According to reports, the Timberwolves have traded OAKAAKUYOAK Julius Randle and the No. 28 pick to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for the No. 33 pick, effectively paying Brooklyn to absorb Randle’s contract. As part of the three-team trade, Nic Claxton is going to the Chicago Bulls.
Minnesota attached a first-round pick to move off Randle’s salary, creating additional financial flexibility while elevating Naz Reid into a full-time starting role and opening space to re-sign Ayo Dosunmu.
Brooklyn, meanwhile, takes on a two-time All-NBA forward and moves up five spots in the draft, essentially purchasing a late first-round pick with cap space.
Randle is currently playing under a three-year, $100 million contract extension that he signed in July 2025. The deal pays him a base salary of $33,333,334 for the upcoming 2026-27 season and carries a $35,802,468 player option for the 2027-28 campaign, after which he is set to become an unrestricted free agent.
Randle will almost certainly make the Nets more competitive on random Tuesday nights in January. He’s still capable of piling up points, rebounds, and assists when the offense runs through him. But at 31 years old, he doesn’t rocket Brooklyn into a playoff threat, especially after attaching a first-round asset simply to acquire him.
The bigger takeaway is draft positioning. Brooklyn now owns another first-round selection in a talented class, giving the organization another opportunity to add a young contributor or package picks in a future deal.
There’s also the irony of it all. The player once traded for Karl-Anthony Towns has now been moved as a salary dump with a first-round pick attached. Randle remains a productive regular-season player and will always have a place in Knicks history after helping lead the franchise back to relevance, but his market clearly isn’t robust.
Claxton spent the first seven seasons of his NBA career as an anchor for the Brooklyn Nets after being selected 31st overall in the 2019 NBA Draft. The 6’11” center transformed from a raw second-round prospect into a versatile defensive stopper, culminating in a 2022–23 campaign where he led the league in field goal percentage (70.5%) and finished ninth in Defensive Player of the Year voting. He is two years into the four-year, $100 million contract extension he signed in 2024.
We’ll always be grateful to Randle for coming to New York in 2019 when no stars were willing to. He endured a 21-45 season before Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeau took the reins. Julius remains a bull and will surely treat the fans at Barclays to a few 38-point triple-doubles. Will he elevate the Nets to a playoff team? Probably not.
Go Knicks.
