Woj: Randle unlikely to be a Laker after this season

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I really don't see the fit for Randle in Phoenix, especially at the expense of taking on Deng.

Maybe, but can't they flip Randle again to another team for a pick or something?

[GreenEnvy]

Who is giving up a first-round pick for a year of Julius Randle?

Randle is absolutely worth a 1st round pick.  I don't think he fits very well in Boston, but I wouldn't hesitate to give up Boston's 1st for him under different circumstances.

If Randle can develop a 3pt shot he would be a great stretch 4.  Good energy and length to rebound.  As for a 1st round pick I can see a non lottery pick sent for him.  Especially if it is in the 25+ range.

Ha.  That's like saying "If Andre Drummond can be a better FT shooter..."  oh wait...

I’m still not sold on Drummond. It has to be a fluke. From a 38% career FT to nearly 64%? In one season? He’s nearly 26% higher. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t drop below 50% by mid season.

Imagine a player leads the league in FT% at 92% immediately after 5 years of 66% FT. This isn’t a small sample size of futility, it’s a very small sample size of mediocrity.

With that said, hats off to him if he keeps it up.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Who is giving up a first-round pick for a year of Julius Randle?

Randle is absolutely worth a 1st round pick.  I don't think he fits very well in Boston, but I wouldn't hesitate to give up Boston's 1st for him under different circumstances.

If Randle can develop a 3pt shot he would be a great stretch 4.  Good energy and length to rebound.  As for a 1st round pick I can see a non lottery pick sent for him.  Especially if it is in the 25+ range.

Ha.  That's like saying "If Andre Drummond can be a better FT shooter..."  oh wait...

I’m still not sold on Drummond. It has to be a fluke. From a 38% career FT to nearly 64%? In one season? He’s nearly 26% higher. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t drop below 50% by mid season.

Imagine a player leads the league in FT% at 92% immediately after 5 years of 66% FT. This isn’t a small sample size of futility, it’s a very small sample size of mediocrity.

With that said, hats off to him if he keeps it up.

Lol. It was hilarious that ESPN ran a special article yesterday on Drummond's free throws.

Then last night he went 0-7.

[jambr380]

Why does anybody think that an getting an 'okay' expiring player coming off his rookie contract is worth taking on three years of Luol Deng for $18M/yr? Heck, Brooklyn basically gave us a 1st for each year left on Gerald Wallace's contract.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Why does anybody think that an getting an 'okay' expiring player coming off his rookie contract is worth taking on three years of Luol Deng for $18M/yr? Heck, Brooklyn basically gave us a 1st for each year left on Gerald Wallace's contract.

Isn't Randle's worth approximately equal to a 1st round pick?

[Forza Juventus]

Why do I have a feeling that any team that would want to trade for Julius Randle would have to take on Luol Deng's salary as well?

I feel like this is the move the Lakers would do. We (LA) give you a solid prospect, but you have to take one of our bad contracts with him. 

Not sure if we are in a position to do this, as interesting as it is to see Randle here.

Yeah, and this news came up right after a team acquired the best expiring contract in the NBA and released the info that they are wanting to trade it?

Randle + Deng for Monroe.

The Suns get a (nother?) veteran presence. They also get a physical play-making 4 to go with Bender and Chriss.

The Lakers open up more salary for this off-season. Then they just need to off-load Clarkson.

Ideas
Clarkson for Okafor and Stauskas
Clarkson for Pondexter (Bulls) and a heavily protected conditional 2nd
Clarkson for Booker (Nets)
Clarkson for McRoberts, Harris (Mavs)
Clarkson for Favors

They then have room for 3 max contracts, and still have Kuzma, Ball, Nance, Hart, and Ingram. They also have connections to resign Lopez and Bogut for cheap contracts.

Lebron, George, and

Things have to go perfectly, but their angle is pretty obvious.

Can they really get 3 max players? Lebron, George and Boogie? @saltlover

[Moranis]

Why do I have a feeling that any team that would want to trade for Julius Randle would have to take on Luol Deng's salary as well?

I feel like this is the move the Lakers would do. We (LA) give you a solid prospect, but you have to take one of our bad contracts with him. 

Not sure if we are in a position to do this, as interesting as it is to see Randle here.

Yeah, and this news came up right after a team acquired the best expiring contract in the NBA and released the info that they are wanting to trade it?

Randle + Deng for Monroe.

The Suns get a (nother?) veteran presence. They also get a physical play-making 4 to go with Bender and Chriss.

The Lakers open up more salary for this off-season. Then they just need to off-load Clarkson.

Ideas
Clarkson for Okafor and Stauskas
Clarkson for Pondexter (Bulls) and a heavily protected conditional 2nd
Clarkson for Booker (Nets)
Clarkson for McRoberts, Harris (Mavs)
Clarkson for Favors

They then have room for 3 max contracts, and still have Kuzma, Ball, Nance, Hart, and Ingram. They also have connections to resign Lopez and Bogut for cheap contracts.

