Minnesota Finalizes 3-year, US$100M extension to Randle

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Minnesota Timberwolves are set to sign star power forward Julius Randle to a 3-year, $100 million contract extension after an impressive 2024-2025 NBA season campaign.

According to multiple reports, the Minnesota front office and Randle’s camp mutually agreed to the amount and the terms set in the contract extension which means that the bruising big man will don the dark blue jersey until 2028.

In just his first year with the Timberwolves after getting shipped by the New York Knicks as a part of the Karl Anthony-Towns trade, Randle immediately made an impact after averaging 18.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in all 69 regular season games played.

He was even more efficient in the playoffs and raised his numbers to 21. 7 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists from the first round until the Western Conference Finals.

Randle and the Timberwolves were only a series win away from reaching the NBA Finals but the Oklahoma City Thunder stood their way and only needed five games to eliminate them from advancing.

After a shaky start in the regular season, Randle finally got his groove post All-Star break and was dominating inside the shaded lane for the Timberwolves.

Randle, who was acquired by Minnesota to provide more threat in the paint than Towns’ three-point prowess, proved his doubters wrong after dropping huge numbers in several crucial regular season wins that helped them avoid the NBA Play-In.

Minnesota won five of their last six regular season games that boosted them to the No. 6 spot in the Western Conference, and Randle was one of the key reasons why they were able to cruise past Utah, Brooklyn, Memphis, and the 76ers.

Randle showed his true potential with the team in the playoffs when he steered Minnesota to a first-round series win over the Lakers, averaging 22.6 points in five games.

He would amp up his offensive brilliance more in the semis against the Golden State Warriors after winning his matchup against Draymond Green with an offensive stat-line of 18, 24, 24, 31, and 29 points in all five games.

Even Green admitted that he failed to contain Randle, saying: “A part of the reason why we lost that series because I lost my matchup against Julius Randle”.

Although Minnesota would fold against the two-way menace of Oklahoma, the team seeded happy with their run, despite exiting the Western Conference Finals two seasons in a row.