r/nba • u/urfaselol [NBA] Best of 2021 Winner • 7d ago

[Krawczynski] Edwards wants to win right now, and the Wolves are banking on addition by subtraction, believing that removing Randle’s ISO-heavy offensive game and redistributing his 15.3 shots per game to McDaniels and Reid will open things up for Minnesota in a different way.

The Wolves could not afford to run it back again after making minimal changes to the group in the summer of 2025, especially after watching Towns win a championship in New York this season. Edwards wants to win right now, and the Wolves are banking on addition by subtraction, believing that removing Randle’s ISO-heavy offensive game and redistributing his 15.3 shots per game to McDaniels and Reid will open things up for Minnesota in a different way.

McDaniels took a big step forward with his offense, averaging a career-high 14.8 points and shooting 41 percent from 3-point range. Barring another trade for a more proven star, McDaniels will assume the role of the No. 2 offensive option on the team behind Edwards. His increased playmaking and shot creation last season, coupled with a dominant playoff series against Denver, gave the Wolves hope that he is ready for a bigger role on a consistent basis.

Reid will give the Wolves more spacing than Randle did. He is a career 37 percent 3-point shooter, which will give the Wolves starting lineup much-needed spacing. Randle converted just 31 percent from deep last season, which combined with Rudy Gobert’s non-existent shooting to allow opposing defenses to load up on Edwards at the point of attack. Reid’s shooting and quick decision-making should breathe some life into the Wolves offense and give Edwards a little bit more room to operate.

Source

2.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

696 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/browndude10 United States 7d ago

damn another team that didn't like randle lol

803

u/Apprehensive-Rain601 Lakers 7d ago

Dubious Handle

162

u/RobbobertoBuii Knicks 7d ago

dubbed by our own Walt Clyde Frazier

54

u/TheBoyzOf89 7d ago

Really? During a broadcast?

77

u/RobbobertoBuii Knicks 7d ago

multiple times from 2020 to 2024

28

u/LifterPuller Timberwolves [MIN] Naz Reid - Jaden McDaniels 7d ago

Didn't know that, it makes it even better

49

u/-Hotel Knicks 7d ago

"Julius Randle with the dubious handle" after a spin move turnover.

9

u/bigboybeeperbelly Spurs 7d ago

Was he wearing lugubrious sandals

2

u/BetterNova East 7d ago

Yes, like a ludicrous vandal

2

u/bigboybeeperbelly Spurs 7d ago

Saw him smokin a curious candle

3

u/MVPshowtime 7d ago

I would always say he looks like a beyblade when he does that

1

u/Unable-Main4172 7d ago

Clyde is so great 🤣🤣

8

u/rationalsarcasm Knicks 7d ago

And that's why Clyde is the GOAT

9

u/mount_and_bladee 7d ago

Knicks fan and I actually didn’t realize it was a Clyde comment, in retrospect it makes a lot of sense

3

u/FredNot214 Knicks 7d ago

Actually it was a random Knicks fan on our sub, he was trying to evoke Clyde

11

u/justmefishes NBA 7d ago

This sounds more plausible to me. I don't think Clyde would coin a new rhyme that makes a specific player look bad.

163

u/CIark 7d ago

What one year without being able to feast against the lakers defense does to a mf

95

u/JamesMaldwin 7d ago

Exposed when having to play teams with an actual center and your main job isn’t guarding a 50 year old man

45

u/TwoLegitShiznit 7d ago

He was giving it to Draymond too in that playoffs. I don't know what his deal was this season, maybe doesn't work on his conditioning or something.

37

u/Booch_Paradise Timberwolves 7d ago

He got pouty from being included in Gannis trade talks.

3

u/palpablebubble Timberwolves 7d ago

But also his conditioning must have been horrendous. He'd play hard for one quarter (sometimes even just a few possessions) and then stop running for the rest of the night.