Lebron, George, and

Things have to go perfectly, but their angle is pretty obvious.

Can they really get 3 max players? Lebron, George and Boogie? @saltlover

No.  Lebron is 35%, the other two are 30%, there is no way you can have room for 95% of your cap.  Even 90% is essentially impossible.  the only way any team could ever really have room for 3 max players is if they are 25% max players, which will almost never happen (since those guys are almost always extended on their rookie contracts). 

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Why do I have a feeling that any team that would want to trade for Julius Randle would have to take on Luol Deng's salary as well?

I feel like this is the move the Lakers would do. We (LA) give you a solid prospect, but you have to take one of our bad contracts with him. 

Not sure if we are in a position to do this, as interesting as it is to see Randle here.

Yeah, and this news came up right after a team acquired the best expiring contract in the NBA and released the info that they are wanting to trade it?

Randle + Deng for Monroe.

The Suns get a (nother?) veteran presence. They also get a physical play-making 4 to go with Bender and Chriss.

The Lakers open up more salary for this off-season. Then they just need to off-load Clarkson.

Ideas
Clarkson for Okafor and Stauskas
Clarkson for Pondexter (Bulls) and a heavily protected conditional 2nd
Clarkson for Booker (Nets)
Clarkson for McRoberts, Harris (Mavs)
Clarkson for Favors

They then have room for 3 max contracts, and still have Kuzma, Ball, Nance, Hart, and Ingram. They also have connections to resign Lopez and Bogut for cheap contracts.

Lebron, George, and

Things have to go perfectly, but their angle is pretty obvious.

Can they really get 3 max players? Lebron, George and Boogie? @saltlover

Saltlover's the expert, so I'll cede to him, but it is close and depends on the experience of the max players.

The most likely trio I thought would be Cousins, George, and James, but I don't think they'd have enough for them. Each could take a slight paycut, though. James is making way more money outside the lines of the court anymore anyway.

I would think the ideal option is to trade for Boogie (Deng, Randle and an Asset or Clarkson and Randle) and then keep his caphold going into free agency. They likely would have enough, even with the cap hold, to sign George and James to a max. After that's done, they sign Boogie to a max and get near the tax.

Boogie-James-Ingram-George-Ball with Nance-Kuzma-Hart off the bench is not bad.

Edit: That being said, I really don't think the Pelicans are going to trade Boogie.

[Monkhouse]

Why do I have a feeling that any team that would want to trade for Julius Randle would have to take on Luol Deng's salary as well?

I feel like this is the move the Lakers would do. We (LA) give you a solid prospect, but you have to take one of our bad contracts with him. 

Not sure if we are in a position to do this, as interesting as it is to see Randle here.

Yeah, and this news came up right after a team acquired the best expiring contract in the NBA and released the info that they are wanting to trade it?

Randle + Deng for Monroe.

The Suns get a (nother?) veteran presence. They also get a physical play-making 4 to go with Bender and Chriss.

The Lakers open up more salary for this off-season. Then they just need to off-load Clarkson.

Ideas
Clarkson for Okafor and Stauskas
Clarkson for Pondexter (Bulls) and a heavily protected conditional 2nd
Clarkson for Booker (Nets)
Clarkson for McRoberts, Harris (Mavs)
Clarkson for Favors

They then have room for 3 max contracts, and still have Kuzma, Ball, Nance, Hart, and Ingram. They also have connections to resign Lopez and Bogut for cheap contracts.

Lebron, George, and

Things have to go perfectly, but their angle is pretty obvious.

Can they really get 3 max players? Lebron, George and Boogie? @saltlover

Saltlover's the expert, so I'll cede to him, but it is close and depends on the experience of the max players.

The most likely trio I thought would be Cousins, George, and James, but I don't think they'd have enough for them. Each could take a slight paycut, though. James is making way more money outside the lines of the court anymore anyway.

I would think the ideal option is to trade for Boogie (Deng, Randle and an Asset or Clarkson and Randle) and then keep his caphold going into free agency. They likely would have enough, even with the cap hold, to sign George and James to a max. After that's done, they sign Boogie to a max and get near the tax.

Boogie-James-Ingram-George-Ball with Nance-Kuzma-Hart off the bench is not bad.

Thing is something like that is unrealistic, because you have so many players that can clearly be #1 scoring options... We're seeing upfront how OKC is struggling with 3 scoring options.

[Celtics4ever]

That doesn't make sense.  If they are going to try and sign 2 Max free agents next offseason, they need to move Deng's  lousy contract.   They need Randle to look as good as possible so he'll be a desirable trade asset.

Did it makes sense that they buried who happened to be their best big on the bench for parts of the game last night? 

Can't team get rid of a bad contact now with waivers.

https://moorebasketball.com/2016/01/19/how-it-works-the-waiver-procedure-and-contract-buyouts/

LA has money and will spend.  They always do.  They just have had problems luring good players into the cesspit lately.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Why do I have a feeling that any team that would want to trade for Julius Randle would have to take on Luol Deng's salary as well?

