Julius Randle trade grades: Wolves sign needs star, Nets take reasonable swing

For about an hour on Monday night, the biggest trade of the NBA offseason so far involved Julius Randle. The Minnesota Timberwolves agreed to trade Randle and the No. As part of the deal, the Timberwolves will receive the No. 33 pick (third choice in the second round) from the Nets. The agreement came soon enough the Heat won the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes.

Still, moving on from Randle — acquired from the Knicks in a shocking Karl-Anthony Towns deal less than two years ago — is an exciting move for the Wolves.

Timberwolves: C+*

Wolves welcome you:

• No. 33 pick (by Brooklyn)
• $33.3 million TPE

After back-to-back appearances in the Western Conference Finals in 2024 and 2025, the Timberwolves were eliminated from the playoffs in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs this season. They had the sixth most expensive roster last season ($193 million) and were expected to make changes this summer.

Randle proved to be the odd man out, ending his short tenure in Minnesota. He was acquired in the trade for Karl-Anthony Towns in October of 2024 from the Timberwolves’ savings, so it’s only fitting that he himself is now a salary dump.

With Randle on the roster, the Timberwolves would be $27 million under the second luxury tax apron with only nine players on the roster. Moving Randle put them $63 million under the second cap, $50 million under the first cap and $43 million under the tax, giving them the flexibility to re-sign Ayo Dosunmu. Shortly after the trade, Dosunmu reportedly agreed to a five-year, $112 million deal.

In addition, the Wolves created a $33.33 million trade player exception, which they can use to acquire a player in a trade.

Losing Randle will be a blow. For all his mistakes, he averaged 20 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists on 48.2% shooting in his two seasons in Minnesota and only missed 16 games. Even in this historical period of attack, it is not easy to find someone who can fill it reliably; there were only 33 players who scored at least 20 points last season.

Meanwhile, Randle was a disaster for the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the playoffs this season — 12.8 points and 7.7 rebounds on 34.2/19/73.1 shooting splits — and struggled against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2025 Western Conference Finals. Those teams controlled the road to the Finals, with Rancondle looking at Woods in the West. Even though they will miss Randle’s presence in the regular season, there is nothing wrong with going back to the same lineup.

The move is also a big vote of confidence for Naz Reid, who will be in the starting line-up. Reid, 26, won the 2024 Sixth Man of the Year and has finished in the top five in voting for the award the past two seasons. There wasn’t much of a difference in the Wolves’ net rating with Randle on the floor against Reid, and the latter was already playing more than 26 minutes per game. It’s reasonable to expect that he could step into a bigger role.

Giving up City’s cap flexibility to re-sign Dosunmu in two years is not a good process, so it’s impossible to say Wolves won this trade. However, it’s also impossible to fully rate this deal without knowing how, or if, they use TPE — that’s why we have an asterisk next to that C+. If they can turn that into a productive start, this deal looks even better.

Sources: B

Nets receive:

• Julius Randle
• No. 28th pick (via Minnesota)

The Nets haven’t been active since their short-lived superteam experiment with Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving, which resulted in only one playoff series win. Over the past three seasons, they went 32-50 (2023-24), 26-56 (2024-25) and 20-62 (2025-26).

Last season, their record was the third best in the league, while their rivals won the title. To make matters worse, the Nets closed with the No. 6 pick in the four-man draft for all of their problems.

The Nets could still get a good player at No. 6, but they likely won’t get franchise-changing talent on Tuesday night. And while they enter the summer with plenty of cap space — even after this deal, they have $36.1 million to spend, according to Keith Smith — this is a very weak free agent class and their recent sit-down situation would make it difficult to get anyone to sign there. The trade was their best chance to get an All-Star level player and get back on the road to relevancy.

Randle can be a frustrating player, but he’s a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA honoree who has scored at least 20 points per game in five of the past six seasons and is always available. He will quickly make the Nets a more competitive team, and he will help give their young players a chance to play meaningful basketball.

The Nets made five first-round picks last year and will have two more this year. At some point you’re going to have to try to put those players in a position to win, and the NBA’s new anti-tank rules have made it less useful for high draft picks — a strategy that hasn’t worked well for the Nets in recent years. By Randle and Michael Porter Jr. the Nets may be able to get into the mix for a Play-In Championship spot, especially if they make some veteran additions.

By taking on the final two years of Randle’s contract — $33.3 million guaranteed next season, a player option for $35.8 million in 2027-28 — and parting ways with Claxton, the Nets were able to move up to the back of the first round. Paying Randle isn’t a problem for them, and while it will hurt to lose Claxton, who has spent his entire career in Brooklyn, he hasn’t been able to maintain the level he reached a few years ago.

Bulls: B+

Bulls get:

Bulls are finally hitting the reset button. They traded Nikola Vucevic, Coby White and Dosunmu last offseason to complete their roster overhaul, parted ways with longtime coach Billy Donovan and cleaned house in the front office by firing executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley.

In recent weeks, they hired Tiago Splitter as their new head coach and Bryson Graham as their new vice president. Now, the new brain trust has made its first major move to reshape the system.

The Bulls were one of the few teams with reasonable cap space this summer — they still have $32.5 million, according to Keith Smith — and like the Nets decided to use it on the trade market. They are not giving up anything in the deal, and will simply take Claxton’s contract from their cap space.

Claxton is not the player he was a few years ago, but he is still a solid and reliable defensive man. He averaged 11.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks on 57.1% shooting in 27.8 minutes last season with the Nets. As a free agent signing, it’s worth turning to Claxton. He’s only 27 years old and a change of scenery could do him good after some stressful years in Brooklyn. In particular, he could really benefit from playing alongside a great playmaker in Josh Giddey.

Claxton has two years guaranteed on his contract at $23.3 million next season and $21 million in 2027-28.