The Brooklyn Nets came into the 2026 NBA offseason with the goal of improving the roster as much as possible following a 2025-26 season in which they finished with a 20-62 record. Brooklyn made several moves this summer, including trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, but there are some around the league wondering if that was the right decision for the Nets.
"What else was confusing to me was trading for Julius Randle, a floor raiser in his 30s who's expensive. The last thing they needed was a floor-raiser on a team that does not control its own 2027 first-round pick," CBS Sports' Sam Quinn said of the Nets on the "Third Apron Podcast" with salary cap expert Yossi Gozlan. Quinn and Gozlan spent the episode discussing Quinn's
recent article ranking all 30 NBA front-offices.
"They gain nothing. They don't get out of the relegation zone because they're not in the relegation zone. They don't have their own pick. All Julius Randle is going to do is take shots away from the young guys who badly need the ball," Quinn continued. "He overlaps positionally with Michael Porter Jr. I guess they're going to extend or trade Michael Porter Jr. We'll see. We're in late August and nothing has moved there."
Randle, 31, is coming off another solid season as he averaged 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 48.1% from the field and 31.5% from behind the three-point line. The Nets acquired Randle from the Timberwolves earlier this offseason along with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft (forward Joshua Jefferson) in exchange for the No. 33 overall pick.
To Quinn's point, Randle will be owed $33.3 million next season (20.21% of the cap) and while that is a large number, a player of his caliber usually costs more money at this point in the NBA ecosystem. According to HoopsHype, Randle's salary will rank 54th next season, but he was ranked higher than that in terms of league-wide per-game averages in points, rebounds, and assists. Time will tell how this move looks for Brooklyn long-term, but it seems like a low-cost move as of this writing.
While trying to keep the nuance in this conversation, Julius Randle is slated to be the 54th-highest paid ($33.3 million) player in the NBA next season, but he was 23rd in the league in PPG, 37th in RPG, and 35th in APG. Also, the Nets don't have their 1st-round pick next year. https://t.co/aHn2Mz4w4M
— Sharif Phillips-Keaton (@SharifKeaton) September 2, 2026
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Did the Nets make a mistake trading for Julius Randle?
