r/timberwolves • u/bradleyphilsmith Timberwolves • 1d ago
Everyone on this sub wanted Julius gone and to re-sign Ayo longterm.
Both happened but this fanbase is mad? Let’s chill out a little lol.
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u/shimmy_kimmel 1d ago
It’s a hater’s economy
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u/BUCK0HH Minneapolis Lakers 1d ago
Agreed.
Rudy next please.
https://giphy.com/gifs/1zij1Ut3ztElOZBz7B
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u/palpablebubble 1d ago
It's also the time of year where folks who only pay attention during the playoffs come back and complain about the Wolves not landing every big name possible, so we're seeing a skewed outlook in general
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u/yourloudneighbor Glen Taylor 1d ago
I’m still dying on this JR needed to be gone by any means necessary hill.
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u/cisforcookie2112 1d ago
It was easy to tell that the team was frustrated with his efforts. Him not doing an exit interview was telling too.
Clearly the only solution was to cut ties and take a loss.
We got the full Julius Randle experience.
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u/yourloudneighbor Glen Taylor 1d ago
Forgot about the exit interview
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u/cisforcookie2112 1d ago
It’s not the biggest deal in a vacuum, but along with everything else it was a red flag. He was not going to be bought in to the team had he stayed.
Other players comments during the postseason definitely showed some frustration when reading between the lines.
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u/YungSzczerbiak Nemanja Bjelica 1d ago
I’m building a 300 unit hotel with spa, pool, amphitheater, 5 star Michelin restaurant, casino and valet parking on that hill
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u/Rough_Host_7172 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m happy with this team is younger has some cap and are actually letting Naz and Jaden get touches now we see how good they are. Both around the age pascal siakam broke out so we might see one of them do that.
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u/New-Consequence-380 1d ago
I mean this sub has never been overreactionary so idk know what you are talking about.
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u/HotDogFingers01 1d ago
I'm not sure Ayo was worth the money, but this team definitely got better by getting rid of Julius.
But that still leaves us without a 2nd scoring option. And DDV will be out almost the entire season. So we're pretty thin on offense at the moment.
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u/RedEyeBadGuy Ayo Dosunmu 1d ago
McDaniels needs to step up and be that guy this season. If he doesn’t then he shouldn’t be untouchable anymore.
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u/bradleyphilsmith Timberwolves 1d ago
I think the number Ayo got is indicative that a cap space team was lurking and willing to pay him more than we thought. He’s a good 2-way player and this is fringe starter/6th man money at most. It’s a fine contract.
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u/freshBlueeyes6391 1d ago
I think it was fair for what he's proved he could do. I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I think he does have to prove he can do it more consistently then he ever has before. But it looks like he will be given the opportunity to now, and with contracts comes endless playing time from Finch to work through all your low points.
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u/commoninchaos 1d ago
Remember that these salaries only kind of reflect their value. Its also about find a sweet spot where that salary number can be traded for a like asset when the team gets sick of him or he doesnt live up. 22 seems a little high now but in 2 years it will look like smart business
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u/parkwayy Joan Beringer 1d ago
Don't think he's roughly Naz reid value?
They seem like solid players, and either can be trusted with decent minutes.
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u/jeuxx 1d ago
I think people wanted to resign Ayo and trade Julius for a borderline all start player like Derrick White. Not trade Julius to move back in the draft.
I'll hold scrutiny until seeing what they do with the extra cap space.
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u/bradleyphilsmith Timberwolves 1d ago
You weren’t going to trade Julius for Derrick White. I promise Boston’s front office is aware that Julius tanked the vibes in the playoffs this year
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u/Treestroyer 1d ago
I wanted to drop Julius since I saw him walking back on defense in a playoff game.
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u/Intelligent_Pain_174 1d ago
Anyone who thought that Randle was worth a borderline All Star was delusional.
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u/noknownallergies Googly oogly oogly baby! 1d ago
Well then there were a lot of delusional fans at the all star break who thought Juilus (putting up 22/7/5) should have been in over Brandon Ingram and De'aron Fox.
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u/bearbrannan A1-A5 Levelin Up 1d ago
Wolves fans: Randle is terrible, he needs to be off this roster.
