Randle’s free agency: Julius agrees to sign with Pelicans 2yrs/$18mil

[SF_Warriors]

it's funny coz that was "pretty much" it lol

It's funny because once again, the Warriors are clearly the winners here.

Why? They're only the winners if Cousins can play at an elite level again, AND they can sign him long term... Which means, he probably has to play better than Klay and maybe Draymond because they'll both likely have to go to fit him in...

This is a 1 year run at getting Cousins a ring while he works himself back into playing shape... And likely adjusts to the new realities his injury probably means to his game.

Gsw most likely will not re sign boogie even if he is back to 100% They do not have his bird rights and can only offer him a 20% increase from this years salary for next season, which in all likelihood will not get it done. They probably throw mle at another center next offseason.

Basically boogie just needs to be a better player than mcgee which is not a given at this stage. I am not as optimistic about guys that size coming back from achilles.

[TyCobb]

Last note... Just kinda unfair that exum gets more money than Randle though.

Huge difference. Exum was resigned by his team. Randle was renounced and had to enter the free agency market where only a handful of teams had cap space.

Teams were free to bid on Randle when they had money and space.

[dockingsched]

Last note... Just kinda unfair that exum gets more money than Randle though.

Huge difference. Exum was resigned by his team. Randle was renounced and had to enter the free agency market where only a handful of teams had cap space.

I don’t even think Randle would’ve accepted that Exum deal.

On his new deal, Randle gets to make over 150% of what he would’ve earned on his QO, still gets to hit free agency next summer when he’s unrestricted, and he has the security of an option year if needed.

With the lakers not offering him any type of deal, credit to Mintz for getting Randle in such a good position to get paid next summer.

[Landsberger]

Last note... Just kinda unfair that exum gets more money than Randle though.

Huge difference. Exum was resigned by his team. Randle was renounced and had to enter the free agency market where only a handful of teams had cap space.

Teams were free to bid on Randle when they had money and space.

The ones that were capped had the opportunity to try and trade for him via sign/trade as well.

[Danny Darko]

Last note... Just kinda unfair that exum gets more money than Randle though.

Huge difference. Exum was resigned by his team. Randle was renounced and had to enter the free agency market where only a handful of teams had cap space.

I don’t even think Randle would’ve accepted that Exum deal.

On his new deal, Randle gets to make over 150% of what he would’ve earned on his QO, still gets to hit free agency next summer when he’s unrestricted, and he has the security of an option year if needed.

With the lakers not offering him any type of deal, credit to Mintz for getting Randle in such a good position to get paid next summer.

I'll give this to mintz in a down cap spend year- he prioritized money over all ruthlessly and got his bigger names paid

I don't like the guy but I recall wanting Pelinka's head when Kobe wanted out

[MAMBAEMD]

Mintz and Randle prioritized money over everything.
It was a business decision with some emotionality mixed in. I think Julius felt disrespected that we made signing PG and LBJ our top priority, to which I say “excuse the hell out of us!”
I really liked Julius and wish he had stayed. His role would have been different with LBJ on the team because he would have had to play the 5.
At the end, I think Mintz steered him away from us.

[Scalabrine]

Why? They're only the winners if Cousins can play at an elite level again, AND they can sign him long term... Which means, he probably has to play better than Klay and maybe Draymond because they'll both likely have to go to fit him in...

This is a 1 year run at getting Cousins a ring while he works himself back into playing shape... And likely adjusts to the new realities his injury probably means to his game.

They are the winners because they essentially got Cousins for JaVale McGee. Even if he's not the 25/12/5 Center he was prior to his achilles injury, he's still better then JaVale McGee. The Warriors only real weakness was that they didn't have a concrete answer to a dominant big man. Now they do.

I'm not sure he is going to be better than McGee this season... He says he's going to be ready for camp, but medical projections say January... If that's the case, he won't have had much basketball related activities by then, so figure bringing him along slow, he may not be playing meaningful minutes until the playoffs... And that's a long time for a guy his size to be out of action... He's going to be rusty as hell. And for what GSW needs, I think McGee might have been the better bet. Length, athleticism, do what you're told and get out of the way of the stars...

Take the homer glasses off for a second and read what you just said. My god.

