Early season awards for the Los Angeles Lakers
Defensive Player of the Early Season
This was the easiest choice of the four to make. The Los Angeles Lakers’ defense has remained a turnstile like in seasons past, but one player came into the season challenged to become a defensive anchor and he is playing by far the best ball of his short career on that end of the court.
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Julius Randle transformed his body in the offseason, and is in much better shape from a season ago. He is able to stay with guards on the perimeter while maintaining the strength to battle bigs in the paint. This allows him to effectively guard all five positions, something of great importance in head coach Luke Walton’s switch-on-screens defensive strategy.
Randle is hyperactive on defense, and is developing into an above-average rim protector. He’s still not averaging a full block per game, but those aren’t the only way to protect the paint. Altering shots at the rim and forcing difficult shots is just as important as blocking shots, and Randle is learning how to do these things.
His overall game is more efficient since coming off the bench, and this could potentially be a factor in his defensive turnaround. He’s playing six fewer minutes per game compared to last season, which means he’s fresher when on the court and flies around the whole time he’s on the floor.
Whether it’s the weight loss or the altered minutes or a combination of both, Randle has improved defensively and has been the backbone of the Lakers’ top defensive lineups. He also boasts a remarkable 93.9 defensive rating in wins compared to 106.0 in losses.