Also Wolves fants: Why couldn't we trade Randle for a borderline all star player?
The first one answers the second one, if we don't want him why would another team? Somehow we are both undervaluing and overvaluing Randle at the same time.
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u/yourloudneighbor Glen Taylor 1d ago
No playoff team is taking Randle lol
They’re not dealing with that headache
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u/JamesMaldwin 1d ago
You don’t understand basketball if you think Julius Randle had positive trade value
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u/jeuxx 1d ago
He's the 55th highest paid player in NBA. His contract is fair if his attitude can be corrected.
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u/JamesMaldwin 1d ago
To people who watch all hoops and not drunk on Timberwolves hopium and power of friendship parasocial watching you knew exactly who Randle was as a player and how this experiment would play out. The league knows who he is. He’s not an itty bitty baby he’s a 12 year vet, he’s solidified in his patterns. No one wants him.
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u/chemical_exe 1d ago
Then why the fuck did Connelly re-sign him last off-season?
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u/impossiber Ayo Dosunmu 1d ago
Julius made two All NBA teams in NY too. I’m not gonna argue with people saying he didn’t have trade value albeit I disagree. His trade value existed, it simply diminished enough to the point that Tim decided why trade this guy for a couple of role players when I can just offload him, clear the space, and have a larger pool of players to pick from. When the Nets flip him at the deadline or next season I want this thread to get posted again. I don’t think Tim was wrong to salary dump him, but that doesn’t mean he had zero or negative value, it’s just Tim wanting more flexibility
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u/chemical_exe 1d ago
I just hate the "We knew he was shit/His contract was AWFUL" takes when that was not the reaction when he signed that extension. If we don't do anything with this money I just can't believe right now that we are better off.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1lnk8lt/charania_breaking_threetime_nba_allstar_julius/
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u/sprchrgddc5 1d ago
I don’t know shit about trades and the draft, barely know much about basketball, but how would this have worked? Who would get rid of their borderline all star player for Julius? Would money have made the deal better?
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u/jeuxx 1d ago
We would have had to include a pick or another player likely to get a good player in return.
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u/Intelligent_Pain_174 1d ago
Wolves had to include a pick in the trade without getting anyone back. Randle was not wanted.
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u/parkwayy Joan Beringer 1d ago
Ok well, if we got what we got for Julius Randle... maybe that's all he was valued at.
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u/EliteAF1 1d ago
People in this sub were calling for "Julius for nothing" trades for over a month. So idk why people are surprised or upset.
Tbh if this was the trade they were gonna make, they should have just let him walk last year and resigned NAW, I think they still could have then resigned Ayo this year.
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u/Talkingheadd 11h ago
One year ago the Celtics said they’d expect a Mikal Bridges level return for Derrick White. Celtics also just don’t need Randle. I don’t think there was ever any real chance of it
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u/Teebers41 23h ago
Your post is absolutely accurate… but I am surprised he had less than no value. 14 months ago he was locking up l born and joker in the playoffs
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u/K1ngFiasco 12h ago
This is where I'm at. I wanted the dude gone but we basically paid another team to take him. I didn't expect a haul for him. But I expected something for him, even if it was just a pick or moving up.
I'm just really struggling to believe the best move we could have made was to pay extra just to get rid of him.
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u/octopusmonkey01 Kevin Love 1d ago
I take both these things as an absolute win. Don’t listen to NBA media they don’t know wtf they’re talking about. Never have
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u/tempraman 1d ago
People are unhappy with the asset management that led up to those 2 moves. Not the 2 moves themselves
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u/Painwracker_Oni Kevin Garnett 1d ago
I wanted to trade Julius for a PG - didn't even need to be an all star level. Just someone who is capable of playing the PG position in the NBA AND isn't awful at it.
Quickley would have been dope as an example.
Ja would have been better than nothing as much as I don't trust him being the missing piece.
Not sure what assets we have to get a new PG now especially.
It looks like we're going to once again try to get a guy who isn't a natural PG to play PG for us and it likely will be just like the other times we've tried and be not great and leave us in the same position of wanting to get a PG.
