Julius Randle returns tonight for his first regular season game at Madison Square Garden since the New York Knicks traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves in October.
Knicks fans have mixed memories of Randle. The forward revitalized his career — and the Knicks’ fortunes — in his second season with the team in 2020–21, rightly earning Most Improved Player honors.
That season started late, with games closed to fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Randle’s elevated play under new head coach Tom Thibodeau gave New York City — one of the hardest hit in the country by the pandemic — much to cheer about.
For that, Knicks fans should be forever grateful.
The Other Randle
Randle refashioned himself as a modern NBA forward, excelling in distributing the basketball, averaging 6.0 assists along with 24.1 points in that 2020–21 season, leading the Knicks to their first playoff appearance since 2013.
His new style also marked a departure from the team’s previous star forward, Carmelo Anthony, whose iso play benefitted his top-line stats, but was detrimental to the team itself.
But Randle too often showed shades of Melo — holding onto the ball for too long, getting stuck in traffic, and clogging up the lanes. Randle showed he could play in Thibodeau’s dynamic offense — but not for the entire game.
And so when the Knicks dealt Randle, along with breakout guard Donte DiVincenzo, to the Timberwolves for the All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, the price was steep — but they still ended up much better.
KAT Roars in New York
Towns’s first game as a Knick in October wasn’t encouraging. He scored 12 points in 24 minutes in the blowout loss in the season-opener against the Boston Celtics.
But every new squad has growing pains — and the Knicks quickly grew out of that phase.
Four games in, KAT showed what he can do best: score. He put up 44 points and was 4 of 5 from three. In the next game, he scored 21 points along with 7 assists.
The Knicks got off to a 5–6 start to the season. But by mid-November, they began to coalesce and take off. That month included a win against the Denver Nuggets in which they scored 145 points. The Knicks’ defense has taken a hit with the offseason losses of both DiVincenzo Isaiah Hartenstein. But KAT has taken their scoring ability to another level.
Towns is averaging 44.9% from three this season, ranking among the top seven in the NBA. And that has opened up the court for the Knicks, who now have the third-best record in the Eastern Conference at 27–15.
The Knicks have had a Jekyll and Hyde year, sometimes following big wins with terrible losses. But they are built to go deeper in the playoffs with KAT — and that’s ultimately what matters.
The T-Wolves Decline
By dishing Towns, the Timberwolves made clear that they were building the team around a younger core led by Anthony Edwards for both financial and performance considerations.
But Randle has brought to Minnesota a problem that bedeviled his years with the Knicks: spacing issues.
To be sure, the T-Wolves have seen Randle’s often-exquisite passing:
But too often, they also get the Randle who paralyzes ball movement:
Randle has also brought with him an often lackadaisical defense to a team that has prided itself on having one of the league’s best.
Tom Haberstroh of Yahoo Sports says, “the Julius Randle era in Minnesota is just about over,” noting that he’s played “only 40%” of the team’s clutch minutes since December 31.
Big Ragu Simmers
The Timberwolves are just two games above .500 this year, after a 56-26 2023-24 season. They’re clearly worse off due to the trade, but they did win with the acquisition of DiVincenzo — an impressive 3-and-D talent.
The “Big Ragu,” as he’s known, got off to a slow start, averaging just 8.8 points per game in November. But he’s taken off since late December, averaging 15.8 points and 4.3 assists, along with 1.2 steals in the past 10 games, propelled by 41.7% shooting from three.
He was key to the Knicks’ dynamism last year and fits perfectly in Minnesota’s system.
The Wolves have DiVincenzo for another two seasons. That means the 27-year-old, who is only getting better, will spend his peak years with Edwards.
The Knicks clearly won with the KAT-Randle trade. But the Wolves have a piece in DiVincenzo that can add value right now as Edwards takes off.
They just need more of the right sauce.
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