Randle is only 22 years old same age as Kuzma, we all tend to forget how much he has improved physically and mentally with the time developing here. Who's to say he he won't continue to get better and better for the next couple years just like Kuz. We need to stop thinking so far into cap issues and potential FAs next year. And really focus on our core of players. Randle, deserves to stay after all the improvement he made, he's playing the best defense as well. Luke, magic and Rob need to stop obsessing over the future and focus on the now.
Wow. Is ^^^ this the reason they are not giving him a chance to start or start more than specific number of games? $1.3 million difference in potential cap hold? That really sucks if so. Magic comes in and challenges them all to get in best shape of their lives and down to some crazy % of body fat that he picked up in his conversations with Pat Riley, and Julius takes him at his word and busts his a** all summer and now all that effort clearly shows in how he is playing. But he's also newly married with his first child and this is a contract year as well so it's vitally important to him and they are doing him like this if true?
Wait I don't understand that... As far as our cap goes, it doesn't matter what his qualifying offer is. Our cap hold on him is 150% of his salary right now. The qualifying offer is only important if Julius signs it outright and then becomes a FA next summer, otherwise it doesn't mean a thing to our cap. Even if he got the increased qualifying offer, the cap hold stays the same at 12.447726 million (300% of his current deal since his rookie contract made more than the average salary of the NBA meaning basically the higher you go in the draft, the better). So really the only way the qualifying offer matters is if the Lakers feel they can get Randle to agree to signing just the qualifying offer a la Noel and not sign any offer sheets in RFA. Why the f*** would Randle do that when he's forced into this bench role? That makes no sense. I don't think the goal is to decrease his salary cap because as far as I know that's impossible. I think if there's a sinister FO goal it's to increase his trade value by spiking his advanced metrics through the roof. But more likely I think Luke probably doesn't like Julius much and is therefore relegating him to this sort of treatment which is really upsetting.
I hope this isn't true because it lacks class and we are not that. Buss, Johnson and Pelinka can't be those types of people.
This is what Woj said on the page before and it's what some of us have been trying to say. It's unlikely he's here long-term, so come February we should be looking at all our options. But that's a future problem. The current problem is he's playing 20 minutes a game and that makes no sense whatsoever.
The 20 minute thing does make some sense to me in light of the probability that Randle will be moved. It all comes down to perceived value. By limiting his minutes the FO-Luke are squeezing a maximum effort from Randle which drives his per 36 numbers higher than a 38 minute Randle might be able to sustain. It will make him more appealing on the market.
I've thought that too and it's pretty smart actually from our perspective, but only if they move him... basically right now. Because the longer this stretches on, the more it becomes a torture of a young player who has been a great asset for us and that's not right. If we intend to use this to boost his Per36, then move him now when his Per36 numbers are off the charts. However, if this is just because Luke hates him for some reason... that's a separate problem. I think it could probably be both.
I just don't think Luke has that kind of hidden vindictive streak that Phil Jackson had as a comparison. Luke seems too much of a nice guy to ice a guy just because he doesn't like him.
Maybe, but they do butt heads basically every game over every little mistake Julius makes. Julius also has an incredibly short leash with Luke.
I hope the new analytics people we hired are slapping Luke upside the head to give Randle 10 additional minutes a game, and you know to play your best players before the start of the 2nd quarter when we are down double digits.
Well said. I consider Julius as an integral part of our core. He's been our best player consistently. He has the physicality and alpha mentality that we need on our team. It would be a mistake to trade such a talent for cap space that may not even be used. He's still 22 years old. The sky is the limit for Julius.
i understood limiting his minutes when nance was available. made perfect sense to me. but when you've got corey brewer playing minutes at the 4 (or really, at all), we need to talk.
I think you're on to something haha. Also, limiting minutes limits the chance of injury. When you look at the roster, I'm noticing Zu in a limited role, Deng in street clothes and Clarkson's minutes limited as well (in spite of an unconditioned rookie PG needing some extra blow). Meanwhile our core keeper guys are getting minutes like BI, Zo and Kuz. The way Randle is being handled screams trade to me. Clarkson, Zu and Deng are being treated the same and it really is intriguing cause you would expect more minutes with at least Randle and Zu due to Deng being shelfed and Nance on IR. Meanwhile out in Philly they're about to use more of their available 2018 cap to re-up Covington to 15M+ per year...so their FA 2018 spending just decreased and they can't even target a max player anymore with that extension (and it doesn't even consider the salary that they will take on in any Oky trade)... making only LA and Chicago as the 2 major cap wielding teams, with only LA being in a position to be in 2 max player territory. Pair that with the Lakers saying that they have 2 max spaces after the DLo trade, when even if they renounce BLo's bird rights (ie cap hold), they still have only about $50M in cap and that is not enough to fit 2 max players in (seems like they have something in the works that will open up even more cap). Pair that with tampering charges that had enough to it to result in a fine. Pair that with headlines broadcasted to the public (and every team official) that Randle is "very unlikely to continue with the Lakers", and Deng demanding out of LA. Yep, the Lakers are up to something and when Dec. 15 hits, we're officially in trade season. What the Lakers will do...only TIME will tell.
small peanuts I think it's pretty much guaranteed we're not playing games with his time over such a small amount.
I just don't think this is it but who knows, really? At this point I don't care if Randle starts or not, although I do think they should at least try it with Nance out, but he needs to play more than 20 minutes per game. That just seems punitive. And why? What's the point of that? He's playing well, give him more minutes, and don't run the rookie Kuzma into the ground by playing him 35-40 a game. That doesn't make sense either and maybe why he's come back down to earth a bit. He's a high energy guy too and he's a rookie that shouldn't be overworked!
Had some nice plays but Maker and Henson made him look small out there. Gotta play Randle at the 4 sometimes.