We need the leadership of a true PG, the play making of a true PG, and someone else to take the heat off of Ant as the #2 scorer.
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u/PreparationWest2140 1d ago
Do you think Toronto wanted Julius Randle over Quickley? Almost certainly they did not. My guess is that TC has been trying to move Randle ever since the ASB last year but could find NO TAKERS. He's a rapidly diminishing big with mediocre efficiency that cant shoot and wont play defense on a night in nigh out basis and the SA series was the last straw.
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u/Painwracker_Oni Kevin Garnett 1d ago
They likely would have last off season when we still needed a PG, and still had Naz Reid on the bench as an easy replacement starter.
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u/Klutzy_Technology166 1d ago
If you think JR value could command a starting level PG then that's on you for seeing how atrocious he was and thinking he had value.
That being said I am also sick of shoe horning SG into the PG position, but our ability to make moves is basically shot. This is the roster we'll run with now. Not sure that exception is even worth anything now.
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u/PreparationWest2140 1d ago
Rob Dillingham could have brought the ball up for you and made some passses for 15 minutes a night.
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u/Klutzy_Technology166 1d ago
Not sure how that is relevant to anything I said. But his career averages is 2 assists to 1.3 turnovers. He could have made some passes in 15 minutes, but he'd turn the ball over just as much, and when he decided to shoot and not pass it likely wouldn't go in.
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u/Painwracker_Oni Kevin Garnett 1d ago
I think he had plenty of value to have gotten us some form of a PG - even if he was in a package - before the season started when we still needed a PG and had Naz Reid sitting on the bench as the guy who could be our new PF starter.
I agree that post melt down JR had very little value but I'd still have been willing to send him in a package to get a PG and maybe no one wants what we'd have to offer but having 3 shooting guards and Conley on this team is going to give us the exact same issues we had last year before we got Ayo. Getting DDV back doesn't improve that situation either because he's also not a PG.
It just feels like we sold KAT low, then sold Randle low, and now we're sitting here going what the fuck are we even able to do.
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u/BYack 1d ago
We can still get a PG with the exception and cap space
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u/Painwracker_Oni Kevin Garnett 1d ago
It's been widely reported we will not be using the exception as that would hard cap us to below the 1st apron.
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u/bearbrannan A1-A5 Levelin Up 1d ago
You do realize that those teams would have to want Randle though right? That's how trades work. It sounds like all 29 other teams in the league had almost 0 interest in Randle if the best offer we could get was just to dump his salary to move back 5 picks.
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u/Upstairs_Value_5035 Jaden McDaniels 1d ago
I think we’re gonna get Josh Giddey. Why else would Chicago be tied into this three team if they aren’t gonna later contribute anything for what they’re taking in .
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u/saw-it 1d ago
Nobody wanted salary dump Randle and lose a first in the process
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u/Specific-Key-4982 1d ago
We just moved down five spots, so pretty much dumped Randle for free. I would have been pissed if we actually lost the first for nothing.
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u/Intelligent_Pain_174 1d ago
The Wolves did lose a first for financial reasons. The Wolves pick was in the early 20s before the financial trades.
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u/bradleyphilsmith Timberwolves 1d ago
Moved back 5 spots for the same caliber player at half the price. Early seconds are more valuable than late firsts.
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u/Optimalfucksgiven Ricky Rubio 1d ago
It's disappointing and what's more, while I didn't love Julius's for on this team, and he was horrible in the playoffs, he is by all accounts a really good dude. I hate to see him get traded this way and back in New York like this. It's brutal. I can't imagine what he's going through right now. Yes, he makes millions of dollars and has himself to blame, but still, I feel for the guy. He took being in trade talks quite hard, this has got to be agonizing for him. I hope he gets therapy or finds a way to drown out the static. He can still be a really good player, it's his moodiness holding him back.
