Blockbuster Julius Randle Trade Packages If Timberwolves Aren't Done Dealing
The New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves shook up a typically quiet month of the NBA offseason when they agreed on a trade sending Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick to Minnesota and, in turn, landing Karl-Anthony Towns to New York.
The short-term upside of the deal is pretty easy to see for the Knicks. They needed a center, Towns will pull bigs out of the paint for Jalen Brunson and New York's wings can cover for some of KAT's defensive shortcomings.
Beyond getting out from under Towns' massive contract (which is set to pay him $61 million in 2027-28, when he has a player option), it's harder to see the benefit for Minnesota.
The T'Wolves need a reliable second option to play with Anthony Edwards, and Randle has averaged 23.3 points over the past four seasons. But he's also more ball-dominant than Towns and will make spacing trickier in lineups with Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels.
That's why it feels like there's at least a chance Minnesota isn't done dealing.
Randle is a tough fit on most rosters. And because the Wolves are still over the second apron, they can't aggregate his salary with others heading out from the roster. But he's on a very movable contract and is talented enough to push middling teams closer to contention. He might offer someone some financial flexibility, too, since he can enter free agency this summer (Randle has a $30.9 million player option for 2025-26).
So, if Minnesota does indeed look to flip its new forward between now and the trade deadline, moves that would make sense can be found below.
A Floor Spacer from the Heat
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The Deal: Julius Randle for Nikola Jović, Terry Rozier and Thomas Bryant
Randle is pretty clearly the best individual player in this deal. For that reason, you might be able to talk Miami into including some draft compensation, too. But Nikola Jović checks the box for a young prospect while being able to start alongside Edwards and Gobert right now.
Jović is only 21, and he hit 39.9 percent of his three-point attempts last season. Using him as a dedicated floor spacer would make it harder for opposing defenses to sell out on Edwards-Gobert pick-and-rolls than it would be with Randle in that role.
Randle is quite a bit better (for now) in a vacuum, but defenders will be relatively comfortable helping off of him when he's at the three-point line.
Of course, Jović isn't the only player coming over. Terry Rozier would bring some scoring punch to a suddenly crowded backcourt that includes Donte DiVincenzo. Thomas Bryant could add some size to a frontcourt that might otherwise have to deploy Luka Garza as the backup 5.
For the Miami Heat, this creates some of the same concerns Randle does for the T'Wolves. Lineups with Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Randle could be spacing nightmares. But as a pure talent play, this is an obvious upgrade.
And if there's a coach who can figure out how to overcome that lack of shooting with the passing ability of each of the above, it's Erik Spoelstra.
A Floor Spacer Complementing Gobert
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The Deal: Julius Randle for Norman Powell, Nicolas Batum and a 2031 top-10 protected first-round pick
The framework on this one is pretty similar to the last.
Norman Powell brings some firepower to the backcourt and can replace a lot of the raw scoring KAT provided. Batum is a much better option to space the floor than Randle. He also has years worth of chemistry with his French national team teammate, Gobert.
Of course, there isn't near as much upside here as there is with Jović, so the Clippers would almost certainly have to include a future first-round pick. Minnesota might even balk at the level of protection above.
But in the short term, this is probably a deal that elevates Ant a little more than standing pat from here, especially with Batum's history as a passer.
For the Los Angeles Clippers, Randle taking the ball out of James Harden and/or Kawhi Leonard's hands probably isn't ideal. But given the age of Harden (35) and injury history of Kawhi, L.A. could use an innings-eater to produce when either or both are out.
And again, in terms of just talent in and talent out, the Clippers come out ahead with this framework in the short term.
Accelerating the Spurs Rebuild...Again
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The Deal: Julius Randle for Harrison Barnes and Jeremy Sochan
Victor Wembanyama quickly made it clear that it would be tough to continue a tank as long as he's on the roster. He played at an All-NBA level as a rookie, and the San Antonio Spurs reacted by adding veterans Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes in the offseason.
That alone could make the Spurs a fringe play-in team, but swapping out a pair of forwards for Randle would make a playoff push more likely.
And this is a situation where Randle's shaky jumper probably wouldn't be as big a deal. Wemby likes to operate from the outside and get threes up. Devin Vassell has averaged 19.1 points and 2.5 threes while shooting 37.8 percent from deep over the past two seasons.
Playing Randle with both would give the slashing big man more room to operate inside.
For the T'Wolves, this puts them at a greater scoring deficit than each of the first two ideas, but Harrison Barnes has averaged 15.0 points and 1.8 threes while shooting 38.7 percent from deep over the past six seasons. He's not going to take the ball out of Ant's hands, and the threat of his shooting will pull defenders away from actions in the middle of the floor with Edwards and Gobert.
Like the Heat deal, this one also gives Minnesota a prospect, too.
Jeremy Sochan was miscast as a point forward for much of last season, but he's only 21 and has shown enough versatility to at least justify the experiment from San Antonio's perspective.
His passing and defensive switchability could make him something of a less savvy but more explosive Kyle Anderson facsimile.
A Pragmatic Swap with Brooklyn
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The Deal: Julius Randle and a 2025 second-round pick (via Denver or Philadelphia) for Cameron Johnson and Jalen Wilson
There's a chance both fan bases read the trade above in genuine disgust.
Cameron Johnson's never scored with near as much volume as Randle, and Jalen Wilson isn't the kind of top-flight prospect that can reasonably be described as a replacement for a pick (though he did show some scoring chops at Kansas).
On the other side of the deal, the Brooklyn Nets are likely hoping for better draft compensation for veterans like Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Bojan Bogdanović and most of the rest of the roster. What will likely be a late second would surely disappoint Nets fans.
But it's not crazy to think Johnson could creep up to 17-18 points per game in the role that'd be waiting for him in Minnesota. And like all the other fowrards heading to the Timberwolves in the deals above, he's a much easier fit alongside Edwards and Gobert than Randle is.
For the Nets, even in the unlikely event that Randle picks up his player option, his deal expires earlier than Johnson's. While it'd be nice to build a big stack of first-round picks from all the vets currently on Brooklyn's roster, it's simply not realistic to get one for each of the available players.
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