New York City is full of diversions, but the one that awaited Julius Randle when the Lakers arrived there from Boston last weekend was of the welcome sort.
With the Lakers on their longest remaining road trip of the season, and two days between games in the Big Apple, Randle’s fiancée, Kendra Shaw, flew in from L.A. so Randle could get some time with their six-week-old son, Kyden.
“It helped me to be able to break up this trip, 10-days-or-whatever long,” Randle said. “Would have killed me not being able to be with him.”
Randle is learning how to balance fatherhood with being a professional ballplayer, in only his second healthy season; learning how to work his own naps around his son’s, how to give the Lakers his all when his family demands the same.
“That’s why it’s tough, man,” coach Luke Walton said. “They’re both full-time jobs and you want to be there for both of them.”
Practically a child himself when the Lakers drafted him out of Kentucky at 19 in 2014, Randle, now 22, often seems to have morphed into the player the organization wants him to be: a bullying, skilled big man with the ability to create opportunities off the dribble. He’s also prone to falling into deep funks. His play especially oscillated in January before he contracted pneumonia at the end of the month and missed several games.
Randle is averaging 13 points and eight rebounds as a third-year pro, and while his numbers didn’t tumble far from that in January, his aggression fluctuated and he struggled defensively.
Walton, whose own children are 2 and seven months, acknowledged there’s likely a connection between Randle’s inconsistency and the arrival of a new family member.
“It’s a pretty drastic life change for him,” Walton said. “To me you’re going to have ups and downs anyway as a 21-year-old NBA player, and then you add that on top of it, it’s just going to make that scale jump, highs to lows, at least until it becomes a normal part of your life.”
Walton said Randle has done “a good job of really trying to figure out how’s the best way to do it.”
The stakes for Randle are high this year. This summer he will be eligible for an extension on his rookie contract and the Lakers will need to determine how much they are willing to pay him.
“These are important times for him obviously,” Walton said. “Family to me is always first. But this game is what allows us to take care of our families. So, it’s a fine line of making sure that you’re not sacrificing your time on the court developing as a player.”
Randle said he and Shaw have plenty of help from family, and that they’ve been able to juggle the responsibilities around the house.
“My fiancée, she knows (basketball) is my job and it’s important, for me to get rest,” Randle said, “so she does a really good job of taking in most of the reins at night time watching him.”
The Lakers power forward naps after shoot around and practices but picks up feedings when the schedule allows. On the road, when his family can’t meet up with him, Randle does like most traveling parents: he relies on video chatting apps.
Randle may still be working to establish a professional identity, but he feels like he’s carved out a personal one.
“I just feel responsible for somebody other than myself,” he said, “and there’s things in life not about me and I think about him before I do a lot of stuff now. I just try to carry myself in a way of he would be proud of me.”
Nance shines
As the Lakers 27-point lead on Friday was trimmed to just five by the Milwaukee Bucks, Walton scrambled to find lineups that worked. There was only one player, however, he stuck with for the final 18 minutes of the game.
Is anyone that surprised it was Larry Nance Jr.?
The off-the-bench son of a former All-Star, Nance has gradually become one of the Lakers steadiest performers.
“A big reason he was so valuable and we left him in the game throughout the fourth,” Walton said, “was he was making plays, with deflections on the defensive end for us. He’ll have putbacks and extra possession type of plays.”
Nance finished with 11 points, including nine free throws in the 122-114 victory, and his 29 minutes were more minutes than any Laker except for Nick Young and Luol Deng.
“He was big for us as far as winning tonight,” Walton said.
Nance rarely puts up eye-popping numbers – he averages 7 points and 5.5 rebounds – and maintains a national profile based almost exclusively on his dunking skill, but he’s become increasingly important to the rebuilding Lakers.
The second-year forward, plucked by the Lakers with the 27th pick in the 2015 Draft, said Friday “probably wasn’t going to be a night that I was going to score big numbers, but hey, that’s fine. As long as we get the win, as long as I help defensively, as long as I help on the glass, assists, whatever it may be.
“When teams play me aggressive they’re leaving somebody else open. I’m glad we found that person.”
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