When the New York Knicks traded Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns, it shocked the NBA world. It was a massive change for both franchises, and, in hindsight, one team clearly came out on top—the Knicks.
Since the trade, the Knicks have established themselves as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, and Towns is having one of the best seasons of his career. Meanwhile, the Wolves are hovering around the .500 mark, and Randle trade rumors have already sparked up again. He just hasn’t fit alongside Anthony Edwards as well as Minnesota might have hoped.
And now, the Wolves are making a Randle realization the Knicks already know.
Julius Randle's contract is putting the Wolves in a bad spot, and the Knicks know the situation very well
So far this season, Randle is averaging 18.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 4.5 assists while shooting 47.2% from the floor and 33.0% from behind the three-point line.
Edwards is doing his best to lead the charge, but Randle’s offensive inconsistency is providing the Wolves with a hurdle that they didn’t have to deal with nearly as much with Towns.
Now, it’s already gotten to the point where Randle is being thrown in hypothetical trades, and unfortunately for Minnesota, they probably aren’t going to fetch a return like the Knicks did.
In fact, New York may have gotten extremely lucky.
The main reason the Wolves made the trade was to ease some of their future financial issues, as Randle makes significantly less than Towns. Splitting up his salary into two deals gives them more flexibility.
But now, the Timberwolves are faced with the reality that the Knicks had to live in before the Towns opportunity fell into their laps—Randle doesn’t have positive enough value to get a quality return.
A quick glance at some of the trade ideas being thrown around. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report suggests the Wolves get a return of Lonzo Ball, Buddy Hield, and Julian Phillips in a three-team deal with the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls. Joe Nelson of SI brought up a few ideas, one of which was a Toronto Raptors trade in which the Wolves would get back Bruce Brown and Davion Mitchell.
The point is, most of the ideas being suggested are nothing more than salary-filler and a way for the Timberwolves to get off Randle’s contract.
In the aggregate, that would mean they would have traded Towns—their franchise centerpiece and a guy who loved the organization—for someone they can’t get any real value back for.
It’s a brutal spot to be in, but again, something Knicks fans became all too familiar with when Randle trade rumors started circling. The fact that the Towns deal came into play, especially in hindsight, was a massive stroke of luck and circumstance.
Now, Randle’s contract is doing to the Wolves exactly what it did to the Knicks—putting them in an impossible situation.