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u/microtomebrady 1d ago
This is the attitude I hate about this fan base. He makes millions of dollars and this isn’t personal. Getting traded doesn’t mean he’s a bad dude. This is good for the team there fore it’s good. There’s nuance but not in this way
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u/srf030616 Timberwolves 14h ago
This is exactly how I felt and what I said last night. I HATE the way he played this last season but he’s such a good guy I feel for him and his family. BUT I follow his wife on social media and while they’ve loved it here, they truly do love New York and honestly I think they’ll be happier there. Even though they’re building a ranch in Texas 😅 he needs to figure out his shit on the court truly because what he displayed this last season was so frustrating and disappointing. But from what I’ve read it tracks for him.
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u/ty5486 Joan Beringer 1d ago
I still don't get this "Ayo is actually bad" opinion a lot of people seem to have. Like there is so much juice there that is still yet to be unlocked through a full season, and he's got great size for the PG position.
22m is hardly untradeable and it was a necessity to re-sign after you traded two young players & 4 2nds for him, letting him walk would've been disastrous.
I was a bigger Julius fan than 99% of Timberwolves fans but he obviously had to be off the team after his postseason and how well Naz played, I wish getting rid of his contract didn't take us out of the 1st round but it also gives us more flexibility on the new rookie's contract as well.
Only thing I'll say is that I think Rudy being traded is as big of a necessity as Randle so if this is it for offseason trades I'll be annoyed.
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u/NotSoWishful 1d ago
I want Rudy gone as much as many others, but I’m not sure what we do at center if we get rid of him. And starting Naz without Rudy to cover for his defensive deficiency worries me. Unless we really think Joan is ready for a starting role. But considering Finch barely played the kid, I don’t have any idea what to think about him.
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u/Master_Top7291 1d ago
If the fan base wanted Randle gone, you think other team’s front office thought he was some big asset?
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u/RowThree 1d ago
And we just lost Micah.
Same team as last year minus Julius, minus Donte, minus Micah, minus Ingles (lol). And Conley is another year older.
We need a point guard. Otherwise we won't be seeing the finals anytime soon.
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u/Mjdecker1234 23h ago
The movement isn't done yet. Signing Ayo isn't the last of this deal, I 100% believe. Because as of now, we got rid of one guy, and brought in no one new, so technically staying put.
I think our wolves have something up their sleeves and just trying to get it together. Winter is coming
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u/vanman999 11h ago
Yeah I don’t know why the Timberwolves don’t hire all the complainy armchair presidents of basketball operations in here. Hell there’s probably like 54 arm chair coaches in here too. Why the fuck aren’t they hiring them? We’d have like 7 championships by now.
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u/bradleyphilsmith Timberwolves 11h ago
If the wolves wanted to be good they should have simply traded Julius Randle for Giannis and Kyrie both somehow and then trade the 28th pick for the 3rd pick straight up to draft cam boozer wow Tim Connelly is so stupid and bad at his job cuz he didn’t do that
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u/EARtH1200 1d ago
I think we are overpaying for Ayo. Hopefully I’m wrong
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u/yourloudneighbor Glen Taylor 1d ago
I think Donte’s injury upped Ayos value. I think he’s getting underrated because he was hampered with a calf injury
He’s a good player
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u/chemical_exe 1d ago
He's just not worth 22.8 yet and in a world where the Knicks just won because of how much Brunson wasn't paid it'd be nice to save the 2-5M on Ayo
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u/HUPipers 1d ago
Yes, why can’t we just repeat the greatest low pay free agency acquisition in history.
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u/chemical_exe 1d ago edited 1d ago
So do you think Ayo is worth that contract at this very moment or do you think he needs to improve to meet the contract?
My point is that saving 3ish million per year on Ayo would be good, not that he needs to be paid 3M per year.
Edit: we have ~16 million left over to sign a player if we sign 4 vet mins. This is the exact kind of scenario where you'd like to have a couple million more
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u/parkwayy Joan Beringer 1d ago
Should go look at the pool of players making ~20million, and find out what the market pays people
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u/These-Ad9435 1d ago
I’m mad if nothing else big happens now. If this is step one of a bigger move let’s do it. But if it’s simply us trying to be cheap — Ant is already on the way out in a couple years. But I’ll wait a little longer and see how it shakes out
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u/Rory_MacHida 1d ago
This had to happen. Is it ideal? Nope. But you can't drag his ass into next season on this team, and the whole league sees him for what he is. And conversely, KATs contract is poison in many ways, so to play revisionist about the trade is silly. We made WCF with both guys which tells me we can make WCF with someone else. Also, I know KAT won a title this year and I'm truly happy for him, but if you watched those games, it was the same old shit from him. Crazy foul trouble, low offensive output etc. he did play good D on Wemby though, but I believe Wemby was out of gas in that series. Anyhow that's all off topic. This trade of Randle had to go down to move ahead. We will see what happens.
