FNG wrote: ↑Sun Jun 22, 2025 9:00 am
I'm in the minority here (although I think there are some that share this opinion), but I question the common belief that Randle is not a good fit for this team...something that we throw out here regularly here as if it's a truism like the sun rises in the east. I see him as a good fit, and Durant as a riskier fit, especially if his attitude is what I observed last season. Durant is always going to look to score first, and will take a lot more shots than Ju...5 more shot attempts per game last season than Ju! We almost unanimously agree that the continued development of Ant is the key to this team continuing to improve. Do we want another player taking 5 shots per game away from him. I also think we have to acknowledge that 2 players we agree need to keep developing both took a huge leap last season...Ant and Jaden. A lot of their growth was to be expected in a young player, but we also can't ignore the fact that a change in the starting lineup (Ju for KAT) was a factor. We may not always enjoy watching Ju back into the lane trying to draw defenders, but he is good at it and provides a lot of open looks for both of our young players. Ant got so many open looks because of Ju drawing the double team and making the right pass at the right time, and so did Jaden. In fact, Jaden could have easily averaged 15-16 PPG this season with the open looks Ant and Ju gave him if his corner 3-point average hadn't plummeted to 33%. I expect we all still have PTSD from his first quarter open look misses from the corner in the final playoff game. I expect Jaden to take thousands of corner threes this summer, and I also expect him to get the same open looks if we run back the same starting five. If he can return to the 38-9% from the corner he has put up prior to last year, our offense will become that much more potent.
I actually agree with you FNG, within the context that Ju makes the team better, and I think he is a nice compliment to Ant.
His "poor fit" is a part of a broader picture imo.
-first- Julius, Rudy and McDaniels isn't exactly a smooth operating combination of players (even if it was largely successful this year- until it wasn't). Therefore, someone needs to be moved out of that trio- at least based on the hypothesis that roster gains more flexibility when it is relieved of this log jam- Jaden is obviously going to stay unless the return is extreme, i.e. Giannis. After that it is reasonable to believe that the fall off defensively for this roste from Rudy is greater than the fall off offensively from Randle.
-second- I like Randle, he won me over this year and I personally love his, "I'm gonna beat the shit out of you" approach. He's flawed even in his approach but I do love it. Having said that, we saw it limitations against OKC and I believe we would have seen them against Indiana.
-third- Julius is in the way of what I see as the best development path for both the team and Jaden long term
-finally- I have my doubts that Julius can be a secondary scorer on a championship level team and if he is- I do not believe he can be on this roster as currently constructed. The latter point does not preclude this team from making moves that actually do optimize Julius as a 2nd option but that means moving Rudy. Regarding the former point, I don't think Finchy agrees with me- he loves Ju.
I'm honestly just so intrigued to see what happens this offseason.