I feel like this is the move the Lakers would do. We (LA) give you a solid prospect, but you have to take one of our bad contracts with him. 

Not sure if we are in a position to do this, as interesting as it is to see Randle here.

Yeah, and this news came up right after a team acquired the best expiring contract in the NBA and released the info that they are wanting to trade it?

Randle + Deng for Monroe.

The Suns get a (nother?) veteran presence. They also get a physical play-making 4 to go with Bender and Chriss.

The Lakers open up more salary for this off-season. Then they just need to off-load Clarkson.

Ideas
Clarkson for Okafor and Stauskas
Clarkson for Pondexter (Bulls) and a heavily protected conditional 2nd
Clarkson for Booker (Nets)
Clarkson for McRoberts, Harris (Mavs)
Clarkson for Favors

They then have room for 3 max contracts, and still have Kuzma, Ball, Nance, Hart, and Ingram. They also have connections to resign Lopez and Bogut for cheap contracts.

Lebron, George, and

Things have to go perfectly, but their angle is pretty obvious.

Can they really get 3 max players? Lebron, George and Boogie? @saltlover

Saltlover's the expert, so I'll cede to him, but it is close and depends on the experience of the max players.

The most likely trio I thought would be Cousins, George, and James, but I don't think they'd have enough for them. Each could take a slight paycut, though. James is making way more money outside the lines of the court anymore anyway.

I would think the ideal option is to trade for Boogie (Deng, Randle and an Asset or Clarkson and Randle) and then keep his caphold going into free agency. They likely would have enough, even with the cap hold, to sign George and James to a max. After that's done, they sign Boogie to a max and get near the tax.

Boogie-James-Ingram-George-Ball with Nance-Kuzma-Hart off the bench is not bad.

Thing is something like that is unrealistic, because you have so many players that can clearly be #1 scoring options... We're seeing upfront how OKC is struggling with 3 scoring options.

It doesn't have to work. It just has to be the goal. James-George isn't getting them past the Warriors.

[tazzmaniac]

That doesn't make sense.  If they are going to try and sign 2 Max free agents next offseason, they need to move Deng's  lousy contract.   They need Randle to look as good as possible so he'll be a desirable trade asset.

Did it makes sense that they buried who happened to be their best big on the bench for parts of the game last night? 

Can't team get rid of a bad contact now with waivers.

https://moorebasketball.com/2016/01/19/how-it-works-the-waiver-procedure-and-contract-buyouts/

LA has money and will spend.  They always do.  They just have had problems luring good players into the cesspit lately.

It doesn't matter how much money the Lakers have.  They still have to follow the cap rules which means they are going to have to clear off several players (Deng, Clarkson, ...) to get enough cap room for 2 max players.  Even Randle accepting his qualifying offer would screw them up. 

Waiving someone doesn't remove their bad contract.  You can negotiate a buyout but Deng isn't going to give up that much.   Once you've settled on a buyout number, the team can stretch it over 2 years times the number of years left on the contract plus 1 year. The Bucks have the last 5M of Larry Sanders buyout on their cap this season.  The Pistons have 3 more years of Josh Smith's buyout. 

After this season, the Lakers owe Deng 36M+ for the next two seasons.  If Deng accepts a buyout of 25M, the Lakers could spread that out over the next 5 seasons at 5M per year. 

[footey]

Clarkson is a keeper.

I think the Lakers should build through the draft.

Sure, sign Lebron if he’s so inclined.

But Paul George? I think they’re better off in the long run without signing him. And in the short run they’re not good enough with him to make a dent vs the GSW.

[spikelovetheCelts]

Clarkson is a keeper.

I think the Lakers should build through the draft.

Sure, sign Lebron if he’s so inclined.

But Paul George? I think they’re better off in the long run without signing him. And in the short run they’re not good enough with him to make a dent vs the GSW.

They would be better off keeping Pope and there young core just like GSW did. Win now is not happening for them with Lebron and George. IMO.

[jambr380]

Why does anybody think that an getting an 'okay' expiring player coming off his rookie contract is worth taking on three years of Luol Deng for $18M/yr? Heck, Brooklyn basically gave us a 1st for each year left on Gerald Wallace's contract.

Isn't Randle's worth approximately equal to a 1st round pick?

Nope, I doubt it, especially since he is an expiring. It's not like he has been killing it out there; however, if he continues to play like he did against the Cs, I suppose that could change. There are a lot of players of Randle's caliber out there and there are only so many 1st round picks - especially late ones since that is all he could ever fetch.

Unfortunately for guys like Randle, it's not that he won't likely be better than a player taken at say #24 - he probably will - but the unknown/potential of the 24th pick (and the extra 3 years under a bargain contract) is surely more valuable to most teams than the current back-up version of Randle.