Two and a half years removed from his New York Knicks tenure, Julius Randle is back in the Big Apple, this time as the leader of a young Brooklyn Nets squad. Like his time with the Knicks, Randle's stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves ended sourly. The Western Conference title hopeful salary-dumped him to the Nets this offseason, opening space to acquire LaMelo Ball.

Despite the transition from contender to playoff longshot, Randle is “at peace” as he returns to New York.

“Being back here now, I have a greater appreciation for it. I'm extremely happy basketball-wise. This is a great place to be, a great team to build a culture here,” he said. “The basketball will take care of itself. And then just living-wise, I have a greater appreciation for living here. My oldest son is back at his old school. All his buddies he was really close with when we lived here the last two years FaceTimed every day and played video games together, and they would fly out to Minnesota to see him. He would come out here, and they would go on trips together and stuff like that. So for my family, everybody's really, really happy and really excited to be back.

My wife has her community of friends. I have my community of friends outside of basketball here. So I feel really balanced in life, which is great. And when things are easier off the court, when they're great at home and you're happy and all of those things, it makes the basketball part, the work part that much easier. I don't even consider it work, but it's the basketball part that's that much easier. So I feel really balanced, really happy, at peace here.”

Randle spent the last five seasons on playoff teams. While he's unlikely to extend that streak this year with Brooklyn, he's filling a critical role for the rebuilding squad.

Julius Randle embracing new challenge as leader of rebuilding Nets

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle (30) looks to drive against Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton (33) during the first half at Barclays Center.
John Jones-Imagn Images

Following two tanking seasons, the Nets hope to take a step back towards relevance this season. With the NBA's youngest roster, they targeted Randle not only to lead the team on the court, but also in the locker room.

“From people in the league that have worked with [Julius], everything that I've heard was not just good, but great,” said head coach Jordi Fernandez. “As a person, a family man, a worker, an ultimate pro, being about the right things. He's been in eight playoff rounds and is a four-time All-Star. So if you put all those things together, he's going to impact what we're trying to do here with his personality, everything. And he's coming here to get better, to lead by example. So I was very happy before, when we were trying to get him, and now that we got him and I've gotten to know him, I could not be happier.”

While Randle's leadership will be paramount, the Nets feel he has plenty left in the tank on the court. The 32-year-old averaged 21.1 points on 48.1 percent shooting with 6.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game across 79 regular-season appearances in 2025-26. He was one of six players to average over 21.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists while shooting over 47.0 percent from the field, alongside Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Jaylen Brown and Jalen Johnson.

Fernandez has shown a knack for maximizing veterans' skill sets during his two seasons as Nets head coach. Dennis Schroder, Cam Johnson and Michael Porter Jr. all enjoyed career-best stretches with Brooklyn during that span. Randle's early conversations with Fernandez have left him excited.

“As soon as I knew I was coming here, I asked for the film immediately… Seeing the stuff that [Jordi] does on the court really, really excited me,” he said. “I felt like this is somewhere I could fit in really well and bring out parts of my game that I haven't yet, or haven't been able to. Me being able to get the ball off the backboard and push and get into dribble handoffs and short roll actions and pocket playmake. Whether it's scoring or creating for guys, it's going to be a lot of fun. Just the diversity of actions that we can use on offense and how he can move me around the floor.”

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Porter had a career-best statistical season last in 2025-26, nearly making his first All-Star team. However, the Nets' lack of a proven on-ball engine limited them offensively, often down the stretch of tight games. Fernandez is bullish on what Randle can bring as a scorer and playmaker.

“[Julius has] proven that he's a very efficient player at very different levels. [He's had] seasons with the Knicks when he shot eight-plus threes, seasons where he's isolated more, being in pick-and-roll, his ability to playmake. I think that this year it could be his best playmaking year. And you put all those things together, for me as a coach, being able to use somebody in many different ways, it makes my life easier.”

The outside world isn't expecting much from Randle and co. this season. Brooklyn has the NBA's second-lowest over/under win total (24.5), ahead of only the Sacramento Kings (20.5). Randle told rookie Mikel Brown Jr. following the draft that the Nets are going to “shock the world.”

He likes what he's seen during the team's first training camp practices.

“I'm in my 13th year in the league, and this is the training camp that ranks up there. I'm not going to get ahead of myself, but the first two days, just the structure, how we do things, the attention to detail, the communication within drills. And when we get to the live action, how we're competing, how we're talking, guys diving on the floor, offensive rebounding, all those different things, little things that help us win games… It's been great. So I'm impressed. I'm never going to put a cap or a limit on our team. We can achieve whatever we believe we can achieve. That's just how I live my life, and that's what I expect from our team.”

The Nets open the preseason on Tuesday against the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center.