Julius Randle will be the reason that the Lakers land LeBron James
By Keith Rivas
Following a night where he posted a career high 36 points, the Lakers need to be extra grateful for the fact that Julius Randle is playing like this consistently.
With their double-digit win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s worth debating whether or not this was the performance they wanted to put on to try and court LeBron James into joining their squad over the summer. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka were definitely not shying away from the spotlight, but there’s no doubt that this was the Julius Randle show.
It’s worth mentioning Isaiah Thomas, though, who went on a nice revenge game against Cleveland and nearly dropped a double-double and Lonzo Ball had another average game for himself, scoring five points to go with three boards and seven assists.
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But that being said, nothing could take away from what kind of game Julius Randle put together, and none of this probably would’ve happened — ironically — if the Lakers hadn’t put together a deal with Cleveland at the deadline to give Randle the breathing room he needed in the lineup.
Well, as we’re all apparently just finding out, Julius Randle is much better at basketball than he’s been showing compared to the first half of the regular season. And the best part is that his difference in play in all aspects of the game are now the key to securing the services of LeBron James in the summer.
Part of me wishes they had figured this out sooner instead of being overly trusting in Larry Nance Jr., but they would’ve probably still had the same problem with Randle had they started Kyle Kuzma from the get-go.
That being said, here’s the reason that Julius Randle is now the deciding factor when it comes to the pitch that Los Angeles is planning to make to James when he becomes a free agent and could potentially leave Cleveland a second time.