If the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to tank then hiring and keeping Byron Scott was the right move because things are pretty ridiculous over there. His qualms with rookie DeAngelo Russell and his bizarre benching have been well documented but now the issue is with Julius Randle.
via ESPN:
“He’s got to grow up,” Scott said Monday after the Lakers’ practice at their facility. “Simple as that.”
Scott added, “I think the main thing I don’t like is, when you take him out of a game, how he acts sometimes. But again, I chalk it up to immaturity and just being inexperienced at this level because it’s going to happen again. I’m going to take him out of other games that he’s not going to like.”
Scott singled Randle out for playing poor defense in the Lakers’ 97-77 rout of the Suns, the Lakers’ third straight win. Randle left without speaking to reporters after the game.
“I don’t think there was defense on the court at all in the fourth quarter, and he singled me out,” Randle said Monday after practice. “I think it was a team thing.”
Of all the players taken out late, Scott said Randle “took it probably the worst, and he’s going to have to learn from it.”
“I was frustrated I wasn’t on the court. Simple,” said Randle, who finished with two points on 0-of-4 shooting in 16 minutes, the fewest he had played since Oct. 30.
Randle defended his play by saying, “It wasn’t like I was 0-for-25 or something. I took four shots. I still had 12 rebounds, still had three assists. I took what the defense gave me.”
Asked about Scott’s remark on his attitude, Randle said, “Regardless, basketball is an emotional sport. I’m going to feel some type of way about it. … I’m going to feel frustrated or happy or whatever it may be.”
