The Friday night acquisition of Julius Randle shook the Minnesota Timberwolves to their core. A team that was prepared to (mostly) run back their Western Conference Finals roster with some around-the-edges tweaks will now look massively different come opening night.
Karl-Anthony Towns was shipped out in favor of Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick belonging to the Detroit Pistons. Minnesota's longtime cornerstone will now be suiting up for the New York Knicks, taking his massive $220 million salary with him.
The terms of the trade were officially agreed to on Wednesday, after a few days of holdup that made coaches and executives on both sides unable to speak about the deal at media days. Now that the trade is in the books, there have been plenty of questions from Timberwolves fans about where Julius fits on this team.
Of course, Randle has made an All-NBA team this decade, so the natural inclination is that he would simply replace KAT in the starting lineup. But some began floating different propositions that involved him coming off the bench. At Wolves training camp on Wednesday, Chris Finch put all those rumors to rest when he announced that Julius will be starting at power forward.
Chris Finch says the plan is to have Julius Randle start at the 4
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) October 2, 2024
Chris Finch says Julius Randle will be the starting power forward
According to Timberwolves reporter Dane Moore, Finch said that "the plan is to have Julius Randle start at the four." This confirms what most considered to be the obvious option of putting him right next to Rudy Gobert in the frontcourt.
Of course, this is not necessarily the most obvious fit between a starting power forward and center ever, but it is what Finch and the staff will be rolling with for the time being. There are certainly advantages and disadvantages of Randle and Gobert playing alongside each other, with one of the most obvious downsides being that Julius is not regarded as nearly the type of outside threat that KAT is.
But on the other hand, Randle is a more physical player that will theoretically hunt his matchups more often and become a consistently reliable threat on the interior in his own right. There will also almost certainly be some experimentation with playing Naz Reid in Randle's place at some point, swapping out Gobert for Reid, etc. But as for now, Timberwolves fans can know who to expect in the starting lineup against the Lakers on October 22.