It's Time to Stop Hating On Former Warrior Anthony Randolph

I know. I over exaggerated a bit on that comparison.

Just because someone is young it doesn’t mean that he’s immature. A 19 year old probably isn’t mature physically, but mentally they can be fine.

What I meant to say in my previous post is that when looking back on Randolph, some Warriors fans would make comments about how he had maturity problems, as if he was some type of cancer who was crude like Stephen Jackson and Rasheed Wallace.

He had the right to be immature, but he wasn’t, which is why I don’t get why people thought that he actually was. Yes, it’s fine to expect him to be immature because he’s so young, but people claimed that he was immature when he showed that he wasn’t. The only immature thing I’ve ever seen him do was scream at Yao Ming after he dunked on him twice.

He was a good kid who played with a lot of fire and passion and brought a ton of energy on the floor. Yes, his game is underdeveloped, but he definitely wasn’t immature. People can say he was because he tried to do a lot on the court, but that’s exactly what Nellie wants his players to do. Nellie ball involves a lot of iso’s with the green light to take any shot. Randolph was simply just listening to his coach.

Remeber that David Lee is going to cost us $80 million…that’s a lot (like superstar lots) of money.
Plus, you have got to throw in Turiaf (who we could be using in our rotation right now), and Buike (books still out on him and his recovery).
Plus, as we’re talking about here, AR is still young too.

ri·dic·u·lous

–adjective
causing or worthy of ridicule

Firstly, I’d like to thank Anthony for being good enough and tall enough (hence the potential) to acquire a player with the skill set of a David Lee. As a long time Warrior fan, Lee was a guy I coveted the first time I ever saw him play. He finished with 15 and 15.

I’m not sure what you mean about insecurity. I’m not insecure enough to say that Randolph still has a chance at being better than Lee. But I would also add that the chance of that happening is very small. Randolph seems interested in developing his game towards that of a small forward’s. The addition of STAT to the Knicks, plus Mike D as the coach, would add fuel to the fire of Randolph’s aspirations of playing like a smaller guy.

Since I think he would make a much, much, more effective player in the post, I think his perception of his own game is faulty, and it’s not going to lead him to the promised land. He is going to waste years of critical development honing the wrong skill sets. He should not be doing cone drills and shooting three’s. He should be working in the post, with and without the ball, and perhaps be taking ballet in the off-season(footwork).

His maturity was an issue not because he was 19 or 20, but because he lacked the maturity so many kids his age already possessed. This maturity was more on a fundamental level, rather than an outstanding one that would suggest any rarity or uniqueness. After he put in much physical work in the off-season after his rookie year, despite his best efforts, he still showed that he did not understand the going-ons of a simple offensive set, and he consistently missed defensive assignments. Despite these crucial needs to be successful, he still raised the argument that he “deserved” playing time through his hard work during one off-season, and his body language while he’d be taken out of a game, suggested very, very publicly just how displeased he was with coach Nelson in doing so, and on a public spectrum, this displeasure was an indirect reflection on the franchise as a whole, as well.

This is exactly when I began to lose hope. Would Kevin Durant have reacted the same way? He’s a great player, a young player.

This is when it became obvious that Randolph had no clue what it meant to really take his game to the next level. His idea of what it takes to really improve in this league year in and year out, was apparently jaded. Usually, if a person doesn’t know, then you can tell them. But Randolph has that “fire” we were all so gushy over, right? “Men” with such passion are not so easily convinced until they’ve experienced failure first hand. Cold part about that is, almost all of us will never have a chance to fail on that large of stage. This makes it harder to tuck your tail in between your legs, bite your lip, and admit that you were wrong, even for “mature people”. Not only would Anthony have to do that if he continued on the same pace, but he would also have to back track and make corrections to his game that he has stubbornly developed over the years because of his….immaturity.

So again, it’s not insecurity as much as it is pure joy, that the Warriors found a way to get over with a good trade to mark the beginning of a new era. I’m proud of Riley for being able to achieve this, and I hope Randolph has an epiphany, and realizes his true potential in the post.

you really need to let it go.

So I won’t cut and paste from his blog. However he says that the Knicks are great grabing hold of “tortured Tallents” and giving them a lot of love that helps to turn their careers around. He goes on to say that if Randolph is going to have any career at all it will be brought out in NY.

Here is the blog, where he talks about the value of his Clippers season tickets. Scroll down to # 7. New York Knicks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmonsnfl2010/101015&sportCat=nba

I have to agree that posting his box score stats every game is really petty. Personally, I hope the kid grows up and becomes a great player. That said, not only will that take a few years, assuming that ever happens, you’d have to gamble on paying him a great deal of money. The Knicks will be in an awkward position, when his contract runs out. There will be teams willing to gamble on him and pay him well. That would have been us, but with Lee we don’t worry about that. I’m happy with the trade and regardless of what happens, I say it was the right trade.