No one said you had to censor yourself at all. Say what you want. Randle was being bashed relentlessly early in the preseason and ended up being maybe our best or 2nd best overall player in preseason by the time it was over, so yes he's probably not happy about coming off the bench. He did everything he had to prove he was our best PF option and he's still coming off the bench. I see absolutely no reason for him to be positive about that. He's human and he should be upset that he's not starting and playing behind Nance who did zero to earn the starting job. I expect him to embrace his role and he did just that. He hasn't done anything yet to prove otherwise so I'm going to hold off any judgement on perceived sulking until I see some evidence of it.
The deadline for an extension has come and gone and you just have to have a feeling that Randle's on standby right now. Putting him in the 2nd unit makes me wonder if Luke is concerned about continuity issues once we do end up finding a willing trade partner. We find a team that knows it can't be a legitimate free agent player this summer and package Randle along with a future weakly protected first and Deng. That team will want to give Randle an extension. I'm looking at the Bulls. Big market for Randle to thrive in on and off the court (and for Mintz to be happy to still push PG towards us with DLo in another big market like Brooklyn). Mirotic is charmin as f*** and maybe some players on the team other than Portis don't like him, so Randle could be a welcome addition for Bulls fans...and the Bulls can allow Mirotic to walk by not picking up his team option....or they can just package his soft a** to us. Deng possibly give the Bulls some good PR and familiarity in a toxic locker room and a SF option in a highly questionable rotation. We can then later find someone else who can take on Clarkson for a late 1st rounder. Just spitballin....but I just got a feeling that Randle's best use to us will be to rid the Deng contract.
Two potential problems with that: 1) whatever package we're able to get for Randle/Deng would mess with minute distributions anyway. 2) a move like that would mean someone would have to be willing to pay Randle big money as an RFA and pay for Deng's contract? That means Randle will essentially have to be worth 30+ million for the next couple years. I don't know that we're going to find such an easy partner for that deal. I think the move may be more in line with him coming off the bench if/when we sign big free agents next summer. If we're able to clear contracts out of the way, Randle's 12 million cap hold isn't too bad. Deng will obviously be the hardest to move, but let's kick the can down the road a bit. Let's say our team looks pretty good going towards February. Ball, Ingram, and Kuzma look like players that other FAs would be attracted towards. Close to the deadline, I'm going to attach two 1sts to Deng and send him to Siberia. I'm going to move Clarkson to a contender for a couple expiring contracts. That clears more than enough room for Randle to stick around and if we sign big guys, he'll probably be moved to the bench anyway. Potential bonus: let's us get a good look at Hart too if he's healthy around that time.
Pincus wrote this article about exactly what we're discussing. I wonder if he's still around here. Probably not.
Pincus started as a poster on forums a long time ago I believe. He'd already been posting for a while before I started logging on back in 2007 or 2008. He mostly posted on LG, but he came around CL from time to time. I don't know if he ever came to LB he might have been "too big" by then.