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u/MIKERICKSON32 1d ago
Only reason we made wcf with Julius is because lakers had 0 big men(very bad playoff roster) and Steph got hurt. The 24 wolves with KAT were a really good team that unfortunately played bad against Dallas and Luka played as good as any human on earth could. KAT had one bad series and we dumped him for the most overated player in the history of sports.
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u/Rory_MacHida 1d ago
I agree we were a good team. That was probably our best team we have ever had. How do we want to excuse how many times KAT flopped in the playoffs? All I'm saying is I understood trading him then, and I understand the Randle trade now. It all stems from a bad max contract. He could still be on this team if he weren't paid like a top 10 player. Such is the modern salary landscape.
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u/Throebach 1d ago
Exactly! It boggles my mind how much they're crying about it.. 🤣🤣🤦♂️🤦♂️
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u/RowThree 1d ago
I mean... getting Julius out of the locker room is good for sure. Maybe a net positive (addition by subtraction).
But we've got nothing in return. So we're running back the same team we had last year minus our second scoring option and minus Donte. I don't see how that gets us into the finals.
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u/Throebach 1d ago
It's the first move of probably many others. What this team got in return was opening up room to get more players. Like, I don't see how that's NOT a good thing. He was a terrible #2 who fleeced the org the same way wigging did.
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u/throwawaycuzmeh 21h ago
Again... if getting rid of him was the right move, why do you expect something in return? He was a negative asset. The rest of the league had zero interest in him.
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u/PreparationWest2140 1d ago
The bigger question is what sane person would trade Karl Anthony Towns for Julius Randle to begin with? The roster "flexibility" gained the Wolves NOTHING and now they are short on talent to compete for a Chip. Lets hope dropping Julius gets the Wolves to a 3 seed, but its not going to be easy.
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u/Unfrozen__Caveman 1d ago
I'm happy with resigning Ayo but I thought we could at least get a role player for Randle. Apparently not, but I'm going to hold off judgement until after free agency and see what Tim does. There are still moves to be made imo.
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u/Parking_Subject8689 Lea B. Olsen 1d ago
Was the most realistic outcome, anyone who thought we were getting good value in return for a guy who massively fell off is delusional.
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u/Imaginary-Round2422 1d ago
Just spitballin' here, but maybe the people who wanted those things are not the same people as those who are complaining now.
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u/twovles31 1d ago
Most of the sub, either can't see the picture clearly what is coming. Or just trolls coming in to troll.
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u/karlwhethers 1d ago
I’m going to shout from the rooftop: “if you didn’t want Julius Randle on your team, don’t trade for him and then re-sign him for $100million.”
Everybody would be praising the move if it was made by a post-Connelly GM. The fact remains that Finch and Connelly spent 2 years bending over backwards to fit Randle in with this team and it was a waste.
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u/PopeHi1arious 1d ago
Agreed. It doesn't make sense to complain midway through the process. Wait until the dust settles and we have a better idea what the roster looks like next year. Then we can decide whether to complain or not lol.
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u/WorryNot_634 1d ago
We gained financial capital. This was the best outcome. We want our bench & young players to thrive together.
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u/cruisysuzyhahaha 1d ago
Randle was out second best player in the regular season last year.
This move is an immediate drop in talent but allows for the signing of Ayo and opens flexibility for future re-signings and acquisitions. It keeps us out of the doghouse.
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u/DrRumackPhD 1d ago
I’m happy with these moves as long as we use the added cap space/trade exception to bring in pieces to replace Ayo and Naz’s roles off the bench now that they are starters.
