Julius Randle might not have signed a max deal or a long-term one heading into a juicy 2018 free agency period, but the sturdy power forward landed in his dream scenario, even if he didn't know it yet.
“If you ask every [NBA] player if they had their dream scenario, their dream scenario is everyone just wants to be wanted,” Julius Randle told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “For me talking to New Orleans, they wanted me. I was a part of their future.”
Randle took part in a visible divorce with the Los Angeles Lakers, as the purple-and-gold agreed to relinquish his rights, making him an unrestricted free agent and skipping the painful process of matching offer sheets.
The Kentucky product had put together his best season to date, not only evolving into a more well-rounded player, but also posting a career-high in scoring despite battling his way from the bottom to the top of the depth chart in 2017-18, solidifying his spot as a starter by the middle of the season.
“It was my hardest [season] by far in my life,” Randle said. “Everything was bothering me from the basketball standpoint. I felt like there were issues that were out of your control. I am a person that likes to control the narrative. … I just had to grow up. I can’t worry about things I can’t control and let it affect my happiness.”
New Orleans quickly inked Randle to a two-year, $18 million deal after Anthony Davis recruited him early in July, establishing a new partnership for his near future.
Randle will now have the opportunity to fight for a starting role or come off the bench as the team's sixth man, no longer having to carve his place in the rotation as he did during his fourth year in the league.
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