Anthony Randolph: Making Hollinger look stupider by the day

[TheLowlySquire]

Do people not realize that Randolph put up 17/11 in the last month of the season last year? When he finally got starter minutes.

Lot of people have good months.

Anyway, it makes me wonder why GS would want Amare. They have all the pieces, just need time now. I do expect this team to be pretty close to making the playoffs this season. I am not sure what you guys are going to do with all those guards, but Morrow seems like a guy you want off the bench. You still don't have a true PG.

If you break down last years draft though, it was one of the best.

1. CHI -- Derrick Rose - potential superstar
2. MIA -- Michael Beasley - potential all star, high scorer/rebounder
3. MIN -- O.J. Mayo - potential all star, extremely high scorer
4. SEA -- Russell Westbrook - potential all star, high scorer
5. MEM -- Kevin Love - potential all star, high scorer/rebounder
6. NYK -- Danilo Gallinari - unknown
7. LAC -- Eric Gordon - potential all star, extremely high scorer
8. MIL -- Joe Alexander - unknown
9. CHA -- D.J. Augustin - potential all star, extremely efficient PG
10. NJN -- Brook Lopez - potential all star, one of the leagues better centers
11. IND -- Jerryd Bayless - starter, high scorer
12. SAC -- Jason Thompson - starter, decent PF
13. POR -- Brandon Rush - unknown
14. GSW -- Anthony Randolph - potential all star, high scorer/rebounder

Besides Rose being the obvious #1, who is the top 10?

If I were basing this off of only potential, Randolph would be higher on the list. He has a very high ceiling, but we do not know how good he will be just yet. This list is using both potential and stats from last year.

1. Rose
2. Beasley
3. Mayo
4. Westbrook
5. Lopez
6. Gordon
7. Love
8. Randolph
9. Augustin
10. Thompson

[Wade2k6]

I'd agree with your list, I'd just put Randolph at 7 over Love. And probably Lopez over Westbrook because he is a C.

[Monterey]

I would move Lopez up maybe and Beasley down. 6-9 is a toss in my opinion. But good list.

[City Situation]

He has some nice potential, but gets way overhyped on these boards. He's a 3rd or 4th option on a championship level team, much like Odoms role in his prime.

How the hell does he get overhyped?

So just because the "class clown" of the Warriors board compared him to Magic Johnson this suddenly means that everyone on RealGM is overrating the kid? People need to stop acting like idiots, they hear a Randolph/Magic comparison that wasn't even supposed to be serious in the first place and all of a sudden they get mad and butthurt at the fact that Randolph's name gets brought up every once in a while.

That thread back then was not to say that Randolph is the next Magic Johnson. He only used Magic as an example of big men who possess versatility in their game. That poster always makes crazy thread titles and uses a lot of sarcasm, so when Warriors fans saw the title "Anthony Randolph is the next Magic Johnson" they already knew that it wasn't meant to be taken literally.

But no, trolls from other boards see the thread and insinuate that Warriors fans really think that Randolph will be some type of 6'9 point guard leading championship teams for the rest of his career. They go to the General Board and say, "OMG GUYS LOOK AT THE WARRIORS BOARD! THEY'RE SOOOO STUPID THEY THINK RANDOLPH IS THE NEXT MAGIC!! HAHAHA!!! XD!"

Come on now, if anyone was smart they would have already realized that Warriors fans were just having a serious discussion about Anthony Randolph except they labeled it with a funny thread title. Even tskershin, who is a global mod, contributed some heavy long and lengthy posts in that thread about Anthony. So if you're going to call us Warriors fans stupid for posting in that thread, would that make tskershin (a very knowledgeable and respected poster on RealGM) (Please Use More Appropriate Word) for being involved in that thread and even showing his praise for Anthony Randolph?

Anthony Randolph is a good player, lets just leave it at that. Good potential, and more likely to be a surprise than a bust (what would you expect out of a 14th pick anyways?). Right now he's 6'11 and about 215 pounds. He just turned 20 years old on Wednesday, and thanks to his versatility and freakish athleticism, he's most likely going to end up being a 7 foot small forward by the time his career is over.

And please, I know that a lot of non-Warriors fans (especially Rockets fans) think that Anthony Randolph is some type of immature jerk who thinks too highly of himself. The fact is that Anthony has great maturity and is very humble, he can thank Don Nelson for that (for benching him most of the season and teaching him the importance of having a good work ethic and patience). The thing is that when he's on the court, he shows a ton of energy and intensity that it might sometimes make him look like he's wild. The reason why I brought up Rockets fans is because there was a game in Houston where Anthony Randolph dunked on Yao Ming twice, and after the second dunk Anthony screamed at Yao and got a technical. It caused a lot of Rockets fans to dislike Randolph but you have to understand that's just his intensity on the NBA court. That's what we love about him, that KG fire that he plays with; just because he's dedicated and passionate on the court doesn't mean that he's a bad kid.