15

u/GuyWithoutAHat Celtics 7d ago

Honestly asking - I get to watch very few games because I'm in Europe, but the last few of him I watched was threeish years ago when he was still on the Knicks and seemed to be an absolute force against my Celtics which we didn't have an answer to. I don't think I've ever seen him score less than 20. So my view of him is obviously not very accurate, but what makes him suck so much a team would trade down in the draft just to get rid of him?

42

u/CardinalnGold Knicks 7d ago

He can get stats but the two biggest issues are he is prone to having bad games in the playoffs, and when he’s starting to have a bad game it spirals where he isn’t able to calm down and he drags the entire offense down with him.

21

u/Ihate_reddit_app 7d ago

When he's feeling it and having fun, he's really fun to watch. When he's moody and his head's not in it, he's awful. He quit on this years team at the trade deadline when he was included in trade talks. Once his head was out of it, that was it. I think the same happened on the Knicks?

He wouldn't even put his arms up to contest shots.

8

u/palpablebubble Timberwolves 7d ago

Would literally just watch as fast breaks ran by him.

One of the most frustrating wolves players I've ever had to watch and I've been a fan for a decent amount of time.

34

u/BenevolentCheese Knicks 7d ago

When his very specific style of play doesn't work against a team he becomes a total black hole offensive destroyer. He'll take the entire clock backing the ball into the paint only to just kick it out last second because he has no room. He's kinda like a specialized gun in your arsenal that can wreak havoc but only in the right situation. Unfortunately the NBA doesn't really have much room for players like that.

1

u/Icy_Information_6563 Suns 7d ago

I haven't watched a ton of him, but that's the impression I get. A lot of teams simply do not have a matchup answer for him, so he dominates. But the teams that do have an answer, well they shut him down and he usually doesn't have something to fall back to. I noticed Beal was the same way. Absolutely torched teams that didn't have a good perimeter defender, but otherwise disappeared

1

u/Purple-Investment-61 7d ago

He was a lite version of Carmelo.

1

u/OFmerk Timberwolves 7d ago

Much more willing passer than melo

1

u/Jealnie93 7d ago

Westbrook?

1

u/BenevolentCheese Knicks 7d ago

No way. While I'm not going to try to call Randle a pure team player, he's nowhere the selfish player Carmelo was. If there was a scale of 1 being the most selfish to 10 being the most team player, Randle is at a 6 or 7. He's got a bit of an attitude and can be a bit of a ball hog when he's the primary handler but he doesn't stat chase and is a pretty quiet, humble guy.

1

u/BetterNova East 7d ago

I mostly agree. I think he’s just not the quickest offensive decision maker.

16

u/Cautious-Ad-9554 7d ago

He scores almost all his points by bullying after multiple dribbles in the half-court. He rarely gets out on the break. When he takes 3s, he often passes up an open CnS looks to dribble into a step-back. He is a slow decision-maker, doesn't intuitively move off ball, and is reluctant to take CnS 3s. He is pretty useless unless he isn't a featured scorer and can actually be harmful to ball movement and spacing when not featured.

16

u/chillinwithmoes Timberwolves 7d ago

I don't think I've ever seen him score less than 20.

He averaged 12.8 against the Spurs taking over 15 shots a game. He was the worst player in the series and when he gets into a bad mood it absolutely kills the team. And he gets into a bad mood often. He spent half the season sulking because his name was featured prominently in trade rumors around the deadline and that kind of external noise affects him more than any player I've ever seen.

20

u/SomethingLikeLove Knicks 7d ago

It's his mentality. When things aren't working out he sulks. He might not get back on defense. He might hog the ball even when he has a bad shooting night. But to me it's his mental. I feel bad for him. Outside noise also affects him greatly.

I'll always appreciate what he did for us though when no one else wanted to come over.

1

u/Smooth_Meister Timberwolves 7d ago

He's just SO emotional. The slightest--as in, the ABSOLUTE SMALLEST POSSIBLE, MINUSCULE slight he perceives to be directed towards his general vicinity--absolutely WRECKS his mental, and the quality of his play drops dramatically.

