference. In addition to the improved defense, Randle has also improved his efficiency offensively.
The 13.2 points per game tied his career high despite playing only 22.7 minutes per game. A big reason for it is his efficiency, as he is making a career-high 55.2 percent from the field.
The Lakers could look to capitalize on that performance by trading Randle. He is reportedly on the trade block, along with Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. There are plenty of teams that would love to have a player of Randle’s caliber on their team. One of them could be the Kings.
Kings head coach Dave Joerger spoke to the media prior to Tuesday night’s game and spoke highly of Randle.
Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet shared it via his Twitter account.
Kings coach Dave Joerger said he likes how Julius Randle’s versatility on defense and aggressiveness on offense translates to modern 🏀: “I think he’s a terrific player for today’s game. I like him a lot.”
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) January 10, 2018
Joerger and the Kings saw that first hand. Randle had a big hand in defeating the Kings on Tuesday night, scoring 22 points with 14 rebounds and six assists in only 30 minutes.
Randle has shown that he can succeed in different roles with the Lakers this season. As Joerger notes, Randle is a good fit for the current landscape of the NBA and he is 100 percent right. We witnessed Randle on multiple occasions grab a defensive rebound and then bring the ball up the court himself, initiating the offense.
It is that skill set that will make Randle a popular player at the trade deadline and in free agency. He has a skill set that many teams could use, and has shown that he is willing to play different roles.
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The Lakers haven’t made things easy on Randle this season, changing his roles and his minutes fluctuating throughout the season. However, it has not stopped Randle from performing, which at the end of the day, is what matters most.