Julius Randle

Julius Randle continues to be this generations Reggie Theus – wonderful talent, great stats, but hard to build a winning team around.

Randle's three year $63 million deal with the Knicks was always presumed to be an over pay, but that's what happens when you sign with New York – it's simply assumed that you're overpaid. That's not Randle's fault. What is his fault is his inability to fit into a system.

Randle is the archetype of the player to stay away from in the modern NBA: the big man that can't stretch the floor, and can't protect the rim. A career 29.3% shooter from the arc, Randle this season has regressed to 27.1% on 3.6 attempts. His 0.3 blocks per game are also below his already paltry career average.

It would be remiss to point out that Randle is a talented basketballer. He's a very good rebounder and developing into a nice play maker. But the issue is that Randle appears to think he's a Draymond Green/Kawhi Leonard hybrid on offense, trying to dribble to places that his handle can't, well....handle; or pass into spaces that just aren't there.

The Knicks have a modern, rim-running, shot blocking freak in Mitchell Robinson on their books – they would be wise (remember: Knicks) to lean on him as their long term centre.

Randle still has a place as an second unit offensive powerhouse that can bully opposition bench units. And that's fine. It just doesn't seem like a good use of $21 million per season.

Al Horford

This was supposed to be the signing that thrust the Sixers into true championship contention. With Horford in tow, a defensive unit that would suffocate all before them was set to be unleashed upon the NBA.

The added bonus was that the one man that seemed to be able to flummox Joel Embiid was fighting on their side now. Horford's playmaking and ability to stretch the floor would open up avenues for Ben Simmons that previously hadn't been there. He would anchor the second unit at both ends of the floor, giving the Sixers strength across the entire 48 minutes.

It hasn't quite worked out that way, though.

Philadelphia are sixth in the NBA in Defensive Rating – not quite where they'd hoped they would be, but excellent nonetheless. At the other end of the floor, they're an awful 18th in Offensive Rating.

It turns out that Horford's stretch abilities don't really translate when being guarded by a quicker 4 man, rather than a plodding 5 man.

At age 33, he has clearly lost a step on defense, too. He's simply not suited to chasing around the Jaylen Browns, Pascal Siakams and Davis Bertans of the world. He's not even that great at marking stretch five's Like Brook Lopez or Marc Gasol these days.

What Horford does is envelope post players with strength and guile. He gives players like Bam Adebayo, Domantas Sabonis and, dare I say it, Joel Embiid fits.

Coach Brett Brown has experimented with some Horford-less starting lineups, with limited success. The fact remains that for the Sixers to truly compete, they need to find ways to make the Horford signing work. That's assuming those ways actually exist.

Christian Wood

The undrafted Wood has been a pleasant surprise for the Pistons, and is perhaps the catalyst for the front office to belatedly embrace a full teardown/rebuild of the squad.

The 24 year old, whilst clearly talented (I had him tabbed as a very late first round pick at the time), had failed to stick with Philadelphia, Charlotte, Milwaukee and New Orleans before Detroit thought that they could be the ones to unlock Wood's latent gifts.

There is a reason for that: Wood was seen as a problem child who didn't look after his body, was averse to defense and had some off the court issues. Given Detroit's less than stellar record in player development, Wood sticking – let alone thriving - seemed a long shot. This seemed like Wood's final chance at an NBA career.

Perhaps the man himself realised that, too. He quickly beat out Thon Maker as the primary backup for Andre Drummond, often sharing the court with Drummond due to his very good three point shooting. With Drummond now toiling in Siberia Cleveland, Wood is the undoubted centrepiece of the Pistons rebuilding effort. He scored a career high 29 points against the Thunder this week before beating it with 30 against the Jazz.

Wood has been one of the great success stories of season 2019/20.