EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The criticism comes in waves, all of it soaked with a generous dose of old-school, tough-love philosophies.

Yes, Los Angeles Lakers coach Byron Scott said he is hard on Julius Randle, the team’s top draft choice. But that doesn’t mean Scott plans to ease up on the rookie power forward out of Kentucky, the seventh-overall pick in June’s draft.

“I think we all tend to forget too -- because we are in the National Basketball Association -- that he is 19 years old,” Scott said last week after a practice at their facility here. “He’s still a baby. I’ve been a little hard on him at times.”

Scott, whose Lakers play a preseason game against the Utah Jazz on Sunday, seemed sympathetic in those first few lines, but he quickly reversed course.

“He has a lot to learn,” Scott added. “It’s not that he’s not willing to learn; it’s that he’s got to be willing to put forth the effort. It’s a lot harder here than it was at Kentucky. This is big boy’s league. That’s the bottom line.”

Randle is the youngest player on the Lakers’ roster -- guard Steve Nash is more than twice his age, in fact -- but expectations are high, and so far, Randle has struggled, scoring just four points in each of the team’s last two preseason games.

Scott also sat the 6-foot-9, 250-pound Randle out the second half of their Oct. 16 exhibition loss to the Jazz, in part so Randle could sit and watch and learn.

“I still don’t think the last couple games he’s played as hard as he could play,” Scott said after the game, his team’s third straight double-digit loss. “He still doesn’t know everything we’re doing on both ends of the floor.”

Kobe Bryant saw Randle sitting and it reminded him of the 1999-2000 season, when the Lakers won their first title under Phil Jackson. Bryant was sidelined for the first 15 games because of a broken wrist, and sat next to Tex Winter, Jackson’s confidant, who is considered the architect of the triangle offense.

“I really studied the game from that perspective,” Bryant said. “There are myriad ways to learn. It doesn't just have to be on the court."

Scott has leveled other not-so-subtle charges at Randle, saying that his conditioning is lacking, and that, overall, Randle looks “lost” on the court -- a term that Scott has used on multiple occasions.

Randle doesn’t see it that way.

“Nah, I’m not really lost,” Randle said. “I would say it’s not even the pace of the game. We have to learn how to play with each other. That’s why we go through (the) offense and try to run the offense so much.

“Some people don’t know the plays, some people don’t know the pace, and so we all have issues that we’re struggling with individually. But the biggest thing is we’ve just got to learn how to play with each other and learn how to read each other.”

Is it the speed of the game then? That’s the classic go-to most coaches use when describing a rookie’s less-than-smooth transition from college to the NBA ranks.

Randle doesn’t see it that way, either.

“Honestly, I think college is, I wouldn’t say a lot faster, (but) I think because I’m playing with so many good (NBA) players, so many skilled players, that it slows the game down in a sense,” Randle said.

“But at college, especially at Kentucky, we got up and down. That was our game. We kind of sped up the game, pressed and stuff like that. The game is faster in a way, but you’re playing with so many great players, they make the game easier for you, it slows it down.”

The Lakers do play at a slower place in a Scott’s Princeton-based offense, which tends to be much more deliberate, grinding out sets in the half-court.

Perhaps the Lakers’ offense is just more complex, then -- a stark difference in the “big boy’s league” than at Kentucky.

Not surprisingly, Randle doesn’t it that way either.

“You’ve just got to make basketball plays,” he said. “In college, you started off with the dribble-drive, kind of one-on-one, creating, then we got into some more NBA sets, stuff like this. That’s why I’m kind of used to it."

The rookie spoke with his head down, in a quiet tone, but he said he understands Scott’s relentless criticism.

“I mean, he should (be),” Randle said. “Those guys are proven. I shouldn’t be treated the same as those (veterans). I haven’t done anything. I have got to hold myself responsible. I can’t worry about what other guys do. The only thing I can do is hold myself accountable and improve every day.”