If I had to guess he wore that after we wouldn't sign him to the 12 million dollar deal he wanted. To be fair to him, look at what Utah just did with Exum. But also to be fair to the Lakers, that money was needed for two max slots so I get it. If Mitch and Jim didn't hand out MozDeng, maybe we have room to keep someone important like Randle.
You're right, it's not completely a one-way street. The hostility between our front office and Mintz probably started with the D'Angelo trade, and I feel Randle was a victim of a situation that was mostly out of his control, short of maybe firing his agent. As for his performance off and on the court, he did everything that we asked for and improved immensely. In the end though, he felt underappreciated and decided to leave. We lost a lottery pick and future star (IMO) for nothing, which could have been avoided if handled with more care. I don't quite understand why Randle was always treated like an afterthought.
I'm not trying to lump it all together, but you also have to blame Jim and Mitch here as well. If we didn't have Mozgov or Deng, we wouldn't have needed to trade Russell or renounce Randle. It's an unfortunate after effect of those albatross contracts, but it is what it is. Rob and Magic had nothing to do what that, and for Mintz to not even give us a shot, just show's that he's lost credibility for any future players he represents. That doesn't look good anywhere and team executives will talk about it when signing players to certain types of deals. As an agent, you should open yourself up despite what happened to your clients and understand the climate of what is happening with them, and not blame new set of executives for being unable to meet your clients needs. It's a business, deal with it. Don't let the door to the one of the biggest franchises in all of sports hit you on the way out. We now deal with Klutch.
I see your point, but the same could said for our FO. I am a bit suspicious that we treated Randle the way we did to spite Mintz. Bad business all around imo.
I feel really bad for Randle too, and you know me for taking it extra hard on Randle, but I did warm up to his improvement this year, all I wanted for him was to improve. I don't think we did it to spite Mintz, but it did play a part AFTER that PG fact. If you think about it, we would have had to renounce Randle anyways to sign PG, unless we were able to find a suitor for Deng. That didn't work out and I believe that's when things soured. With the opportunity to sign 3 contributors like Rondo, Stephenson, and McGee all for the price of 1 Randle and preserve cap space for the 2019 Free Agency, it just had to be done. It's unfortunate, but now we have more leverage to trade or sign Kawhi. I know you loved Ju, but I'm sure the prospect of getting Kawhi is just that much more enticing to play next to Lebron.
I would have been OK renouncing Randle if we had gotten George because frankly he's a better player. But for the collection of B-level talent we got? No, I can't sign off on that because the formula for asset management has always been quality over quantity. And I feel Deng could have been off-loaded next year for a combination of our lesser kids in Moe/Svi/Zu and picks. Yes, it was an unfortunate situation that no one benefited from.
I could see this from Julius this year and often times as the 2nd option in the offense. 20 and 10. Easy. AD will love his mobility on defense and on the run compared to Cousins but with still that same "tough" vibe about him. For the first time Julius will be treated like a star and allowed to be Julius the way Julius has prepared himself to play at the age of 24 .... for the past year and a half. We're going to remember losing this guy and how badly they pissed him off. Not even a goodbye to the fans standard kind of PR statement from Jules as of yet. The Lakers f***** up.
Shouldn't have renounced him...we had zero reason to bend the knee to Mintz/Jules and we did it quickly just so we can sign...Rondo? To lose a talent like Randle for nothing will definitely hurt...the guy was a beast last year too.
My main beef with the Randle situation is it seems the Lakers did nothing to make him feel wanted or even appreciated. Wouldn't hurt if they at least mentioned his name when praising the remaining young bucks we have once in a while, would it? I also tend to believe Mintz about not having any indication from the Lakers about their intent to signing him. The narrative that he basically got a worse contract for Randle just to stick it to the Lakers seems very silly to me. Let's not forget he loses money that way too. Besides, making the Lakers your enemy as an agent would be just incredibly stupid and short-sighted.
That kind of infighting with agents and teams happens though. It's not exclusive to Mintz. And the point isn't that he purposely got a worse deal, it's that once the fallout between Mintz/Julius hit and the options were limited, he took a deal he knew would hurt the Lakers. I dont think there were big options for Julius because only bad teams have money (and the Lakers). The Bulls, Hawks, and Kings likely didn't want to spend big, so if he's forced to take a smaller contract, go to a team that's in conference and will be a playoff competitor.
On that bolded (and underlined) statement...never forgot how he made sure Denver's Murray knew about it. It remains to be seen if Randle can develop a consistent perimeter game that will make defenses play him honest. That happens, he'll own people. He left and it is what it is. What rankles me is that we did not get anything for him or at least made him an offer. Randle was a victim of the need game. We had to find a backup for Ball. Kentavious-Pope looks like our inside track to James. Not really sold on the Stephenson move. McGee with Lopez out there or signing him then tendering that miniscule offer that Cousins took with? Overall, two steps forward...two steps back? Just hoping that Wagner can fill that void left. He looks to be skilled but Randle's power game will be missed. Rondo would have loved him.
I'm not sure how to react to that... Randle clearly was one of our best defenders, so "he doesn't know what he is talking about" doesn't fly. Do we really not practice defense, Phil style? What?
