This time last year, Julius Randle was preparing for his second full season with the Minnesota Timberwolves after re-signing with the organization on a three-year, $100 million deal. They were coming off a back-to-back run to the conference finals, hoping to build on that in 2025-26. You know how that went.
Now, here we are. For the first time since 2019-20, Randle's first season with the Knicks, the forward is preparing for a new year playing for a non-playoff team after the Timberwolves traded him to the Nets earlier in the offseason. Brooklyn hasn't been relevant since Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving signed with the team in 2019 (and look at how that turned out), and with the East getting even stronger this summer, it's really not looking good for the Nets.
In ESPN's latest piece projecting the conference standings, Brooklyn fell in at No. 15 with a 18-64 record, not just the worst in the East, but also in the West, where Sacramento is projected to finish last with a 19-63 record.
For reference, the Nets finished 20-62 this past season, 13th in the East, but that was with the No. 14 Pacers (without Tyrese Haliburton) and the No. 15 Wizards purposefully tanking. Both will be better off this season regardless, but 2026-27 will mark when the NBA's draft lottery reform takes effect.
Randle and Nets predicted to finish last in the NBA
After a solid first season in Minnesota, including putting the narrative to bed (at least temporarily) that he wasn't a playoff performer, things seemed like they were on the rise for Randle. In the 2026 postseason, though, he averaged 16 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game on 39.9% shooting from the field and 24.4% from deep. Against the Spurs, he averaged 12.8 points per game on 34.2% shooting from the field and 19% from three.
Tim Connelly saw everything he needed to and sent Randle back to New York, just not to the team he came from, in a salary dump that helped Minnesota land LaMelo Ball.
Randle will be a main attraction in Brooklyn as a former All-Star who will act as the team's engine, alongside Michael Porter Jr. He seems excited about getting to step in as a leader for a young squad. However, he's still in a completely different environment than the one he's been in for the past several years.
The Nets may not finish dead last in the East, but unless half of the teams in the conference decide not to play basketball anymore, they'll sit somewhere toward the very bottom. Going from competing for a title to the exact opposite will be quite a change for Randle, even more so because he's back in New York with the Knicks fresh off a championship, with even more attention on them.
Randle has experience pulling franchises out of the shadows, as he did with New York, but the challenge he's stepping into in Brooklyn is different and probably too big for him to change. He can do well there, maybe enough for a contending team to eventually trade for him, but for now, he has his work cut out for him with the Nets.
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