Lakers Rumors: Trade Buzz Surrounding Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson
What seemed certain to be a busy trade deadline for the Los Angeles Lakers might wind up as a sleepy swapping period.
With their win column swelling (11 in their last 15 games) and their prospects for 2018 free agency dimming, their odds of swinging an impact deal before Thursday's 3 p.m. ET cutoff are down to "50-50 at best," a league source told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski.
That still leaves the door open to dealing, and if anything comes to fruition, it still seems likeliest to include either Julius Randle (a restricted-free-agent-to-be) or Jordan Clarkson (owed $25.9 million over the next two seasons). But the probability of their departures is dropping for a few reasons.
L.A. hasn't sniffed out its desired return yet. There have been discussions around both that had first- or second-round picks on the table, but sources told Shelburne and Wojnarowski the offers failed to include significant cap savings.
The ESPN scribes say the club's recent upswing has also "played a part" in extinguishing any trade fires (for now, at least).
Even though the front office's uber-optimistic ambitions for 2018 free agency required jumping through several financial hoops, the Lakers never treated the deadline as a trade-or-bust situation.
"If there's things this trade deadline that help us take steps up the mountain...we'll absolutely do them," general manager Rob Pelinka said on Spectrum SportsNet (h/t Silver Screen and Roll). "But if those things don't present itself, then we'll stay the course with what we have."
Left unsaid there is the need to have a realistic chance of making multiple splashes in free agency. It keeps getting harder to see that happening this coming offseason. DeMarcus Cousins is down with a ruptured Achilles. Paul George sounds comfortable as ever in Oklahoma City. And LeBron James is believed to be reluctant about joining L.A. without a second star joining him there, per Shelburne and Wojnarowski.
Moving the 25-year-old Clarkson or 23-year-old Randle carries an undeniable amount of risk. Both are playing the best basketball of their careers. Clarkson has never had a higher player efficiency rating (17.1) or true shooting percentage (53.2). Randle's per-36-minute marks are eye-opening—21.3 points (on 55.4 percent shooting), 11.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
Sacrificing their talents only makes sense with the reasonable prospect of a high-level reward.
"It might be self-defeating to move Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle before the deadline without knowing whether they could add a big-name free agent," Bobby Marks wrote for ESPN Insider. "Both players have proved to have value on the court and are worth more than just a salary dump."
Clarkson's market should be substantial. As one of the Association's premier scoring subs (14.4 points per game, sixth among bench players with 10-plus appearances), he would appeal to any win-now club needing an instant-offense punch.
Randle's game may not fit with every roster, since teams today are shying away from bigs who don't stretch the floor or protect the rim. But the former No. 7 pick has impressive handles and defensive-switching ability for his size (6'9", 250 pounds), and he still enjoys a high ceiling since this is functionally his third NBA season (his rookie year was wiped out by a broken leg).
It isn't hard to imagine some suitor meeting L.A.'s price for one or both of these players. It's also easy to envision the Lakers keeping them through the trade deadline and perhaps well beyond it.
It's a coin flip at this point, which is less probable than expected but still uncertain enough to go either way.
All statistics used courtesy of Basketball Reference and NBA.com. Salary information obtained via Basketball Insiders.
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