Los Angeles Lakers: Five reasons 2018-19 season was a loss
By Ethan Temkin
They failed to retain key players in Julius Randle and Brook Lopez when they were had for cheap.
This has been repeated to death, but it needs to be stated again how incomprehensible the non-signings of Brook Lopez and Julius Randle were. After failing to even to get a contract offer from the Lakers, Lopez signed with the Bucks for the MLE — roughly $3.5 million.
He went on to have an incredibly productive season for the Bucks culminating in a 60 win season and an Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Not only did Lopez express a desire to come back he also had a skill-set that would’ve greatly complimented LeBron James, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball.
What did the Lakers do with that $3.5 million that would’ve gone to Lopez? They signed Michael Beasley — who quickly found himself out of the rotation by the All-Star Break.
The Julius Randle situation is a little bit more complicated and had more to do with the fact that Randle himself expressed dissatisfaction with his role on the team. But the team still had his restricted rights, and could’ve matched any offer from other teams, and should have made a more concerted effort to bring Randle back into the fold.
Randle then signed with New Orleans and like Lopez, also had a productive season, averaging 21.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 3.1 assists.
In the end, the Lakers decided to pursue max-free agents in lieu of complementary players, which meant renouncing Randle’s cap-hold to create the most amount of space possible. The problem is that no max-players were signed and they instead used their cap-space to sign non-factors and known basket cases in Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee, and Michael Beasley.