The LA Lakers suffered a tough loss with Julius Randle breaking his leg in the season opener and now a Greg Monroe trade could be a potential option to help replace him for Kobe Bryant, as Randle was expected to be a major contributor for Los Angeles this season after being taken in the first round of the NBA draft this summer.
Randle came into the season as a major prospect for the Lakers and now he will be out for some time with a broken leg. According to ESPN.com, the number seven player in the draft had to leave the court on a stretcher and suffered a fractured tibia and now surgery is likely for him. The game saw the Lakers and Rockets go at it with Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard jawing at each other and now the Lakers will have to find a way to get some help up front with Randle out. The team has Carlos Boozer, Ed Davis and Jordan Hill, but they may look for more as the season goes on.
The team lost in the opening matchup to the Rockets and this injury is just another tough thing to deal with for the Lakers. Randle came out of Kentucky highly regarded and now his rookie season will be cut short with the injury. The Pistons have Greg Monroe on a one year deal and since it's a qualifying offer he has some trade control, but he could be willing to get dealt to the Lakers if the Pistons are bad again this season. That is one option for the Lakers and they may look at other bigs on other teams if they can't replace Randle as well as they hope they can.
The 19-year-old still has a very bright future and his age is helpful to him with this injury, but now he has a recovery ahead and it comes after he also had a foot injury in college. The star said that he heard a pop after coming down at the basket and he needed help to be taken off the court following the injury. The Lakers came into the season hoping to improve with Scott coming in and Bryant coming back and now that could be pushed back a bit with the loss of Randle.
The Lakers won just 27 games last season and they come in with Steve Nash out for the year and now Randle is injured. Jeremy Lin and Bryant will have to keep things going on offense with Nick Young coming back and Scott now has a bigger challenge as the season starts up with a major injury.
Coming into the season the Lakers have expectations of improving, but now that Randle is out, it will be much tougher to do that. The Lakers were an active team this offseason and some free agent options they looked at included Eric Bledsoe, Jordan Crawford, Chris Singleton, Andrew Bynum and Greg Oden and while they didn't get those done, they added other players like Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin in a trade. Bledsoe was a dream option and now that Steve Nash has been injured, they won't look at a Jeremy Lin trade this season depending on how things play out for Byron Scott in the new offense.