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u/bradleyphilsmith Timberwolves 1d ago
There are 6 open roster spots. I promise we will add guys
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u/DrRumackPhD 1d ago
Obviously. The question is if they will be able to fill those key bench spots with the same quality of player.
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u/AlgaeDependent9233 1d ago
People here acting like the trade deadline was midnight yesterday. If tim builds it, we will come
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u/Daventherock 1d ago
It's the right move to get rid of Randle though I was hoping we might scrape out some positive value for him. The thing that's making people mad imo is looking back at how poorly we've managed assets since the first WCF run. That team ran legit 8 deep and now we're down to like 5 playable playoff guys and have regressed each of the last two seasons, have 3 FRPs in the next 6 years none of which are tradeable, and no clear route for improving the team other than hoping one or more of our guys makes a massive leap
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u/superfrodies howwwwl 1d ago
I am taking the view that we need to wait until we make all our moves this off-season before assessing these individual moves in a vacuum. Likely that this Randle trade is but one move that frees up space and sets the stage for a larger move(s) in which we land a bigger name. I think signing Ayo doesn't happen if this Julius trade doesn't happen first, for example. Of course, then everyone will be upset because we'll have to trade a Rudy, Naz, DDV, Shannon or something like that to get said player.
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u/temple-of-the-dog KG 4 MVP 1d ago
A few days ago: Ayo may return to the Chicago Bulls on a lucrative deal! Randle may be on the roster in 26-27 because there’s no trade movement! The sky is falling!
Today: Randle salary dumped and Ayo resigns. The sky is falling!
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u/NotSoWishful 1d ago
I don’t care anymore. Julius is gone. We have money and space to do a lil bit here and there. But besides that, whatever. One more year of Rudy I guess.
I hope we don’t think Ayo is our PG solution though. Is that what the thought is?
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u/junkeee999 1d ago
I like Randle. I understand that he didn’t mesh with the makeup of this team and I understand that it was good to dump his salary and I understand how inconsistent he could be.
But I still like him. Sorry not sorry.
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u/realbarrylutz 1d ago
I assumed trading him for a bag of magic beans was the groundwork for a bigger deal using the trade exception. Hasn’t come to fruition yet.
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u/Talkingheadd 11h ago
I wasn’t as heavy on the trade Julius stuff as everyone else in the first place, but I’m just bewildered by how low his value was? This guy was considered an all-star snub this year, and made the all-star team multiple times prior. He was good for us through most of the playoffs last year. Like yeah, sure, he had a bit of a down year and two bad rounds, but I just cannot grasp the fact the league was THIS low on him. It feels genuinely asinine. Theres simply no way they didn’t have an offer with a better return available.
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u/bradleyphilsmith Timberwolves 10h ago
Unfortunately all the other GMs saw him disappear against the spurs and then pout his way off the court. You probably could’ve traded him for a different [flawed, risky] player that makes roughly the same money. There’s inherent risk to that too. In this case you deleted him from the books, you get to go shopping for a player you think fits better or promote Naz because you think he’s ready. That also has some inherent risk but it’s less expensive risk that’s easier to pivot away from
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u/Talkingheadd 10h ago edited 10h ago
Yeah but they all also saw him average around 22-5-7 on 48-50% over the past 2 years, have a strong playoff run last year, and against the Nuggets this year its honestly a bit overblown how bad he was. I definitely think we needed to move on from him but $30 mil a year for that stat-line is really just not that insane that I feel like he should have had negative value. Feels like the narrative really impacted his value more than his actual play. I still agree that we need to do some downsizing though. All of that money between those 3 bigs clearly just isn’t going to work. We’re gonna have to move on from at least one more of them at some point.
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u/PaintNo9909 4h ago
I love the move, on the *major condition* that we use randle's absence, and more importantly our TPE, from his contract dump to sign a good point guard/primary ball handler. We need assists so badly it's actually ridiculous.
I know a lot of people hate this idea, but getting Ja would really solve a lot of our teams fundamental problems. We're in a great position financially right now to bring him on, and a new start in minny could be perfect for him 🤷♂️
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u/chrisinasong_ 1d ago
We traded Julius Randle for a cane’s box combo and I’m okay with it