Andrew Dukowitz<\/a>, an excellent Wolves reporter, about the man of the hour. Dukowitz said, \u201cI\u2019m fascinated to see how it turns out. Julius comes to Minnesota, right, and they have Rudy Gobert, they have Mike Conley, they have Nickeil [Alexander-Walker], who was a big part of that locker room, Jaden [McDaniels] and Ant [Edwards] are finding their way. Joe Ingles is in that locker room. He didn\u2019t really speak up a ton in terms of the rah-rah stuff \u2026 but what I would say is everybody in that locker room liked him. He was a liked teammate.\u201d<\/p>\nDukowitz added that \u201cThat \u2018moodiness\u2019 also existed in Ant and Jaden and Naz [Reid], really everybody but Rudy \u2026 I am interested to see how he is with young guys. He is a guy that takes a ton of pride in his work, he is a guy that is approachable, you ask him questions and he gives thoughtful answers. There were dozens of times last year where he\u2019s sitting there with an assistant coach and Joan [Beringer], working on post-moves. I do think he\u2019ll be a willing leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that\u2019s one key similarity between the Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle acquisitions. For whatever their (dissimilar) misgivings are, both are renowned workers. It appears Sean Marks & Co. target the same intangible qualities in their trade targets as they do in the NBA Draft, work ethic being a pillar of their ideal culture.<\/p>\n
Randle, now in year 13, professes that he is still ready to work, particularly under a demanding, player-development-focused head coach: \u201cI love to be coached, and I think there\u2019s different ways [Fern\u00e1ndez] can challenge me in parts of the game, whether it\u2019s my rebounding or if it\u2019s running the floor or if it\u2019s being better on defense, stuff like that. Like, I\u2019m not afraid to be coached, and you know, whatever he needs to do, I feel like you should coach your best players the hardest. And he\u2019s not afraid to speak up, if he sees something or if he needs something from me, like, he\u2019ll call me.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is also the question of how Randle will be used. Brooklyn was 27th in post-up frequency last season, 19th in isolation frequency. These play-types, of course, have been fundamental to Randle\u2019s production in his career. How far in the middle will he and Fern\u00e1ndez meet?<\/p>\n
A play like this is encouraging:<\/p>\n
Minnesota plays through the top of the key into a handoff, but Milwaukee switches the action. But a guard defending Julius Randle in that mid-post area is a mismatch, and even though the burly lefty takes a tough one, it\u2019s two on the board. The Nets leaned heavy into that \u2018delay\u2019 offense \u2014playing through the top of the key and finding handoff opportunities \u2014 so much so that Nic Claxton recorded triple-doubles last season. Randle, clearly, adds another dynamic to such offense.<\/p>\n
The big question I have is how Julius Randle and Day\u2019Ron Sharpe coexist offensively. Who is initiating these actions? If it\u2019s Randle, what is Sharpe doing off the ball, spacing in the corner? Will Randle, a good screener and an obvious threat to keep these handoffs himself and drive it, lean more into ball-handling creation? It is encouraging that, unprompted, he mentioned wanting to take a career-high number of 3-pointers (particularly catch-and-shoots) at Media Day. None of this, please:<\/p>\n
And something tells me Nets fans, if nothing else, will love the combined strength from their front court this season. Day\u2019Ron and Julius are strong dudes; throw in MPJ and that\u2019s a nice rebounding trio on paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing is physicality,\u201d said Sharpe of his newest teammate. \u201cHe\u2019s a strong, strong guy. When he\u2019s playing on offense, he\u2019s just bumping guys out of the way and getting to the rim, like it\u2019s no problem \u2026 I feel like he\u2019s going to be a great help for us, I feel like his physicality and the energy, leadership, it\u2019ll be a huge part of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
I suspect we\u2019ll see Randle play some center as well, particular if\/when Moe Wagner or Sharpe misses a game. Over his two seasons in Minneapolis, Randle played over 1800 minutes (excluding low leverage) without a true center next to him, most often pairing with Naz Reid. Those offensively tilted lineups had about a 118 oRTG and 117 dRTG, per PBP Stats. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if something like Randle-Wolf-Clowney-Minott is a bench unit the Nets explore, with willing 3-point shooters and length around Randle at the top of the key.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s gonna go well, to be honest. Julius Randle is better than you think, and the curse of high expectations is what led to his sour exits in New York and Minny. The Nets do not have such expectations. Let\u2019s try and approach .500 first.<\/p>\n
\u201cFans midway through the season are gonna be like, \u2018Holy cow, why would Minnesota get rid of him?\u2019 It\u2019s more so the ceiling you get with him,\u201d says Dukowitz.<\/p>\n
As for Randle himself, he\u2019s happy to be living back in New York City after spending five years with the Knicks. His eldest son, yes, the one who burst into rage at the sight of a Kevin Durant poster in Barclays Center, is back at his old school. He and his wife have their old friend groups back together.<\/p>\n
Point being, Julius Randle is content: \u201cWhen things are easier off the court, when they\u2019re great at home and they\u2019re happy and all of those things, it makes the basketball part, the work part that much easier. I don\u2019t even consider it work, but it makes the basketball part that much easier. So I feel really balanced, really happy, at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julius Randle is saying all the right things. On his leadership style: \u201cI\u2019ve always been somebody that kind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,3282,11879,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-363612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-nets-analysis","tag-nets-features","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}