Real you bring up great points and I know I'm stretching here...but getting off that Deng contract is key cause you need that flexibility no matter what direction you want to go in. George's agent, Mintz, probably wants his clients in big markets. PG being stuck in Indy for so long was supposedly "hellbent" on coming home, even after the Lakers were the league's doormat for years. He already had DLo and Randle on a big market team in LA...and now DLo is out in another big market in Brooklyn. One of his other clients, Kris Dunn, went from the small market Wolves to the big market Bulls. Maybe, he can pair up Randle with yet another one of his backcourt clients out in Chicago. Its pretty obvious that Randle was one of the players that did not like playing with DLo, here....maybe out in Chicago with Dunn might yield different results. Chicago has a ton of money to spend (2nd only to us next offseason, after the Embiid extension with Philly). They are clearly in rebuild mode so no top tier free agent is heading out there. They brought in Dunn and LaVine as the new backcourt faces there, with LaVine about to put a major dent into that cap space this coming summer. They drafted the potential future center in Markkanen this summer. So adding Randle at the 4 for them makes sense seeing how Mirotic has been a huge inconsistent letdown for them and Portis isn't clearly the answer there either. They also still need an SF and I can see Deng easily sliding into that spot, not only as their starting 3, but also a vet presence along with Robin Lopez to right that locker room they currently have. Remember that Butler, Wade and Rondo all had that locker room split last season and with all 3 gone, there is a loss of direction there as seen with the Portis-Mirotic debacle. If Chicago ties up their money with LaVine, Randle and (indirectly) Deng (who's been a Chicago native), that's not a bad way of doing it for a rebuilding team in one of the major markets. Randle, Deng, future 1st for Mirotic (or Portis), Pondexter is the start of the conversation. Again, we are losing a great asset in Randle cause of the sins of our predecessors (MozDeng)....but I think it has to be done if it gets us in the realm of bringing LaBron and George next year. And lets say it does happen AND we still find a way to keep Randle....then where exactly does Randle fit with "that" team? Maybe moving him to the 2nd unit will give him a whole year of prepping to do the same next year as a sub to Bron/George. But I seriously think that's not the case, cause we're secretly shopping him right now and it has to be to get rid of Deng...otherwise whats the point? One way or another Randle is being used to bring us a star next summer, so in that way, we are getting good value back for him. I gotta believe that the FO has that...and only that in mind. In which case if DLo-Randle turn to Lebron-PG, then that's great value we got back in return for those guys.....AND we got rid of MozDeng. That has to be the endgame and I'm surprised people are already throwing dirt on the 2018 plan when neither LaBron or PG has committed to a contract extension yet.
I'm not denying it'd be great for us to make that move, but what I'm saying is getting Chicago to buy into that would be pretty difficult. I understand it fits some needs for them, but we're selling them on strapping themselves to Deng for two more years? It's a tough sell. If I were them, I'd be asking for more picks. Pincus worded it well and it's something I know @Khmrp and I have circled for a while: if Randle plays well, he'll earn his minutes and then maybe might be worth an extension. Then again, if he plays well we may be able to trade him and get value. However, if he plays well and creates enough value to convince another team to take on Deng, is really prudent to trade him? He'd have to be playing at basically an All-Star level! And if that's true, we should pay him to keep him and find another way to dump Deng.
thats some bs nance answer.....no m'fer, if you score 0 pts, grab 0 reb, etc. and the team wins, it means you didnt do s*** nor your job, the rest of the team carried your useless a**
LOL yeah I read that too. So far this season not much impressed with Jr and feeling bad for Randle. Stupid one handed shot of Jr's that has him afraid to shoot it when they sag off on him.
The Los Angeles Lakers opened up their season with a dud Thursday night, falling to the Los Angeles Clippers 108-92 at Staples Center. Thursday night was just a case of everyone on the team having a bad night at the same time, whether it was nerves or rust that played into it. One Laker who did not play as good as he’s accustomed to is Julius Randle, who came off the bench after starting 73 of the 74 games he played last season. Part of the reason could have been that he was frustrated about coming off the bench, according to his head coach Luke Walton, via Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters: Luke Walton got the sense that Julius Randle was a bit frustrated about not starting & didn't feel like he was 100% ready to go tonight — Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) October 20, 2017 Randle scored nine points to go along with six rebounds, an assist and a block on 4-of-8 shooting in 18 minutes. With Larry Nance Jr. getting the start in the frontcourt alongside Brook Lopez, it gave Randle a chance to go up against the Clippers backup big men. That was the main reason he came off the bench in the first place, as Walton thought he would dominate against second string big men.
Randle didn't play great, but at least he'll have a top selling poster. It'll be advertised under "Blake Griffin" though.
Ah, that makes perfect sense. Julius can dominate their bench bigs in garbage minutes after Griffin is finished dominating Nance, all while DeAndre is dominating the boards.
yep dominate their backup bigs after being down double digits as nance (randle too) kept helping off of biff n giving him what ever shot he wanted
@ElginTheGreat I take it back: he exhibited some very poor body language after not getting the start. He better cut that s*** out.