But yeah, I might have gotten too off-topic. This post wasn't completely directed to you, Wade2k6. It's for whoever's reading.

[Monterey]

What you just said is exactly true, right on the money. Just not right to the point. But that's okay, do you have an abridged/sparknotes version maybe?

[City Situation]

Third, I find it hard to believe that a player that couldn't get more then 20 minutes on a team 25 games under .500 is better then the Heats 6th man who put up better stats and got more minutes on a better team.

But I mean, I guess that's some Warrior fans for ya. The same ones that think Anthony Morrow is the best undrafted player of all time after his rookie year. And the same fans who thought Brandon Wright was the next Chris Bosh. And the same fans who thought Bellani (or however you spell his name) was some great up-and-coming player. Oh well.

First of all, the Warriors were never supposed to be a complete rebuilding team in the first place. Sure, they had the youngest team in the NBA, but they had enough veterans to compete for a playoff spot. We were the youngest team in the league but we couldn't afford to play a lot of our youngsters. Besides, being catagorized like that doesn't prove anything. The Warriors are known for their small ball line-ups yet they were the second tallest team in the NBA during Baron's last year in Golden State. Also, the Pistons are a tough team that are known for being very physical and aggressive in the paint; people don't know that they were the least heaviest team in the NBA for a year or two while they had Chauncey Billups. I'm just pointing this out and getting it out of the way before someone says, "Golden State had the youngest team in the league yet they didn't play Anthony Randolph!".

Okay. Secondly, Anthony Randolph needed some help in the beginning of the season. At times, he would be too out of control by trying to do too much and trying to play like a guard, he wasn't ready yet and needed to adjust to the NBA game. He also had maturity problems, and didn't do well during team practices. Don Nelson ended up benching him for the rest of the season, and it could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Anthony Randolph's career. In High School and College, Randolph has always been "the man" and didn't know what it felt like to be coached; he's always been doing his own thing. Nellie wasn't gonna have any of that. By benching Randolph, Anthony has made a complete change in himself mentally and physically. He learned the importance of earning minutes and how a great work ethic and a ton of patience will get him where he's trying to be. He ended up finally enlightening Nellie to the point where he was confident in giving Anthony playing time.

Once Anthony got back on the court, he showed how great of a damn player he could be. He has putting up great numbers in limited minutes, and competed like crazy against the competition. The game started getting slow to him and so it helped him to do his thing on the court.

But for everything else you said: Only one Warrior fan said Morrow will end up being the best undrafted player, and that is Killajacitt (sp?). Also, there are only 2 or 3 Warriors fans who labeled Brandan Wright as the next Chris Bosh, everyone else said that they have similarities in a few aspects of their games, but that's about it. One poster has "Brandan Wright is Chris Bosh 2.0" in his signature but it's only put there as sarcasm.

And as for Marco Belinelli, why are you calling him off so soon? He's only been in the league for two years, did you expect him to be great in his rookie season or something? He was the 18th pick, and Warriors fans were impressed by his shooting and scoring performance in the Las Vegas Summer League back in 2007; but you act like we crowned him as the next Kobe Bryant or something.

The Warriors had a ton of guards and swingmen on their team last season. Marco Belinelli did not have an opportunity to prove himself until Jamal Crawford got injured. When Jamal went out, Belinelli was given the starting shooting guard position, and did surprisingly well. He had a couple 20 point games, and showcased a lot of playmaking and patience in his game. He led the Warriors into a win against the Boston Celtics, in which Kevin Garnett got so frustrated that he ended up giving Marco a cheap shot in the gut. Also, Marco Belinelli went head to head against Kobe and did such a good job that Kobe showed respect for him after the game; Kobe even went to Marco and complimented him in Italian. lol. I saw a lot of great potential from Marco in those games, but unfortunately he got injured (sprained ankle). By the time he got healthy, it was too late since Jamal Crawford came back and was inserted back into the starting line-up, leaving Marco to come off of the bench again.

But yeah, John Hollinger tends to make mistakes when talking about player's potential. Before Monta got drafted, JH said that Monta better pack his bags to play overseas because he's not gonna be playing in the NBA anytime soon. haha.

[City Situation]

And if you're talking about degradation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXsDzac4fXg

These kids are boys playing in a league of men.

They all need to grow up in their own way. No rookie is exempt from this fact.

If anything that just shows how much effort Randolph puts in during games. To make things clear, Lamar Odom didn't make Randolph cry; Randolph always looks like he's sad, that's just how his face is.

Now, people watch that video to look down upon Randolph, but I don't understand why. What I see in that video is a player hustling like crazy in order to get a rebound, what's wrong with that? So Lamar Odom made Randolph cry because Anthony beat him to the ball and landed on his back because Odom was too lazy to jump? I don't see how getting beat for a rebound means that a player made someone cry.

