Julius Randle trade ideas with 5 teams in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes

The Julius Randle situation is super confusing. For starters, Chris Finch apparently loves him and the odds of Randle being traded seem pretty low. Making matters more complicated is the Timberwolves' status as a second-apron team, which restricts them from combining players in a trade and taking more money back than they send out.

If Minnesota trades Randle, they cannot take back more salary than Randle's 2024-25 cap hit of $33,073,920. That's why the trade idea thrown out on The Kevin O'Connor Show this week simply won't work. Their idea featured Minnesota sending Randle and Detroit's 2025 first-round pick to the Raptors for Bruce Brown and Chris Boucher.

On paper, it's a cool idea. Brown has a connection to Timberwolves boss Tim Connelly and Boucher would be an ideal backup power forward/center to come off the bench behind Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid. But it doesn't work. You see, Brown and Boucher's salaries total $736,000 more than Randle makes, which means the deal is dead. ESPN's trade machine will deem the idea a success, but it's wrong (Fanspo's trade machine is superior).

If the Timberwolves are looking to trade Randle — and it doesn't sound like they are — then they should be targeting teams that might be "tanking" for a shot at the No. 1 pick to draft Duke phenom Cooper Flagg. Right now, there are five teams with 10 or fewer wins in an apparent race for the best odds to land the No. 1 pick.

Let's see if we can come up with a Randle trade with each of those teams.

Washington Wizards: Jonas Valanciunas, Malcolm Brogdon

How about Randle to the Wizards for center Jonas Valanciunas and guard Malcolm Brogdon? The money works and Brogdon would be a solid point guard in the rotation (especially if Donte DiVincenzo's toe sprain doesn't heal quickly) and Valanciunas's per-36 minutes stats are absurdly good at 21.4 points and 14.3 rebounds. Brogdon will be a free agent after the season while Valanciunas is due to make $10 million the next two seasons. Washington frees up plenty of money while getting worse, which means they'd be solidifying their odds of getting the top pick.

New Orleans Pelicans: Dejounte Murray

Randle and the 2025 Pistons first-round pick for point guard Dejounte Murray? It's a fun idea, but The Athletic reported in December that a deal like that probably wouldn't entice the Pelicans. Murray is a stud and he's due to make $31.5 million next season, $33.6 million in 2026-27 and has a $31.6 million player option in 2027-28. He'd be a great future point guard for the Wolves, but this seems like a pipe dream.

Charlotte Hornets: Nobody lol

Honestly, this is impossible. There is nothing on Charlotte's roster that makes sense. Only two players are making enough money to make a deal with Randle remotely possible; LaMelo Ball makes too much and Miles Bridges probably isn't worth the $57.8 million remaining on his contract after this season.

Toronto Raptors: 2 intriguing ideas

Bruce Brown and Davion Mitchell for Randle works. If the Raptors would do this without asking Minnesota to toss in the 2025 Detroit first-round pick, it might be worth it. Brown is a Connelly guy and he won a title with the Nuggets in 2022-23. Notably, he hasn't been healthy the last year and a half and he's played in just eight games this season after returning from offseason knee surgery. Mitchell probably wouldn't see the floor in Minnesota. Both players have expiring contracts.

If the Raptors are interested in a trade to free up even more cap space for the summer, they could trade for Randle under the assumption that he'll decline his player option and send Minnesota Chris Boucher and center Jakob Poeltl. Boucher's contract is expiring but Poeltl still has $19.5 million on his contract next season, followed by a $19.5 million player option in 2026-27. If they trade him and Boucher, and Randle doesn't re-sign, they'd free up about $61 million.

Minnesota would then have Poeltl behind Gobert and Boucher behind Reid, while still having enough money to re-sign Reid and perhaps Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Utah Jazz: Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson

If the Wolves want some scoring punch, they could trade Randle and the '25 Pistons first-rounder for Jazz guards Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson. The money works. While the Jazz would surely get worse and have a better shot at drafting Flagg, the Wolves would have a really good point guard in Sexton while adding scoring firepower with Clarkson. This The thing to note here is that Sexton and Clarkson are signed through next season at $19.1 million and $14.2 million, respectively. This one would also clog up a backcourt that already includes Anthony Edwards, DiVincenzo, Alexander-Walker, and Mike Conley, not to mention rookie Rob Dillingham.