– Might help move the contract of Luol Deng
One of the big question marks for the Lakers moving forward is the contract status of Luol Deng. After barely playing at the start of the season, Deng hasn’t been active since then, and the Lakers are on the hook still for his awful contract.
Last offseason, we saw the Lakers pair D’Angelo Russell with Timofey Mozgov in order to move his awful contract. Since Russell had a high trade value, they were able to not only move Mozgov’s contract, but all get some valuable assets in return.
Since Randle is a restricted free agent at the end of the season, his value isn’t as high as Russell’s. However, he might be valuable enough to help move the contract of Deng. We have seen teams like the Nets being willing to take back bad contracts to acquire draft picks and talented young players.
Even though Randle will be a restricted free agent, he is just 23-years-old still. Currently, Randle is having his most efficient season as a professional, but his minutes are down this season. If a team would be willing to take the contract of Deng, the Lakers shouldn’t hesitate to move Randle, who doesn’t appear to be in their future plans beyond this season.