The expression that Randolph has in the end of the video just shows how much he wanted to stay in the game.

[City Situation]

LOL And I'll continue to post that you don't play basketball without shoes on. Beasley is 6'8.5 with shoes on and considering you play basketball with shoes, I don't know why GS fans continue to post that he's 6'7. He is not too short to play PF.

The biggest advantage of him being a SF and PF is that at the SF spot he has the quickness to be able to get by the bigger SF's and the ability to post-up the smaller SF's. And at PF he has the ability to blow by just about anybody, while having a great mid-range shot to compliment that. He is not a tweener, he just has the ability to play both spots.

And Randolph doesn't have a better overall game. He plays better defense, while Beasley is better offensively.

Lastly, I like how you state that Beasley is 6'7 (without shoes on), but you say Randolph is "nearly 7 feet" when his pre-draft measurement was 6'9. If you are going to use the measurements of Beasley without his shoes on, why wouldn't you use the same for Randolph? I know damn well Randolph didn't magically grow 3 inches to become "nearly 7 feet". Obviously you're using Randolphs measurements with shoes on (6'10 .25) and using Beasleys measurements without shoes on (6'7) to make it seem like Beasley is more of a tweener.

EDIT: To GSstorm

If he has this quickness, why is Wade calling him slow footed? I love how you totally dodged that question.

Randolph's mid range jumper has improved a lot since the end of last season. It's now become very arguable that he's closed the gap on Beasley offensively since Beasley does not dominate the low block with any low post moves.

Maybe I didn't use the same double standard with the height, but with or without shoes Randolph was always taller than Beasley regardless.

Well Anthony Randolph was only 19, he was a teenager that's still growing. So he's basically a legit 6'10" without shoes for sure. Whether or not he's 6'11" is debatable, i'm just saying that he'll end up being 7 feet tall anyways; he just turned 20 years old a couple days ago.

[City Situation]

You still don't have a true PG.
/quote]

Many of us perceive the PG position as our biggest problem. Nellie has been saying for the last 2+ seasons that Monta needs to be a PG in this league in order to be successful, I agree. He is too small to be a great 2 guard. Many of us feel that Monta should be traded because he doesn't fit well in our backcourt. Others suggest trading back for BD, while others see no problem with Monta being our PG. Here's what I think.

Since BD seems to be everybody's preferred example for a great Dubs PG in Nellie's system, I will attempt to explain how easily Monta can "change" his game into one that is similar, if not identical to Baron's.

Many of us seem to think that Monta needs to become a "Pass First" player to be our PG. I'll submit that this idea is not true. First of all, I would not describe BD as a pass first PG, in fact, the only 2 active PG's I would describe in that manner are Nash and JKidd. Baron looked to get his shot more often than he looked to make a pass.

This is just true. Considering all the offensive threats we had on our team, including Monta, Jack, Al, MB, J-Rich, etc., Baron should have easily averaged 10+ assists in at least one season with us. Nash would have. Baron just simply preferred to score. Which was not (is not) a problem. If you can put up 20 points a game in the NBA, you should do that, especially playing for Nellie. BD was a perfect fit for this team because he wasn't a pass first PG, I don't think we would have won anymore games with Nash as our point. In fact the season where we won the most games with Baron, 48, he had his lowest assist average out of any year with the Warriors at 7.6.

Read the rest at http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2009/6 ... as-ability

I would have explained it myself, but the whole "Monta playing point guard" topic takes too long for me to explain. And why waste my time when there's already an article out there that says everything that I would have said anyways? lol.

[City Situation]

Randolph Stats end of the season

Last 8 games
15.1 PPG - 32.3 MPG - 10.6 RPG

Last month
11.7 PPG - 27.3 MPG - 8.8 RPG

So yes he didn't even come close to the 17/11 stats mentioned above.

These are Tyrus Thomas end of the year stats, not KG

Yeah, but those numbers are coming from a 19 year old.

[microfib4thewin]

Averaging 15/10 on the last month from a non-contending team is hardly a good indicator. Bogut was averaging 17/12 around the end of last year and his game has actually regressed this season. When the team has nothing else to play for and allows the players to do whatever they want there are bound to be some depth players who put up good numbers because of a spike in playing time.

Randolph's potential mostly come from the fact that he's very much unpolished. He'd need KG-like work ethic if he wants to be an allstar.

[retrospect24]

Randolph used to be underrated. Now, his underratedness has been pimped so hard that he's become overrated.

[Quackenboss]

He often works out with his shirt off now, showing off his defined torso. The Warriors have focused on developing his core strength and not bulking him up. Still, Randolph, who has grown an inch and is just shy of 7 feet, has added some 20 pounds of muscle since the Warriors drafted him and is now up to about 215. He can curl 100-pound dumbbells several times, no problem.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... n31993403/

Larry Harris told the summer league broadcasters that Randolph's now 7'0" but I remember reading somewhere else that he's 6'11.5" in shoes now.

