After last season, Minnesota Timberwolves fans largely agreed the team needed to trade Julius Randle. No one thought the same about Jaden McDaniels. The team agreed, and Randle saw himself traded to the Brooklyn Nets this offseason.
McDaniels is firmly in his prime, and he will celebrate his 26th birthday early next week. Randle is nearly five years older and will turn 32 in late November.
Despite this, ESPN believes Randle will be the better player in 2026–27—albeit barely. In its annual NBA Rank, ESPN lists Randle as the 54th-best player for the upcoming season and McDaniels two spots behind him at No. 56.
Who came in at No. 55, sandwiched between McDaniels and Randle? Nickeil Alexander-Walker,the player Minnesota let walk last offseason before re-signing Randle and Naz Reid.
McDaniels can continue growing into a better player
When it comes to the averages listed on the backs of their basketball cards, Randle will have the advantage over McDaniels in most categories. He scores more, grabs more rebounds, and dishes out more assists.
Of course, a player’s numbers don’t always paint the whole picture, though. Nobody needs to think twice about who the better defender is. McDaniels is one of the best perimeter defenders. Randle can be somewhat lackadaisical on that end. In 62 of his 79 regular-season appearances, he didn’t record a block. McDaniels is substantially better than Randle on defense.
Yes, Randle scores more, but is he a more efficient scorer? No, he is not. McDaniels is coming off his career-best season in shooting accuracy, especially from three-point range, as he connected on 41.2 percent of his attempts from deep.
While one playoff series may be too small a sample size to determine who is better between two players, McDaniels undoubtedly made a larger impact than Randle in their six-game series victory over the Denver Nuggets. McDaniels has often risen to the occasion in the playoffs and become more of a scorer, while Randle had his moments in 2025 when he looked poised to end the narrative that he was a playoff choker.
Unfortunately, 2026 brought another year of postseason struggles.
This isn’t meant to bash Randle as a player. He’s still rather productive, and he’ll have some high-scoring games on a young Brooklyn team. After last season’s playoffs, though, Minnesota thought it would be best to move on from him after two seasons with the team. McDaniels was reported to be untouchable, and the Timberwolves wouldn’t even dangle him in trade talks for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Timberwolves made it clear that McDaniels is the more valuable player to a winning team, and that's what these rankings should be about.
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