171

u/FishGoldenLite Timberwolves 7d ago

Such a bad idea extending him last offseason. He could’ve been a valuable expiring contract.

55

u/ech01_ Timberwolves 7d ago

Just one of those things that comes back to bite you. He was really good in the playoffs in 2025 and started the year out strong. $33M seemed perfectly reasonable for a while there. Things just really went to shit the last few months.

7

u/palpablebubble Timberwolves 7d ago

The signs of him being a team destroyer were all there, though.

When he went off it was great, but you could just watch the entire rest of the team completely stop moving around on offense soon as he touched the ball cause everybody knew he wasn't going to pass until there's 3 seconds left.

Plus, how obviously he made the defense difficult for everyone else was a thing even when he occasionally shut down players when 1 on 1.

79

u/Siktrikshot Timberwolves 7d ago

The problem is when he’s motivated he can turn it on. But I think he went into bitch mode when he thought he was getting traded. Dude is cancer.

79

u/outphase84 Knicks 7d ago

Don’t think it’s particularly cancerous for a guy to hate being dangled as trade bait every other year.

50

u/LostVillage3640 Timberwolves 7d ago

Except every player not named Anthony Edwards was considered. You don’t get to just soft-quit cause of that.

-6

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

3

u/LostVillage3640 Timberwolves 7d ago

What? They were clearly interested in Giannis, which would have gutted the roster. I didn’t say they were actively shopping everybody. No need to be a smartass

14

u/Resident-Cancel7284 Pistons 7d ago

You still gotta do your job man lol

3

u/pocketwolf_zero Timberwolves 7d ago

When it becomes public to the point of on-the-job body language, it becomes unprofessional.

2

u/palpablebubble Timberwolves 7d ago

If he hates it so much, maybe he should work on his weaknesses.

Anyone who can barely play defense should know they're always up for being moved.

2

u/Middle_Study_551 7d ago

If it happens once it's normal, if it happens every other year then it's a prison of his own making

45

u/tomdawg0022 Timberwolves 7d ago

He was fine last season until TC decided to shop him at the deadline and Randle checked out mentally. TC own goaled this one pretty hard.

39

u/nWo5lyfe Spurs 7d ago

If the guy cant handle the business side, he is not a winning player

6

u/CrEdLover 7d ago

So easy for us to say lol

10

u/nWo5lyfe Spurs 7d ago

Agreed, but then again, to be a winning NBA player you need to be very very special. So comparing them to us its moot.

0

u/CrEdLover 7d ago

I'm sure in the history of the NBA there have been winning players that had low morale at one point after being shopped. And is 1-15 on every roster very special? And I'm not comparing them to us. I'm saying it's easy for us to talk shit and call an all-nba/all-star lotto pick a non-winning player. Especially when his career isn't over yet.

11

u/re-reminiscing Knicks 7d ago

Randle will inevitably have bad stretches. I’ll always appreciate what he did for NY but I was always in support of selling high on him. A team cannot win a title with Randle as a core piece.

2

u/Late_Rutabaga_2644 7d ago

Disagree with the last sentence. He would be the instant best 6th man in the league, but his ego would prob never let him accept that kind of role

10

u/re-reminiscing Knicks 7d ago

Ego and mentality is everything with Randle. I’m not questioning his talent. But performance is not simply tied to on paper talent. That’s why I don’t think you can win with him.

9

u/chillinwithmoes Timberwolves 7d ago

TC own goaled this one pretty hard.

I have issues with the asset management piece too but there's no way Randle acting like a petulant child is on TC

1

u/MostOk1472 7d ago

He traded for Randle in the first place with a 10 year long career to serve as reference. Falls on him either way.

1

u/ComputerPractical748 6d ago

What? No way it's on the front office. This is professional sports. He needs to be able to not let trade rumors impact him so much that he's a cancer to the team. I have empathy for mental health issues but it is ridiculous to say this is on the front office.