[Optimism Prime]

Funny, how even though the text in the first post mentioned this, it's been overlooked.

Between Me and the Scouts, One of Us Will Look Like an Idiot
Anthony Randolph, LSU, 9.85

Yes, this is true. Seen in many quarters as a high lottery pick, Randolph has virtually nothing in his statistical record to justify such a lofty selection.

Hollinger flat-out said that his numbers could be wrong in this case. He knows what he doesn't know, which in this case, is how to perfectly predict how college players will do in the NBA. The '08 draft was also only the second time he'd done this study, so it's pretty much common sense to realize it's not a perfect system.

Plus the fact that, as mentioned, there are going to be statistical outliers for any survey. Randolph is one.

Can't we all just get along?

[Optimism Prime]

Also, in his preview for this year's draft rater:

2008 saw, by far, the Draft Rater's most radical departure from the actual draft, and also seems likely to go down as the Rater's worst overall season. Love led all rookies in PER and Beasley was fourth among '08 collegians, so the top two picks are solid. After that, it's a mess. One-and-done freshmen Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Anthony Randolph and Eric Gordon all ranked too low, as did solid rookies Brook Lopez and Russell Westbrook.

Look, people, this may come as a shock to you, but a single year of college hoops isn't enough to statistically predict how someone's going to do in the pros. Same reason why so many prep-to-pro kids bombed. We don't have the data available to make a quantifiable analysis. Yet.

I like Hollinger--the guy sticks to his numbers, and that's it. If he had watched Randolph as closely as a college scout, he might think differently about the guy, but he didn't. He goes with what his numbers give him, and while it's far from a perfect system (which he admits), he's doing his best to improve it.

[northoakland510]

people here will find every way to deny Randolph's talents.. product of the system, summer league star, pt vs. weak squads, etc

??? we all are saying he is a good player, we just want him to do it in the regular season before we proclaim him a star. Also Daye has looked better than him so should we go around calling Daye great?

PS Imma go to sleep, its 1:10 here in the east coast. Bash Away.

Your crazy if you think Daye has looked better than Randolph. Randolph has dominated the summer league.

[boogydown]

Randolph Stats end of the season

Last 8 games
15.1 PPG - 32.3 MPG - 10.6 RPG

Last month
11.7 PPG - 27.3 MPG - 8.8 RPG

So yes he didn't even come close to the 17/11 stats mentioned above.

These are Tyrus Thomas end of the year stats, not KG

Yeah, but those numbers are coming from a 19 year old.

Doesn't really matter sometimes. He's 20 now. The age difference is 3 years apart from each other.

Everyone on GS scored well last year. You could plug anyone decent on that team and they would have scored 50% higher last season as they played all offense and no defense. It's just like how the Knicks played and the reason both missed the playoffs.

Still, you have quality players in Randolph, Biedrins, Ellis, Jackson, possibly Curry, and good off the bench people in Morrow, Maggette, possibly Wright, and a few others that should be moved. I'm not sure who your best defender is...

[boogydown]

1. Rose
2. Beasley
3. Mayo
4. Westbrook
5. Lopez
6. Gordon
7. Love
8. Randolph
9. Augustin
10. Thompson

That sounds about right. Rose is likely going to break out this year. He can pass, shoot, and do pretty much anything. Give Beasley another year to improve, if not he can slip down, Mayo is going to be a likely 25 to 28 PPG scorer, Westbrook could be one of the leagues top PG's, Lopez could be one of the leagues top centers, Gordon could be Ben Gordon V.2 but may actually be slightly better, Kevin Love could be an all star PF in the league, Randolph the same, and Augustin needs time but he could be an all star PG. List looks good though.

[northoakland510]

Of course he gets degraded, he's an immature 19 year old kid. But he fought through it, and he's in the process of becoming a more complete player, as evidenced by his improved statistics in every area towards the end of the season.

And if you're talking about degradation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXsDzac4fXg

These kids are boys playing in a league of men.

They all need to grow up in their own way. No rookie is exempt from this fact.

I think Randolph is going to be a great player, check my thread on your GSW board. It's on the 2nd page.

There is no need to shoot Beasley down in order to prop Randolph up. People are already starting to notice that he is going to be ridiculous.

Clips can be posted all day. The kid hasn't learned to control his emotions yet he goes out there balls to the wall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GAtyNm8vnE

[rpa]

@ trying to use end of the year stats to justify how good a player is. Last month (or even 2 months) stats on non-playoff contending teams mean about as much as summer league stats. This has been proven time and time again.

Randolph could be good; he's show flashes but those flashes have yet to come at a time that means anything.