Julius Randle is heading to the Brooklyn Nets. The Minnesota Timberwolves shipped him out Monday night as part of a three team deal with the Chicago Bulls. The return for Minnesota was, charitably, light. The Wolves essentially gave Randle away for cap relief and the chance to keep Ayo Dosunmu.
Here are the moving parts. Brooklyn gets Randle and the No. 28 pick. Chicago gets Nic Claxton from the Nets. Minnesota gets Mo Gueye from the Bulls and the No. 33 pick from Brooklyn. That is the entire trade. The Wolves moved a three time All Star for a 28 year old role player and a second round pick.
This was a salary dump. Pure and simple. Randle is on the books for big money. Minnesota was facing a punishing luxury tax situation. They needed to clear the bag to keep Dosunmu on a five year, $112 million deal that was reportedly agreed to within hours of the Randle trade going public. That is the math here. They traded Randle to keep Dosunmu.
Whether that is the right priority is a fair question. Randle, when he is right, is a borderline All Star. He averaged double digit points and rebounds for the Wolves last season. He had a really good playoff run. He could still produce 20 and 10 in a good environment. Dosunmu is a nice player and an important culture guy in Minnesota, but he is not Julius Randle.
The Wolves are betting on continuity. Anthony Edwards is the franchise. Jaden McDaniels is the running mate. Naz Reid is the third option. Rudy Gobert is the rim protector. Dosunmu is the heart and soul guard. Randle was the second star, but the Wolves seem to have decided he was a luxury they could not afford given the rest of the contracts.
For Brooklyn, this is a fantastic move. The Nets are still rebuilding. They have a young core. Adding Randle gives them a veteran offensive hub who can take pressure off the young guys. He is also a tradable asset. If the team is bad and Randle is producing, you can flip him at the deadline for picks or young players. The Nets essentially got a free swing on a star caliber player.
The Bulls did okay. Nic Claxton is a real defensive center. He blocks shots, runs the floor, and rebounds. He fits with the kind of style Tiago Splitter wants to play in Chicago. Bulls fans should be reasonably happy with this piece.
The Wolves got Mo Gueye. He is a young 7 footer who has flashed real upside. He might be a real player one day. Right now he is a project. And the No. 33 pick is the first pick of the second round, which has some value.
The bigger picture is that the Timberwolves just admitted they are not winning a title anytime soon. Trading away a frontcourt star for cap relief is not the move of a team that thinks it is one piece away. The window with Edwards is supposed to be wide open. Moves like this suggest the front office is hedging.
The thing is, the Wolves were the second team in their own Conference Finals just two years ago. The roster is talented. Edwards is one of the top five players in the league. There was a real path to chasing the Thunder for the West. Trading Randle for almost nothing closes some of that window.
If Randle balls out in Brooklyn while the Wolves miss the playoffs, this trade is going to look like a disaster for Tim Connelly. If the Wolves still make a deep run with the Edwards led group and Dosunmu pays off, the math works. We will see.
Either way, Randle is a Net. The Wolves are smaller. The Bulls have a new center. Brooklyn might have just stolen a star.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
