We gotta talk about Julius
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2026 12:15 pm
Before I get started, I want to make clear that this isn't a hit piece, and I'm not spilling the haterade. I like Julius, while it's ugly at time, I appreciate the bully ball. He seems to be a legit family man and I love that he really wants to share the game of basketball with his kids and I love seeing him in the crowd after a great play by his dad.
That said, we gotta talk about something: Randle started the season playing All NBA ball for the first month of the season, and that earned him enough good will that we haven't noticed that he has been pedestrian for most of the season since.
https://espnanalytics.com/nba-award-leaders
ESPN's Net Points illustrates this in an easy interface that's easy to read as you can look at an individuals game log and basically since 11/17 Randle has been average after being incredible to start. He is 4nd on the team in total net points with 55. He accumulated 48 of those points from the start of the season to the November 17th
Said another way, he averaged 3.4 net points a game, and has since averaged 0.1- 7th on the team (Naz is 2nd in that time).
Ok let's look at net rating, in the early part of the season Randle had a net rating of 10.5 -2nd behind Rudy. Since it is 3.3- the biggest drop on the team among the top 6
Since 11/17 the starting 5 has a net rating of 9.1. The lineup with the 2nd most minutes is the starters minus Randle for Naz with a Net rating of 15.5. there's a difference of 478 minutes, so take this one for what it's worth.
There are other statical measures of this, as well as what we're seeing with our eyes since the break, but Randle just hasn't been good for most of the year. The biggest factor for his huge dip is his 3 point shooting cratering, but the reason that he is basically a net neutral is because his defense is awful.
Naz isn't a good defender, but every metric suggests that he defends well in a team context, particularly with Rudy, and very importantly he is a legit shooting threat and spaces the floor significantly better than Julius. Whatever Randle brings as a playmaker just isn't doing enough to offset these realities.
They won't do it, but the coaching staff should spend the next 20 games experimenting with Randle playing more in the 2nd quarter with the 2nd unit while Naz gets more run with the starters. Politically you can't outright bench Randle but having him operate as the primary scorer with Ant on the bench would be a positive for the team.
That said, we gotta talk about something: Randle started the season playing All NBA ball for the first month of the season, and that earned him enough good will that we haven't noticed that he has been pedestrian for most of the season since.
https://espnanalytics.com/nba-award-leaders
ESPN's Net Points illustrates this in an easy interface that's easy to read as you can look at an individuals game log and basically since 11/17 Randle has been average after being incredible to start. He is 4nd on the team in total net points with 55. He accumulated 48 of those points from the start of the season to the November 17th
Said another way, he averaged 3.4 net points a game, and has since averaged 0.1- 7th on the team (Naz is 2nd in that time).
Ok let's look at net rating, in the early part of the season Randle had a net rating of 10.5 -2nd behind Rudy. Since it is 3.3- the biggest drop on the team among the top 6
Since 11/17 the starting 5 has a net rating of 9.1. The lineup with the 2nd most minutes is the starters minus Randle for Naz with a Net rating of 15.5. there's a difference of 478 minutes, so take this one for what it's worth.
There are other statical measures of this, as well as what we're seeing with our eyes since the break, but Randle just hasn't been good for most of the year. The biggest factor for his huge dip is his 3 point shooting cratering, but the reason that he is basically a net neutral is because his defense is awful.
Naz isn't a good defender, but every metric suggests that he defends well in a team context, particularly with Rudy, and very importantly he is a legit shooting threat and spaces the floor significantly better than Julius. Whatever Randle brings as a playmaker just isn't doing enough to offset these realities.
They won't do it, but the coaching staff should spend the next 20 games experimenting with Randle playing more in the 2nd quarter with the 2nd unit while Naz gets more run with the starters. Politically you can't outright bench Randle but having him operate as the primary scorer with Ant on the bench would be a positive for the team.