Good news Los Angeles Lakers fans: A bunch of rival NBA executives think your favorite team has a future star on its hands.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports’ polled 12 league execs on the Lakers’ future, and many of them arrived at a similar consensus:
Among about a dozen rival executives informally polled about the Lakers’ building blocks of Russell and Randle, a consensus emerged: Russell is a potential star, while Randle is viewed as “a piece” or “an energy guy.” The Lakers need more talent if they’re going to build a team around Russell that can win. It’s just a matter of how they go about it.
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“Russell could be a big piece,” one executive said, “but I’m not sure Randle is a cornerstone.”
Both Julius Randle and Russell are incredibly young, so these outlooks can change. But this is a pretty fair assessment of where the Lakers are right now.
Randle remains an unknown commodity. He isn’t even a tweener. That’s how undefined his role is at this stage. He can be a ferocious rebounder, has shown he’ll work in the post, isn’t afraid to put the ball on the floor and has even been used as a point forward at times. But nothing has truly stuck.
His potential is further clouded by lackluster defense and an inconsistent jump shot. He doesn’t have the physical traits necessary to keep pace with opposing 3s, cannot stroke treys like many of today’s 4s and is much too short at 6’9″ to play the 5 full-time. He kind of bears resemblance to a less-explosive Kenneth Faried.
Russell, on the other hand, has a game that should portend years of success. His style hasn’t yet translated into superior efficiency, but he carved his game in the image of Stephen Curry and Manu Ginobili—crafty guards who can shoot, play on or off the ball and jump passing lanes.
That’s not a bad route for him to go, given his size at 6’5″ and playmaking abilities. If he can build upon the semi-consistent stretch of basketball he’s played since the All-Star break, parlaying this short-burst of success into long-term development, the Lakers have a legitimate cornerstone on their hands to help usher in the post-Kobe Bryant era.