[Scalabrine]

Why? They're only the winners if Cousins can play at an elite level again, AND they can sign him long term... Which means, he probably has to play better than Klay and maybe Draymond because they'll both likely have to go to fit him in...

This is a 1 year run at getting Cousins a ring while he works himself back into playing shape... And likely adjusts to the new realities his injury probably means to his game.

They are the winners because they essentially got Cousins for JaVale McGee. Even if he's not the 25/12/5 Center he was prior to his achilles injury, he's still better then JaVale McGee. The Warriors only real weakness was that they didn't have a concrete answer to a dominant big man. Now they do.

I'm not sure he is going to be better than McGee this season... He says he's going to be ready for camp, but medical projections say January... If that's the case, he won't have had much basketball related activities by then, so figure bringing him along slow, he may not be playing meaningful minutes until the playoffs... And that's a long time for a guy his size to be out of action... He's going to be rusty as hell. And for what GSW needs, I think McGee might have been the better bet. Length, athleticism, do what you're told and get out of the way of the stars...

Take the homer glasses off for a second and read what you just said. My god.

[MAMBAEMD]

They are the winners because they essentially got Cousins for JaVale McGee. Even if he's not the 25/12/5 Center he was prior to his achilles injury, he's still better then JaVale McGee. The Warriors only real weakness was that they didn't have a concrete answer to a dominant big man. Now they do.

I'm not sure he is going to be better than McGee this season... He says he's going to be ready for camp, but medical projections say January... If that's the case, he won't have had much basketball related activities by then, so figure bringing him along slow, he may not be playing meaningful minutes until the playoffs... And that's a long time for a guy his size to be out of action... He's going to be rusty as hell. And for what GSW needs, I think McGee might have been the better bet. Length, athleticism, do what you're told and get out of the way of the stars...

Take the homer glasses off for a second and read what you just said. My god.

I took my homer glasses off and put my physician glasses on and can tell you that what Kilroy wrote is spot on.
You guys have a glaring need at center. Why did he chose not to sign with you?

[Landsberger]

Read what he said? How do you do that?

[TylersLakers]

Yeah, I don't get it either... He may have gotten a little salty about them messing with his role for 2 years, but he still carried the team on both ends of the floor many nights... And I'm sure they were pissed at his agent, but it seems monumentally petty to let him walk for nothing just to spite them both.

But he was kind of a unicorn... A 4 with small ball 5 skills, who could defend from 1-5, but wasn't much of a 3pt threat... It's hard to put a value on that... Although I think NO got a steal.

I guess it just came down to this FO being lazer focused on Kawhi and maintaining the cap space to sign him outright next season.

I just wonder why they didn't have more confidence in their ability to trade for space if they needed it.

It shows the inexperience of our front office. The spurs would never let a guy like Randle walk for nothing. This is a business, even if you gotta massage egos you do that until you can figure out what the next play is. You don't let him leave for nothing. Lakers assistant coaches put in a lot of hard work developing this guy and for what......

Let me preface this by saying that I am also disappointed to see a flawed but obviously talented and productive young player skate, not necessarily because we got nothing in return, although that sucks, but with what we used that salary on.

It's clear that the No. 1 priority, beyond getting LeBron and whoever else this summer, was maintaining flexibility moving forward if that plan falls through. We'll see how that all pans out. But I just do not get the Rondo addition. We already have one point guard who can't shoot, on a team that doesn't really even need a classic PG with LeBron. Why add a second?

Anyways, with all of that said, it would seem that the market for Julius was next to nil. Now, something is obviously better than nothing, even if it's just a second round pick or something flimsy like that. So while that's not a huge missed opportunity, if that was available somewhere then you should take it.

But, and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, I was under the impression that we shopped him pretty heavily before the trade deadline and pretty much got no bites. Obviously he played his best basketball after that, so his value should have improved. To what extent, I don't know. But it wouldn't seem to be all that significant given the lack of action thus far, as admittedly early as it is in this year's free agent season.

Just all around, it's definitely a bummer. It always sucks to see the promise of a lottery pick, a player you hope can be an essential piece moving forward, not realized. I think pretty much all of us would have been ecstatic if we knew he was going to end up signing for $9 million per, and automatically assumed that meant he was coming back.

