Getty Julius Randle of the New Orleans Pelicans shoots a jumper in front of his old team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Heading into the Los Angeles Lakers 2018 offseason, Julius Randle hit (restricted) free agency and it was unclear of what the Los Angeles Lakers plans were with the talented Power Forward. After officially signing superstar LeBron James on July 2nd, the Lakers decided to almost immediately renounce their rights to Randle (making him an unrestricted free agent) and sign Rajon Rondo to a one year, $9 million deal.
The Pelicans wasted no time and swooped in, scooping up Randle the same day on a two year, $18 million deal with a player opt-out clause after the first season. While the Lakers have gone on to struggle and battled the injury bug in 2018-2019, Randle has dominated for a banged up Pelicans squad and is experiencing a breakout season.
With that said, upon the signing of LeBron James, the Lakers had a logjam at the forward position that required some tough decisions to be made.
Lakers Couldn’t Have Kept Julius Randle, Analyst Details Why
The topic was discussed a few days back on ESPN’s First Take and Max Kellerman brings up valid points in countering Stephen A. Smith questioning the Lakers decision to let Randle walk.
With the pure scoring of Kyle Kuzma and the upside/versatility of Brandon Ingram to go with James, the Lakers were already stuck with too many options at the forward positions. Adding Randle to the mix would have only further complicated that matter and made minutes even tougher to come by for young players that need significant run.
More than that, the money they could have spent on Randle would up going to Rajon Rondo. Rondo was brought in to be a veteran leader for Lonzo Ball and help him to grow as the Lakers point guard of the future. While the Lakers are now in full scramble mode and all of their young talent is seemingly on the table for the right price, at the time this move was ideal as the Lakers also needed help in the backcourt and another playmaking option off the bench.
Will Julius Randle and the Lakers Meet Again in 2019 NBA Free Agency?
It is pretty unlikely we ever see the pairing of these two again – at least for the forseeable future. With the Lakers entrenched in at least two (maybe three) more years of LeBron James while being locked in (unless traded) to Kuzma and Ingram next season, the logjam at the forward position doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
On top of that, Randle enjoyed a breakout season with the Pelicans and finally showed what the player affectionately referred to as “The Juggernaut” could do in an expanded role. Randle has turned heads across the NBA en route to averaging career highs in points, minutes, three-point percentage, assists, steals, and blocks. Randle will almost certainly opt out of the second year of his deal and hit the open market with the hopes of commanding a much larger deal in line with his fantastic stat line this season.
However, the Lakers have admitted to deciding to move on from Randle in order to go big-game hunting in 2019 and one strong season won’t likely sway them one way or the other, especially with Randle commanding even more money this offseason.