Julius Randle trade grades: Wolves’ mark needs an asterisk, Nets take sensible swing

For about an hour on Monday night, the biggest trade of the NBA offseason to date involved Julius Randle. The Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed to trade Randle and the No. 28 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft to the Brooklyn Nets as part of a three-team deal that will route Nic Claxton to the Chicago Bulls, according to ESPN. As part of the deal, the Timberwolves will receive the No. 33 pick (the third pick in the second round) from the Nets. The deal came shortly before the Heat won the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes. 

Still, moving off Randle — acquired from the Knicks in a shocking move centered around Karl-Anthony Towns less than two years ago — is an interesting move for the Wolves Now that we have the full deal, let’s grade the trade for all three teams:

Timberwolves: C+*

Wolves receive:

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

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

Randle proved to be the odd man out, ending his short tenure in Minnesota. He was acquired in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns in October of 2024 in a money-saving move for the Timberwolves, so it’s fitting that he himself has now essentially been salary dumped. 

With Randle on the roster, the Timberwolves would have been $27 million under the second apron of the luxury tax with just nine players on the roster. Moving Randle put them $63 million under the second apron, $50 million under the first apron and $43 million under the tax, which gave 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 traded-player exception, which they can use to acquire a player in a trade. 

Losing Randle will be a blow. For all his faults, he averaged 20 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists on 48.2% shooting over his two seasons in Minnesota and only missed 16 games. Even in this historic offensive era, it’s still not easy to find someone who can reliably fill it up; there were only 33 players who averaged at least 20 points last season. 

At the same time, Randle was a disaster against 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 Western Conference Finals in 2025. Those teams control the path to the Finals in the West, and the Wolves looked uncompetitive against them with Randle. Even if they’ll miss Randle’s presence in the regular season, there was no upside to running back the same roster. 

This move is also a big vote of confidence in Naz Reid, who will move into the starting lineup. The 26-year-old Reid won Sixth Man of the Year in 2024 and has finished in the top-five in voting for the award in each of the last two seasons. There wasn’t much difference in the Wolves’ net rating with Randle on the floor vs. Reid, and the latter was already playing over 26 minutes per game. It’s reasonable to expect he can step into a bigger role. 

Turning Towns into the cap flexibility to re-sign Dosunmu in two years is not a great process, so it’s impossible to say the Wolves are a winner from this trade. However, it’s also impossible to fully grade this deal without knowing how, or if, they use the TPE — that’s why we have an asterisk next to that C+. If they’re able to turn that into a productive starter, this deal looks a lot better. 

Nets: B

Nets receive:

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

The Nets have been irrelevant since their short-lived superteam experiment with Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving, which ultimately resulted in just one playoff series win. Over the last three seasons, they’ve gone 32-50 (2023-24), 26-56 (2024-25) and 20-62 (2025-26). 

Last season, they had the third-worst record in the league, while their crosstown rivals won the championship. To make matters worse, the Nets wound up with the No. 6 pick in a four-player draft for all their trouble. 

The Nets can still get a nice player at No. 6, but they likely won’t get a franchise-changing talent on Tuesday night. And while they entered the summer with plenty of cap space — even after this deal, they have $36.1 million to spend, per Keith Smith — this is a pretty weak free agent class and their status as a recent bottom-dweller was going to make it hard to get anyone to sign there. A trade was their best chance to acquire an All-Star level player and get back on the path to relevance. 

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

The Nets made five first-round picks last year and will have two more firsts this year. At a certain point you have to try and put those players in a winning environment, and the NBA’s new anti-tanking rules have made it less worthwhile to tank for a top draft pick anyway — a strategy that hasn’t worked well for the Nets in recent years. With Randle and Michael Porter Jr. the Nets might be able to get in the mix for a Play-In Tournament spot, especially if they make some other veteran additions. 

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

Bulls: B+

Bulls receive:

The Bulls are finally hitting the reset button. They traded Nikola Vucevic, Coby White and Dosunmu last season to complete their roster teardown, parted ways with long-time 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’ve hired Tiago Splitter as their new coach and Bryson Graham as their new executive vice president. Now, the new brain trust has made their first big move to reshape the roster. 

The Bulls were one of a handful of teams that had meaningful cap space this summer — they still have $32.5 million, per Keith Smith — and like the Nets they have decided to use it in the trade market. They are not giving up anything in this deal, and will simply absorb Claxton’s contract into their cap space. 

Claxton is not the player he was a few years ago, but he’s still a solid and reliable defensive-minded big 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 essentially a free agent signing, it’s worth taking a swing on Claxton. He’s still only 27 and a change of scenery might do him well after some depressing years in Brooklyn. In particular, he could really benefit from playing alongside a high-level playmaker in Josh Giddey. 

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