While the New Orleans Pelicans’ future draft picks are currently sucking up all the intrigue, a former lottery pick on their roster is reportedly ready to make noise as a free agent.
Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, power forward Julius Randle will decline his player option for the upcoming season, becoming a free agent ahead of a wide-open class unexpectedly affected by injuries to two of its top talents in Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.
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
As expected here. Randle figures to have a much higher payday awaiting him on the open market. https://t.co/tj99H8Qs4y
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) June 17, 2019
Randle posted career-best numbers across the board last year with the Pelicans, a line boosted further still following Anthony Davis’ post-trade-demand minutes reduction. It was Randle’s first season topping 20 points per game and also his first attempting volume 3-pointers, not only tripling his previous high with 2.7 3-pointers attempted but also shooting a career-best 34.4 percent from distance.
