Julius Randle To Become Free Agent After Declining Player Option; Are The Mavs An Option?

Dec 28, 2018; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Julius Randle (30) is double teamed by Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) and guard J.J. Barea (5) in the second quarter at the Smoothie King Center.
Photo credit Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

By Josh Clark and Mike Fisher 

DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - Julius Randle has officially thrown himself into the free agent mix as he's elected to decline the $9 million option on his contract next season with the New Orleans Pelicans, Shams Charania reports.

Pelicans‘ Julius Randle is not picking up his $9M player option for next season and will enter unrestricted free agency, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Randle is coming off his best NBA season (21.4 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 34.4 percent from 3-point range on 195 attempts).

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 17, 2019

Randle, 24, had the best season of his young career with the Pelicans in 2018-19, averaging a career-best 21.2 points per game, to go along with 8.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

The knock on Randle has always been that he's not a great shooter, which has become more of a focal point for bigger players in today's NBA. Randle, however, proved himself capable of being one after shooting 34.4 percent from three-point range, an increase of over 12 percentage points from the previous year in Los Angles (Lakers). 

105.3 The Fan's Mike Bacsik has long been interested in bringing Randle, a Dallas native, back home to play with the Mavericks. But do the Mavs feel the same way? 

Please Mavs go get Julius Randle in free agency. The dude had 33, 11 and 6 tonight. He has been a 20 point 10 rebound for a year now and he is only 24 years old.

— Mike Bacsik (@MikeBacsik) February 15, 2019

Dallas had an opportunity to pursue the 6-foot-9 power forward last season before he ended up in New Orleans for a bargain of just $8.6 million and a $9 million player option for 2019-20.

Mavericks' insider Mike Fisher offered his thoughts on Randle today with the GBAG Nation on 105.3 The Fan:

"Julius Randle is not at the top of this team's wishlist. But if he's still sitting there on the shelf and I have to do a "split your aces" where I give $13 million to Beverley (Patrick Beverley) and $18 million to Julius Randle. ... I'm a better team for it," Fish said today on the GBAG Nation. 

You can listen to the entire conversation right here:

In addition to those comments, Fish offered these thoughts on Randle and the Mavericks back in February:

"A 20/9 guy playing next to Kristaps Porzingis next year? What's not to like? Well ... while this season he's knocked down 34.3 percent of his 3-point attempts, Randle is not yet considered by some teams to be much of a perimeter shooting threat. He's also poor on defense. (Maybe can't shoot and kinda can't defend. Doesn't that bother anybody?) There are also issues about whether he's a 4 or a 5. Combine this with the fact that Dallas didn't chase him last year, the fact that Dallas likely has its $30 mil sights on bigger fish to fry, and that with all due respect to suggestions that Randle "wants to come home,'' he's never actually said anything like that despite two straight years of impending free agency."

With a projected salary cap space of around $30 million, and with the ability to get more ... (by renouncing the rights to their own free agents, stretch/waive Courtney Lee, trades, etc.) Dallas, once again, has the ability to go big fish shopping. Could Randle be a better fit now that Porzingis is here? Perhaps. But it's another name to add to the free agent mix to go along with the likes of Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kemba Walker and other stars.