As everyone is talking about Karl-Anthony Towns heading to the Knicks and what that means for New York as a title contender, there was, in fact, another part of this trade that isn’t getting nearly as much ink. Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle are now with the Minnesota Timberwolves — and the latter, who made three All-Star teams and one All-NBA team over the last four seasons, sounds happy to be out of New York.
“You want to be somewhere where you feel wanted. I feel wanted here,” Randle said at his introductory press conference in Minnesota on Thursday, via ESPN. “At this point in my career, I’ve accomplished a lot of great things on an individual level, but I want to win a championship. This is a perfect opportunity to do that. … [The trade] was a breath of fresh air.”
To Randle’s point, he enjoyed tremendous individual success in New York, where he helped lead the Knicks to three playoff berths after six straight absences and a 17- and 29-win season in the two years preceding his arrival. During his three best years in New York, he averaged better than 23 points and 10 rebounds, and he did so despite seeing constant double teams and driving lanes that were clogged with cheating defenders entirely unconcerned with non-shooters like Elfrid Payton, R.J Barrett and Derrick Rose.
Randle was overtasked as a No. 1 option. He made the best of it and showed up nearly every single night, playing in over 89% of Knicks games from 2020-23, but because he was, by default, the top guy, he was also the one who took the worst of the backlash when things didn’t go well. You can understand why he would feel something of a pressure release coming to Minnesota, where he can be the secondary option that he was always better suited to be without the New York fans and media breathing down his neck.
To be fair, Randle did not play well in the biggest moments for the Knicks, and he was far from the perfect player in general. He was a ball-stopper and sporadically engaged defender. His limitations as a go-to guy showed up in the first round of the 2021 playoffs when he shot under 30% and committed 23 turnovers as the Knicks were bounced by the Hawks.
Still, he should’ve been more celebrated than he was for his toughness and willingness to take on a role that was over his head from the start after the Knicks missed on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in 2019. Randle brought credibility to a Knicks franchise that had become a laughingstock.
The team outgrew him, yes. And as his role became increasingly unclear as Jalen Brunson assumed alpha duties and the roster filled out with perfectly complementary, two-way players like OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, he became an obvious trade candidate. That’s tough when you’ve played so well for a franchise yet are always hearing your name in trade rumors. Even if it’s not true, you can understand feeling a little unwanted. Hopefully, Randle can find his groove alongside Anthony Edwards and company in Minnesota.