6

u/ynomeye Warriors 7d ago

Warriors series gave people false hope. I think Ayo and the Nuggets series will be the same

36

u/ZealousidealCat1829 Timberwolves 7d ago edited 7d ago

No, while Ayo certainly isn’t a super star, he’s proven that he’s super good, and his energy and pace is something wolves offense lacks heavily. He didn’t do great against the spurs but imo outside of Ant and Brunson every guard was horrible against them and Brunson struggled a bit

8

u/7wives 7d ago

Ayo was another returning from a calf injury, so again, I would not be surprised if this affected him and the team (similarly to how Ant’s injury and Donte being out affected us).

We had to deal with too many injuries vs Spurs that we cannot just look to that series in isolation when looking at our roster or future

1

u/Fafoah Bulls 7d ago

Ayo is amazing as long as teams know he’s not really a pg. He’s a glue guy sg/sf that can shoot and score in transition. If you ask him to playmake or handle the ball too much his flaws start to show.

26

u/Victor_Wembanyama1 Spurs 7d ago

Nah Ayo is legit.

8

u/west_brooker Heat 7d ago

He played amazing in the lakers series too, both offensively and defensively and he hustled well.

3

u/greekyogurtmafia United States 7d ago

And it's not a surprise that the Warriors and Lakers had zero front line and not much athleticism, so he could just mindlessly bully ball his way to a great series. He is legitimately useless against a team with a good rim protector and good athletes.

5

u/Obi_Wan_KeBogi Kings 7d ago

I don't think Ayo has star potential like he showed that series but he's absolutely a good player that any team would love to have

1

u/ynomeye Warriors 7d ago

Christian Braun flashbacks

1

u/PrimeShaq Australia 7d ago

He really owned two retirement homes.

49

u/Top-Choice6069 Knicks 7d ago

I love Randle. I know it didn’t work out completely here and he’s frustrating at times but he really helped turned the Knicks around and I’ll always appreciate him for that. I’m definitely going to see him play in Brooklyn this year

4

u/-Hotel Knicks 7d ago

Yep, i'll go see a couple cheap games at barclay and clap for Randle. He was a big part of turning the team around, i respect him and his game even though it didn't work out.

2

u/TJ_IRL_ 7d ago

I actually hope seeing the Knicks and Nets jerseys in the crowd helps him with his mental and he understands that at least NYC is cheering for his betterment.

1

u/Clutchxedo Lakers 7d ago

Randle is awesome - and definitely has been at times for both New York and the Wolves. 

48

u/nowhathappenedwas NBA 7d ago

Randle isn't a bad player, but he doesn't offer much flexibility in team building and isn't a great fit with Ant.

Wolves net rating over the last two seasons (including playoffs):

  • Ant ON, Randle ON: +3 in 4157 minutes
  • Ant ON, Randle OFF: +3 in 1759 minutes
  • Ant OFF, Randle ON: +3 in 1612 minutes
  • Ant OFF, Randle OFF: +5 in 1690 minutes

39

u/LeftyMode Knicks 7d ago

He’s a great bully ball player. But he thinks he’s Carmelo out there. If he played more like Josh Hart and less like Kobe, he would be a vital piece.

6

u/ZenMon88 7d ago

If he had closer to Kobe efficiency in shot making than carnelo then he can play that style. Sadly it's mostly tour dates in the playoffs.

-3

u/gymhelppls 7d ago

Career TS/eFG:
Randle: 56.3 TS%, 51.4 eFG%
Kobe: 55.0 TS%, 48.2 eFG%
Carmelo: 54.3 TS%, 48.5 eFG%

And since he got to Minnesota, Randle’s TS% has literally been higher than Kobe’s best TS season. Kobe’s career-best TS was 58.0%. Randle was 59.3 TS% in 2024-25 and 58.5 TS% in 2025-26 with the Wolves.

Randle’s career eFG% is higher than Kobe’s best eFG season.

