Often cast aside and outright overlooked, Julius Randle has put together a career that deserves to be remembered. The Minnesota Timberwolves star was a top-five recruit coming out of high school, an All-American in college, and is already a decorated player in the NBA.
After years of being labeled as a regular-season player, however, Randle has transcended the reputation he used to have and created a legacy.
It's a shocking development for a player who was viewed as an afterthought when the Timberwolves and New York Knicks completed a trade centered around Karl-Anthony Towns. The prevailing thought was that Randle's inclusion was meant to help coordinate the financial element of the trade.
As the narrative went, Randle would play out the first half of the 2024-25 season in Minnesota before the franchise would look to either trade him or hope that he'd opt out of his contract the following summer.
The early stages of his tenure were certainly polarizing, as the Timberwolves struggled to establish him as an ideal fit. Entering March, they were 32-29, struggling to consistently string together wins, and balancing any positive streaks with a series of losses.
Once Randle returned from a month-long absence, however, the Timberwolves' fortune changed—and a contender was born.
Julius Randle saved the Timberwolves from a crumbling season
Minnesota won 22 of its final 26 games that Randle played during the 2024-25 regular season—going 5-8 during the 13 that he missed. At a time when the team wasn't certain how to balance its offense, it turned to Randle to step up as the primary facilitator.
When franchise player Anthony Edwards decided that it was time to run the show, Randle graciously embraced a more supportive role, emphasizing defense above all else.
In the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Randle forced LeBron James to shoot just 10-of-25 from the field and 3-of-13 from beyond the arc. A round later, Jimmy Butler went a mere 1-of-12 from the field when Randle was the primary defender.
Matched up against two of the most prolific postseason players of the past 15 years, Randle not only played lockdown defense, but silenced them in big moments.
As if that weren't enough, Randle went up against former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green and shot 10-of-19 from the field against him. He closed out the series by scoring 20-plus points in four straight games, including two during which he tallied at least 11 assists, and one that saw him score 31.
To hammer his legacy home, Randle scored a team-high 29 points to close out the series and send Minnesota to the Western Conference Finals.
Julius Randle now has a résumé worth historical praise
Jalen Brunson may be the King of New York, but it's important to remember that it was Randle who saved the Knicks before him. The former Kentucky Wildcats star arrived in 2019 and put the team on his back to help end the franchise's eight-year postseason drought in 2021.
Randle left New York with a résumé that included two All-NBA nods, three All-Star Game appearances, and the 2020-21 Most Improved Player award.
In his first year in Minnesota, Randle has added the feat of playing a co-starring role on a team that reached the Western Conference Finals. He went toe-to-toe with titans of the era, including Butler, Green, and James, and played at a superstar level on both ends of the floor.
Previously thought to be a poor fit, it turns out that Randle was the exact player that Minnesota needed to return to the Conference Finals and make the leap to an entirely new level of play.
Typically, history looks fondly at players who have multiple All-NBA and All-Star seasons. Saving one franchise from an eight-year postseason drought and playing like a superstar during another's third-ever Conference Finals appearance should take the acclaim to another level.
Cast aside as a non-star and disregarded as a player of mere financial value in the Towns trade, Randle has created a legacy when critics expected him to be nearing the end of the line.