I dont agree with that. The team showed they were interested in keeping him by extending a qualifying offer. The Lakers are trying to get Kawhi so wouldn't bet long term on him. I understand it's tough, but I dont see how that's treating him like garbage, it's part of the game and how rookie deals work. You dont think Mintz f***ed up by not getting more interest in his client? Isnt that the agent's job?
I know the millions of apologists on any forum. Julius didn't deserve too much treatment before this season. He was always imo overrated and his attitude was always suspicious. But not this season. He had an amazing off-season, had to come off the bench for no reason behind Nance, didn't become a problem, played his way into the starting lineup and dominated from there. Insanely efficient and consistent. He also expressed great desire to return. What did we do? Zilch. I love how people bash Mintz as their scapegoat for everything but you have no friggin idea what went on unless you were in the meetings. It is beyond obvious that we didn't treat Julius with the type of appreciation that EVERY employee wants to get for good work. If I was Julius I didn't need Mintz to tell me to leave. I'd be gone while showing the middle finger to the Lakers. Julius felt underappreciated... rightfully so IMO. I don't care for what he signed and whether Mintz is trash. I'm saying Julius asking to go isn't because Mintz persuaded him to. It was a logical decision. The Lakers were interested in bringing him back... For one season. He was clearly not in their longterm plans. Clearly. I wonder how you would feel if your employer tells you: well you ain't bad. We'd like to employ you for the next few months until we find someone more intelligent. How'd you feel? Especially after putting your heart and soul in a project for the past 12 months ? They are humans like me and you.
I think Randle got f***ed by both the Lakers and Mintz. The Lakers could have communicated with Julius earlier what they had planned for him.
I can agree with that. I think the relationship was clearly fractured and both sides may have saw this coming and did nothing to stop it. Hey man I wanted Julius back. This stings for me too. I definitely will hate seeing him in another jersey. I know you were his biggest fan here and I'm sure this sucks. I'm a little more mad at Mintz than the Lakers on this one.
Yeah honestly I saw this coming and that's why I wasn't posting much lately. Julius was obviously the odd man out after the Lebron signing. It just sucks that we parted ways with such hostility. We lost Randle for nothing and he didn't get paid. Both sides lose. Why couldn't have we communicated better? This could have been avoided.
Communication wouldn't have solved this because the moral of the story was that the Lakers didn't value Jules and didn't plan with him for the future. How are you supposed to communicate that? It was obvious and has been for a while. Jules has been on the block for a year and at no point did the Lakers offer him anything. That's pretty obvious and direct non-verbal communication.
I’m actually with you. This was clearly the best year for Julius, and his attitude has seemed great. But he’s not going to play backup here. He thinks of himself as the 20/10 some Lakers fans think he is. I don’t see that player, even now.
We'll see whose right. I think he's going to have a hell of a year for the Pelicans. Wish we didn't play them 4 times/year
He's only going to get stronger and meaner and want to punish us bad down low for the next 12 years .... no sweat! For realz. Laker players who have to bang with him every time, "Easy for you to say".
When AD goes down, he might beast. But he didn’t do that here with minimal talent. When AD is healthy, I don’t know what JR will do. Change his game?
Feel bad for JR. I think if you consider that he met the challenge last year from Magic, and if you think about BI’s commitment and professionalism to live up to the “untouchable” designation, to have renounced one and have the other in every trade rumor kind of sends a message that doing what management wants doesn’t matter much.
It does suck, gonna miss having him bully guys down low and make everything he puts up within 3 feet of the rim. As far as the start of the season, he was in fantastic physical shape, his his play on the court started out poor, same dumb mistakes, same shooting woes, and I think he warranted that early benching as motivation. Once he got the start though he was fantastic, he really was a beast. I’m not looking forward to having to face him and Anthony Davis together in games next season, he’s gonna give us fits.
It’s potentially a great spot for him. Seemed like we could find a way to make it work, but we had a different vision for the skills at that position. Apparently
It is his time to shine, especially with Boogie bolting to GS. I am also starting to question his quote, which was almost like forever the subtitle to this thread that "it is tough to say NO to LA, to be honest." I believe he was quite genuine with that, but Mintz could have corrupted him and changed his mind. It has been a long debate over here, and now we can finally tell whether Laker fans do overvalue JR (and other players as well) now that he is gone from the team.
i liked randle, but was not one who thought he was headed for stardom. i'm just annoyed that we let him walk for nothing. that's really bad asset management. this was a fairly high-performing former high pick still on his rookie deal. we learned from the last regime how painful it is to lose assets for nothing. they're hard to conjure back up.
This is a mistake . The center position is a mess right now , I mean Lebron is our backup . Isn't McGee injury prone too ?