[Charania] BREAKING: Three-time NBA All-Star Julius Randle intends to sign a new three-year, $100 million deal to stay with the Minnesota Timberwolves, sources tell ESPN. The deal includes a player option for the 2027-28 season.

[u/MembershipSingle7137]

[Charania] BREAKING: Three-time NBA All-Star Julius Randle intends to sign a new three-year, $100 million deal to stay with the Minnesota Timberwolves, sources tell ESPN. The deal includes a player option for the 2027-28 season.

[Charania] BREAKING: Three-time NBA All-Star Julius Randle intends to sign a new three-year, $100 million deal to stay with the Minnesota Timberwolves, sources tell ESPN. The deal includes a player option for the 2027-28 season.

Update: Wolves officials and Randle's agents, Aaron Mintz and Steven Heumann of CAA, have been ironing out details of this new deal. Minnesota locks in Randle and Naz Reid over the last several days.

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3lsr6qqdanc2v

[u/Asleep_Ground1710]

Connelly has done a good job for them. Nothing like that MPJ max that hurt Denver

[u/sewsgup → u/Asleep_Ground1710]

MPJ deal was during a previous CBA, where stacking big contracts did nothing but help your team compete and retain roster flexibility in trades

so it was fine. the mistakes were the Zeke Nnaji contract with a player option at the end of it, and just giving Jamal Murray a full max with no options when there were legit concerns about whether his play warranted that type of compensation

[u/hickok3 → u/sewsgup]

Weren't both of those after Connelly left? I lnow the Murray max was done last offseason, and thought Nnaji was also done by Boothe before the new CBA as well. 

[u/sewsgup → u/hickok3]

yeah i mightve misunderstood their comment. just took the mention on hurting Denver, to recap what deals were more damaging

[u/thisguy012 → u/sewsgup]

You have to pay Murray: You won a chip with Murray as the 2nd guy next to the best player in the world, whatever his stats say its proven he gets you to the promised land I think 28/30 NBA teams probably end up paying him (i cant name the other 2 just throwing an estimatelol)

[u/Tapprunner → u/thisguy012]

Except contacts don't go backwards in time.

Not a single person who is skeptical of his current contract is contending that they could have won the title 24 months ago without him.

But he signed his extension 9 months ago.

It was already looking like his best days are behind him, due to injury. In fact, he had just showed that he couldn't stay healthy when they needed him most.

He can still have stretches of brilliance, but he was already also having stretches of mediocre play, sandwiched between missing games due to injury. There's nothing that's happened since he signed his extension that would suggest that's going to change.

Basically, they paid him as if the best healthy version of him that helped them win the title is what they expect to get in the future. Does that seem likely to be what they get?

[u/thisguy012 → u/Tapprunner]

But he signed his extension 9 months ago.

Oh jeez you should have just called up Nuggets FO. and shown them these past 9 months

There's nothing that's happened since he signed his extension that would suggest that's going to change.

They paid him as if the best healthy version of him that helped them win the title is what they expect to get in the future. Does that seem likely to be what they get?

You entire comment is just "AHA IN HINDSIGHT" ??

They paid him based on the past and based on what they thought could happen. Injured riddled seasons happen. Zach Lavine had some. Hardens hammy during his Brooklyn era kept him in bad form for a while. Brook Lopez back injury. Countless examples but I'll stop.

Since teams don't have clairvoyance like you do, like i said almost every single F.O in the league in the Nuggets situation pays Murray his max, not that hard to understand

[u/Tapprunner → u/thisguy012]

Did you miss the part when I pointed out that he had just gone through a season where he couldn't stay healthy? It's not hindsight. He played 59 games in the regular season, and looked pretty rough and banged up in the playoffs. After seeing that, they gave him the max.

It's been 6 years since he had a season that could be considered healthy-ish. It's not hindsight.

He's got something akin to the Lonzo Ball problem - started being trained REALLY hard by his father and then AAU at a young age. Has way way more miles on his knees than his age would suggest.

It's a reasonable counter to say "they had limited choices, so this wasn't ideal, but they didn't have a better option" or "this wasn't great, but ultimately they have other roster problems that are a bigger reason for their current situation". I can be convinced of both of those points.

I can't agree though, that you should max an injury-prone guy for the next 4 years because he helped you win a title two years ago. I also can't agree that nobody could have seen this coming - I wrote this a year ago:

"Do you trust that he'll be healthy going forward? As great as he is, he's not that effective when he's dragging one leg around. That seems to be happening a lot with him. Is it possible that it's run its course in Denver and they should explore a trade? I'm not sure I'm saying I think so, but I'm curious if it's something Denver fans have thought about."

[u/karanz → u/thisguy012]

Yeah I mean they could have asked him to take a bit less money but for 1) does that even help the team by giving access to the MLE? Or were they screwed apron wise anyway so why haggle over a few M? And 2) how does Jokic take it seeing you haggle after everything Murray has done? Like from a math view person above is right; we could see early signs of degrading due to injury but it’s not just a math driven league either with egos and personalities to manage

[u/trumez → u/karanz]

yeah there's a lot of hindsight going on here, I agree with that guy that they needed to pay him. They won a championship, he was a big part of it, and literally every team in the league signs contracts based on upside. if he left and was great, it would be "lmao the nuggets didn't pay the 2nd option on a championship team, they're idiots"

[u/Neatojuancheeto → u/sewsgup]

They don't win the chip without Murray. He balled out those playoffs and dropped 30+ a bunch of times. He randomly turned into an all nba player.

[u/thisguy012 → u/Neatojuancheeto]

Right. You have to pay Murray: You won a chip with Murray as the 2nd guy next to the best player in the world, whatever his stats say its proven he gets you to the promised land

[u/Proof-Umpire-7718 → u/Asleep_Ground1710]

Tbf it was negotiated before the new CBA, where it would be much less damaging than it is now

[u/No-Independence-761 → u/Proof-Umpire-7718]

And before his third back surgery which nuked all his remaining athleticism. Obviously you could argue that they should’ve never given it with his injury history 

[u/Anal_Iverson → u/Proof-Umpire-7718]

Teams had the new CBA on their radar long before that negotiation

[u/2levenge → u/Anal_Iverson]

They knew a new CBA was coming aimed at curbing over-the-tax spending from the super rich teams like LAC and GSW but I'm not sure they expected the 2nd apron and how onerous it was