Metairie, La. — Anthony Davis has another Kentucky big-man to join him on the Pelicans this season, with the addition of Julius Randle. At nearly the same height and weight, they’ve mainly been going-up against each other in practice, so they can be as sharp as ever when they finally get to play against other teams.
“We’ve been talking about some stuff we can do,” Davis said. “I don’t want to give our secrets away but we’ve been trying to figure out how we can make each other better– pushing the ball up the floor, reading each other, where we like the ball in the post. We’ve been talking but we haven’t had a chance to play as teammates in training camp so far.”
“I think we’re just going and playing like we know how to play,” Randle said. “We’re both basketball players. We have high IQs and know how to play the game. I think naturally, just us getting reps and time together we’ll figure out how to play with each other.”
And there’s definitely a mutual respect between the two former Wildcats.
“The stuff I’ve seen him do with the Lakers, it’s been awesome,” Davis said. “His ability to play-make in the pocket, ability to score out of the post– on anybody– it can be a bigger guy, smaller guys. He’s going to go through your chest and get a bucket and get to the line. Just another guy who can pretty much do everything and when you have a guy like that it’s hard not to be excited to play with somebody like that.”
“I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve been able to play with a player like AD,” Randle said. “I was talking to somebody yesterday and they said you know we’ve got an MVP candidate on our team. For me, I feel like it makes my job a lot easier. Everything else just works itself out because he takes so much pressure off of all of us. We all know what he can do on both ends of the floor and how he effects the game so it’s just our job to just go out and play hard.”