Los Angeles Lakers: Three reasons why they should trade Julius Randle

– More playing time for Kuzma and Nance

One of the benefits of trading Randle would mean more playing time for Kyle Kuzma and Larry Nance Jr. For Luke Walton, managing the minutes of all three has certainly been a challenge this season. Since all of their natural positions is at power forward, this has resulted in Walton playing some very small lineups with Randle at center.

While Randle can play center for stretches, putting Kuzma at power forward next to him is not a recipe for success on the glass or the defensive end. As more of a stretch four, Kuzma is best-suited playing next to a player like Andrew Bogut at this point in his career.

Also, minutes given to Randle does take away playing time from Kuzma. As shown recently, Kuzma played 40 minutes against the Houston Rockets, while Randle played just eight. As Kuzma continues to emerge as a star for the Lakers, he is going to have to be on the court as much as possible. With the way he has played this season, there is no reason why Kuzma shouldn’t be playing over 30 minutes a night.

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Since Randle doesn’t appear to be in the future plans for the Lakers, trading him to get more playing time for players that are in the future plans makes a lot of sense.