But from his standpoint, it has way less to do with the money than the opportunity to play a huge role that he just wasn't going to get here. And from our standpoint, it was less about the money than the years, and being concerned (right or wrong) with Randle's attitude moving forward without that substantial role. (I definitely think the sh*t with his agent is totally overblown. I could be wrong, but with Pelinka having done that for a living, I can't believe he'd allow us to take anything on that front personally.)

So I see both sides. Without having scoured the available free agents to see who I like better, I would just feel a lot better about it if we'd done something different with the money.

Well said.

[Scalabrine]

I'm not sure he is going to be better than McGee this season... He says he's going to be ready for camp, but medical projections say January... If that's the case, he won't have had much basketball related activities by then, so figure bringing him along slow, he may not be playing meaningful minutes until the playoffs... And that's a long time for a guy his size to be out of action... He's going to be rusty as hell. And for what GSW needs, I think McGee might have been the better bet. Length, athleticism, do what you're told and get out of the way of the stars...

Take the homer glasses off for a second and read what you just said. My god.

I took my homer glasses off and put my physician glasses on and can tell you that what Kilroy wrote is spot on.
You guys have a glaring need at center. Why did he chose not to sign with you?

We do? As in the Knicks?

I think he wanted to go to a place where he can compete, probably win a title, and be apart of possibly the best roster of all time. He can come back slowly and wont have the pressure to perform right away with these guys . People always knock him for not being a winner. Well he's extremely likely to be an NBA champion going into next years free agency.

He probably didn't choose to sign with the Knicks because that really just doesn't make any sense for either side.

[Kilroy]

They are the winners because they essentially got Cousins for JaVale McGee. Even if he's not the 25/12/5 Center he was prior to his achilles injury, he's still better then JaVale McGee. The Warriors only real weakness was that they didn't have a concrete answer to a dominant big man. Now they do.

I'm not sure he is going to be better than McGee this season... He says he's going to be ready for camp, but medical projections say January... If that's the case, he won't have had much basketball related activities by then, so figure bringing him along slow, he may not be playing meaningful minutes until the playoffs... And that's a long time for a guy his size to be out of action... He's going to be rusty as hell. And for what GSW needs, I think McGee might have been the better bet. Length, athleticism, do what you're told and get out of the way of the stars...

Take the homer glasses off for a second and read what you just said. My god.

Dude, you have to take the name out of it... On what planet does 'Demarcus Cousins' sign a 5+M/1yr deal?

Answer: On the planet where "Demarcus Cousins" is a dude who hasn't played basketball since he completely blew out his Achilles Tendon less than a year ago... And who isn't due to be 'back' until January/february... "Back" most likely meaning, back to basketball activities... So essentially, if he's back at all, which is still a huge if for a guy his size and his injury... It won't be until the playoffs...

Even GSW fans acknowledge they may not resign him no matter what happens... So yeah, I'm still not sure McGee wasn't the better option this season.

[Vae Victus]

I think the Lakers may have been game to bring Randle back on a 1 year 8-10m deal to be the smallball 5, come off the bench (behind McGee), but get starter mins.

Then Lonzo's camp did their bull leak and Laker management was having none of that ****. I think this may have been why we didnt get Noel (despite being a Klutch client), we werent planning on getting a big min C replacement and felt we had our primary smallball C already on the roster and under control via RFA rights.

But since Lavar leaked and tried to screw with us, Maginka wanted to send a message and went after Rondo last minute. Rondo wanted more than the non tax MLE (8.5m) and thus thats how we got the 9mil number and now no money to retain Randle.

I feel we overpaid on Rondo and Lance. Rondo is more of a 4.4m and Lance a 2.4m veteran exception type of players. Instead we overpay for both due to terrible timing AND lose Randle in the process. UGH

C - McGee, Randle (likely kept on QO), Zubac, Wager (in GLeague working on his athleticism)
PF- Lebron, Kuzma
SF- Ingram, Lance (on vet Min), Myk (in GLeague)
SG- KCP, Hart
PG- Lonzo, Rondo

If Randle was kept at his QO then we'd have another 7mil to spend. If timing was better, Rondo coulda gotten 7mil instead of 9mil and we'd have the Room Exception to use on someone else.

Honestly every deal made after Lebron has been an utter **** show.