NBA
RJ Barrett Sends Message To Julius Randle Following Knicks-Timberwolves Trade
RJ Barrett and Julius Randle were teammates for part of five seasons on the New York Knicks.
They were two of the team’s most talented players and were a significant reason for the Knicks becoming a consistent winner.
Barrett was traded to the Toronto Raptors during the middle of the 2024-25 season.
On Friday evening, Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic reported that Randle is being sent to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a blockbuster deal that lands the Knicks with Karl-Anthony Towns.
Following the news, Randle made a post to Instagram that had over 82,000 likes and 6,000 comments in four hours.
Randle captioned his post: “NEW YORK! THANK YOU 🙏🏿”
One person who left a comment was Barrett.
His message had over 500 likes in two hours.
He wrote: “My brother 🙏🏾”
Randle finished his tenure with the Knicks averaging 22.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per contest while shooting 45.0% from the field and 33.8% from the three-point range in 330 regular season games.
He also appeared in 15 NBA playoff games and made three All-Star Games.
As for Barrett, he was the third pick in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Knicks.
He finished this past year with averages of 20.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists per contest while shooting 49.5% from the field and 36.0% from the three-point range in 58 games for the Knicks and Raptors.
The Knicks will play their first game of the 2024-25 NBA season on October 22 when they visit the Boston Celtics.