5 Decisions Lakers Still Need To Make This Off-Season

3. Should Julius Randle start opening night?

Without a doubt, Randle has impressed fans in the Summer League. Given the state of the roster, Randle has as good a shot as anyone on the roster of starting.

With the signing of Ed Davis, the Lakers front court is deep, but devoid of talent. Robert Sacre, Jordan Hill, Ryan Kelly, and Davis added to Randle leave little playing time between lots of players. However, Randle is the one with the most potential, and already one of the most talented. The argument for him to be thrown into the deep end could be made, giving him starter minutes out of the bat and getting him over the learning curve from game one.

However, an equally compelling argument can be made toward bringing him along slowly. The Lakers haven’t had a rookie this talented in quite some time, so they may treat him with some delicacy. Depending on how the season progresses, the Lakers may not be as interested in giving Randle extended minutes from the beginning, letting him learn at a slow rate.