Three reasons why Julius Randle should start at center next season

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There’s no logic to chasing DeMarcus Cousins anymore

Down for the count with a serious injury, there’s a chance that DeMarcus Cousins will not return to the NBA as the same dominant player that we’ve known him to be. Should he have been completely fine over the summer, he would’ve been one of the first guys I would push for the Lakers to make a deal with as soon as possible.

This injury stings twice as bad as it normally would for Los Angeles because someone like Cousins could be a franchise center almost anywhere besides New Orleans where he has to play with fellow big man and superstar Anthony Davis.

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It’s unlikely that the Lakers would really bother re-signing Brook Lopez, also. If you are already planning on bringing Randle back on a smaller contract than what you’d be able to sign Cousins for — or any other marquee free agent for that matter — why not have him as your back up plan?

Well, the thing is that Magic Johnson isn’t great at having a back up plan. If the 27th pick from Brooklyn hadn’t turned into Kyle Kuzma and he hadn’t delivered out of nowhere, Johnson would’ve looked ridiculous for dealing D’Angelo Russell last summer if Brook Lopez was all he got for it.

Back to Cousins, though. If you know that you’re definitely not getting the same player back even as soon as next season and the rehabbed version of Cousins doesn’t seem worth the risk, why take it? Either save the extra money you don’t spend this summer on planning some extensions for the young core or put it towards the 2019 free agency class.

Point being that at the end of the day they’d be dumb for not trying to re-sign Randle as hard as possible, especially with the way that he’s played as of late. They’ve got to stop making this harder for themselves than it needs to be.

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