In a new extensive post-mortem on the Lakers season by ESPN, we learned some new things about the summer that eventually set the Lakers up for failure in their first year with LeBron James.
As you may remember, the Lakers were unable to get Paul George to leave Oklahoma City after multiples years of George showing interest in the Purple and Gold. However, he decided to stay in Oklahoma City and it forced the Lakers into a Plan B after signing LeBron. And part of that Plan B didn’t include key free agents the Lakers had control over.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin broke down how the Lakers failed in Year 1 with LeBron and unearthed what appears to be a pretty bizarre move by the Lakers: they never even made an offer to restricted free agent big man Julius Randle.
While it had been reported previously by The Athletic that the coaching staff “pleaded” with the Magic Johnson to retain Randle and Brook Lopez, the fact that the Lakers didn’t even make an offer to Randle only begs more questions about how the Lakers approached this season and how that eventually led to its demise.
Instead of opting to keep Randle, who is currently having a career season for the New Orleans Pelicans averaging 21.5 points per game, the Lakers chose to sign then-32 year-old point guard Rajon Rondo. Randle also would have likely helped the Lakers on the interior, especially on the glass, an area where they struggled all season.
