Mark Jackson on Wednesday's broadcast compared Randle to one of his ex-teammates Walter Berry. I don't remember Berry mowing defenders down but had better touch on his mid-range. However, not as good a passer (not saying much), rebounder and defender.
not sure what the choice is...if we can't get a commitment from lebron before we have to match julius, we match julius.
Exactly...what tough choice is there for us to make? This national narrative that the Lakers have a tough choice...uh, no they don't. The tough choices are between George and LaBron. They both have the tough choice of either getting paid the max or shaving some off the top to play with the neighborhood bully. You give Jules a qualifying offer (no brainer and really no choice). That puts a cap hold on the books. You go to George (who happens to have the same agent as Jules, so I'm sure we'll already have an idea to how he's thinking) and LaBron and say, we'll try to trade Deng to get you guys your true maxes and you'll be able to play with Jules. If we can't then we can also stretch Deng and you'll each have to shave about 3M off your true maxes to still play with Jules. If you would still want your true maxes and don't really care about playing with Jules, then we can withdraw Jules qualifying offer (making him an unrestricted FA, exactly like how Detriot made KCP a FA last summer), we can stretch Deng and y'all can get paid. But would y'all really want to let Jules just walk for nothing in return? Meanwhile, Jules doesn't really have a choice. He's restricted. However he can do us a solid and hold off a few days past the moratorium in signing any offer sheets or just wait out George and LaBron's decisions and then we'll offer him a fair market extension using his Bird Rights. The media needs to kill this noise...we don't have a tough choice. The choice is easy..we want all 3 of these guys. We just have to appropriately work with the window the moratorium provides us. The tough choice is on George and LaBron...leaving their respective brotherhoods and cities they grew up in. Are they willing to play with each other and have Jules in the fold? Tick tick tick...
All i want is pg/randle n enough 19' cap to chase leonard or klay.....i dont want play that gm with james, its pretty clear where we are and where we can be. If James has to "wait or think" its probably because hes buying time for hou to open up cap space imo. I think kd/heyward both knew from the start where they were signing, they just played along n got pampered by those "other" teams so they can feel special bout themselves
So the guy is about 240 and he is just having guys fly off of him with his quick shoulders and other parts of his body bumping them. I'm certainly no trainer and I'll throw this out for therealdeal ..... but I'd be willing to bet it has something to do with all his core muscles just taught and tight as can be right now after last summer and him continuing with that same regimen that his trainer said at the start of the season that Julius would be continuing with going forward. In other words this guy's getting even stronger in the years ahead.
@Khmrp I totally get why you and many other fans would want Klay and Kawhi....obviously they both are great 2 way players. However there are a bunch of question marks as well. Injury is one, particularly in terms of Kawhi. Second is desire to even leave. We've seen LaBron leave Cleveland before and he has never really said anything overtly complimentary towards Gilbert. Meanwhile, Kawhi has said he wants to remain in SA (I know, it could be lip service like PG and OKC) and Klay has always been a straight shooter and has repeatedly said he wants to be a Dub for life. Third is fit. PG would take over the KCP role and be our 2. LaBron would be our 4 and Jules our small ball 5 (hopefully with a traditional type 5 insurance in BLo with the room exception). But with Kawhi or Klay joining PG, what does that mean for BI? Does that move him to the 4? Or does that move George to the 4? IMHO, I get that its position-less basketball, but if we're going to switch everything on defense, we're seriously undersized with that type of lineup, unless BI joins in on Bullyius's gamma radiation treatments. In terms of the LaBron waiting game...that's a legit concern. On average, dude has made it public of his "decision" on or around the 10th day of free agency. The moratorium ends on July 6th and lets say Jules signs an offer sheet at 9:01PM ET on June 30th, that means the Lakers still would have till July 8th to decide on matching it. So obviously, we'd need LaBron to make that decision alot more sooner. However, consider that its the announcement that is made around the 10th day into free agency, but in actuality, dude probably had decided before that. His last "decision" came via Lee Jenkins in a SI cover story. That polished story was well written and edited in a way, where clearly the decision was made prior to the date the story was actually released. Also consider that the Love trade hadn't happened yet. James released the SI article on July 11th and the Love trade finally occurred on August 23rd. When the trade had finally come to fruition, it was actually in the works and on hold for 30 days. So LeBron clearly decided on his decision before all the moving parts had finally made their way onto the roster. But lets make no mistake about it...he agreed to come back to Cleveland if Love was also in tow. Recall that the same thing happened with CP3 last summer. He had to opt into his player option by June 29th (2 days before he could be an unrestricted free agent on July 1st). So obviously he decided to go to Houston and then Morey had to do the cap gymnastics to make it work. LaBron can decide on Houston long before Morey tries to do it again this summer....and trust me the cap gymnastics would be damn near impossible this time around. I personally don't see it, but never say never. Either way, we would have to wait for them to decide, but their decision does not impend on us trying to make room first...particularly LA, cause unlike Houston, we would have far less difficult a time in creating that room.
@tada Jules's true max is 25.3M. I hiiiiiighly doubt he gets that on the open market. In fact, Bobby Marks, ESPN's cap guru, projects it at 12-14M...and obviously that's a no-brainer for us to either offer outright or to match. I would go as high as 16M personally. I obviously want all deserving players to get their bread, but cap structure is so important for team success as well. LaBron deserves the max, but I truly hope he shaves some off the top so that we can keep BLo with the room exception. I don't think George deserves the max of 30.3M, cause frankly he hasn't accomplished as much as LaBron, so I really hope he helps shave some off the top to help fit Jules into some space and to have some wiggle to sign other players to round out the roster. I'm not only asking for Jules to sacrifice...I'm hoping all 3 do. In terms of Jules's signing an offer sheet right away...it won't really matter. July 8th is the key date. Whether he signs at 9:01PM PT June 30th or at the closing hours of the moratorium on July 6th, the Lakers will have 48 hours to decide on matching once the moratorium ends. I'm just hoping Jules holds out till July 8th, so that we have matching rights till July 10th, giving us 10 full days to figure out 2maxes and how to deal with Deng (and if via trade then what assets to give up in that scenario). Another thing to note pertaining to George. If he chooses to go the CP3 route, then he's going to have to opt into that player option by June 29th. If news breaks that he does that, you know he either is going to be a Laker or is giving OKC and their ownership a chance to round out a shallow roster....yeah right! Haha...its cause he's going to get traded to us obvi!
@vasashi17 Yeah I've seen those reports and they sound like bogus to me. A 20/10 double-double machine that's 23 and still improving is a max player in any market, and I'm sure many teams would agree. All it takes is one team to sign a max offer sheet. It would matter if Lebron is up to his usual antics, wouldn't it? For our own good, if Lebron won't commit by July 8th we give him the middle finger and look elsewhere.
"Yeah, that s*** was hilarious....the way he sonned Zo and Luke like that." "Wait....Julius did what to Murray?" "Man, I swear I was playing the ball on that one play with Brandon." {Gulp} Live look at Winslow arriving to Staples. "Hey Hassan, I guess that means you'll be seeing more of Randle at the 5. Thoughts?"
^^^He didn't. He aggravated it against us on a close out on the wing. He raised his hands to contest the shot and he felt the pain at that time. No wonder his shot looked terrible against us late in that game.