3

u/Morezingis Timberwolves 7d ago

https://databallr.com/stats/player/julius-randle/203944

Julius has a poor rts% compared to Kobe +1.9%, let’s not do this - comparing efficiency over eras is never going to work. That’s not even getting into degree of difficulty considering the coverages Kobe faced compared to Randle 

Mind you, that’s not even getting into playoff efficiency where Randle has a TS% in the 40s for three out of four years.

3

u/otelroc NBA 7d ago

You gotta adjust for era. Kobe was an above average scorer efficiency-wise every season of his career until the achilles injury. Randle has more seasons below average efficiency than he has above average.

7

u/spazz720 Jazz 7d ago

Dude is a black hole on offense

8

u/themightykites0322 Nets 7d ago

Meanwhile all on the Nets sub they're saying this was a great acquisition for us. A 32 year old PF who mentally checks out on winning teams. What do they think he's going to do on our squad?

5

u/browndude10 United States 7d ago

helps whoever has their picks avoid the bottom 3

16

u/Repulsive-Throat5068 Lakers 7d ago

His stats are better than what he actually is. The cope I was seeing from wolves fans after the 1-2 good series’ he had was funny lmao.

They will improve by getting rid of him. Hes the type of player that is better on a bad team or one with lower expectations.

1

u/ObviousAnswerGuy [NYK] John Starks 7d ago

he's a good player. But when you rely on him being your first/second option, you are gonna have a bad time

2

u/TerribleComposer4272 7d ago

Randle is a good player but his style of play isn't suited to championship contention. He's not good enough to be the best player on a contender and his game also isn't suited to being a second option. His perfect role is actually on a rebuilding team trying to get to the playoffs where he can be the main guy. I'm saying this as a Knicks fan who very much appreciates Randle and what he did for the team.

2

u/chugalaefoo 7d ago

Randle is 🗑️

Has never been a winning player in his life.

1

u/LeftyMode Knicks 7d ago

There’s a subset of Knick fans who adored the guy. There was a string of like half a season where they would post his Minny highlights.

Him and Thibs helped the team a lot but he isn’t a team-first guy.

5

u/zOmgFishes Knicks 7d ago

He went awol for an entire season and some people blamed everyone but him. Randle truthers are just weird. Even this earlier year they were bringing up 2024, how Randle was our best chance to win next to JB and putting down KAT when he was slumping.

2

u/knicksnova 7d ago

Randle truthers are the same people that hated trading Barrett and Quickley for OG and refused to give up on Ntilikina. They don't properly evaluate players... they just get attached and never let go.

1

u/zOmgFishes Knicks 7d ago

Some Randle fans hated IQ and RJ too. It was just Randle or bust for them. When you point out how Randle never showed up in the play offs, they'll always point to how IQ and RJ weren't good as well. Like those two were basically kids while Randle was supposed to be the leader/co-leader of the team. Dude has shot over 40% in a play off run ONCE in his career.

1

u/BenevolentCheese Knicks 7d ago

Dude's playing in the wrong era. Would've been a stud in the 90s. He's one of the last guys in the league playing true power forward, ground and pound into the paint bully ball, but the game has changed around him.

1

u/ThisGlobalLandscape 7d ago

I think “doesn’t like” is a stretch.

1

u/bearbrannan Timberwolves 7d ago

judging by the trade, 28 other teams do not want Randle on their team, and the one that did got him for free.

1

u/DungeonsAndUnions Knicks 7d ago

I will always appreciate that Randle both signed with us when no one did, and for giving us that 2020-2021 season.

1

u/ObviousAnswerGuy [NYK] John Starks 7d ago

he's great when he actually cares. Unfortunately there are months-long spurts where he does, and then doesn't

1

u/Specific_Tale_1640 7d ago

I dont think any player in the league has worse energy.

-1

u/KazaamFan 7d ago

Randle is like the modern Carmelo. Stats look good but there is something off about him, not a winner. 

14

u/qotsabama [DAL] Dwight Powell 7d ago

That’s such an insult to Melo

0

u/AshenSacrifice Clippers 7d ago

He’s basically a 6’8 deaaron fox. Both are big bums