Lakers: How to keep Julius Randle and bring in two superstars

Julius Randle is proving night in and night out that he deserves a long-term deal from the Lakers. The only problem? The two potential superstars in waiting.

Julius Randle has been nothing short of incredible in recent weeks. Randle has been left off of the leash and has been tearing every team he faces to shreds. Admittedly, I was a big Randle skeptic. I knew how good he was and that he was arguably the most polished young asset. However, I turned down any notion that Randle would be able to play his way into a long-term deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.

That is exactly what Randle is doing.

The power forward has seen an increased amount of looks at center and it has directly benefitted his play. In five March games, Randle is averaging 20.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. On Sunday night, against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Randle dropped a career-high 36 points in route to a Lakers win.

It was the presence of LeBron James that reignited the talks of the summer. James, along with Paul George and countless other stars, has been tied to LA. LeBron’s ties, though, have been the strongest.

The only problem is —and has been all season — that Julius Randle is in the final year of his contract before he can become a restricted free agent. With two stars potentially in tow, the long-term future of Randle in LA was doubtful. Before the year, many would have assumed that Randle would have been traded to free up Luol Deng.

But despite all of the speculation, despite losing his starting job to start the year, despite failing to reach a contract extension, Randle has played through and earned his spot on this super team. Now, the Lakers just need to find out how to keep Randle but maintain cap space for the stars.

We pieced together a step-by-step process on how.