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#2 The Lakers should have trusted Julius Randle
The Lakers may have prematurely allowed Julius Randle to walk away for nothing in free agency at the start of this season, allowing the Pelicans to swoop in and purchase his talents on a two year $18 million contract.
While at the time it seemed as though the Lakers were forced to allow Randle to walk in order to sign two free agents to a max deal, the Lakers failed to bring another star to Los Angeles as the likes of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard signed elsewhere.
Randle put in a great performance in 25 minutes of basketball securing his first triple-double of the season with a 21 point, 14 rebounds and 10 assist performance with zero turnovers as he helped lead the Pelicans to a 14 point victory.
The 23-year-old is no doubt a great potential talent and while it would have been necessary to let Randle go in order to free up cap space, looking back, if they had resigned him they would most definitely have a better team this season as they have struggled with depth at the center position and more so, would have yet another great trading piece to entice other franchises in trading for the second star that they desperately need.
