I was watching some of Randle’s All-NBA highlights just for nostalgia when I made an interesting observation

All of Randle’s good plays seem to come when he’s Facing The Basket. He seemed very comfortable with his ball handling last year, and would often make plays out of the triple threat position, or after dribbling on the perimeter.

This year, and also that terrible 2021-22 season, Randle seems to instead prefer Facing Away From the Basket. He’s trying to post up his defender from all the way out from sometimes the 3 point line. Instead of trying to take defenders off the dribble, he’s opting to try and overpower them with his back to the basket.

Why is this significant? When he attacks the basket by backing down his defender and banging against their bodies, he exerts significantly more energy than he would by blowing past them. He also leaves himself extremely vulnerable to double/triple teams, which unfortunately are effective against him. He also just is not a very good post scorer. He doesn’t have the length to finish over taller defenders with a jumphook, doesn’t have the post moves, and gets called for a bunch of travels when’s caught under the basket.

I think the root of this has to do with his confidence in his ball handling. If he can get that back, hopefully his playstyle changes back to what made him so good last season