Julius Randle has returned to New York on the other side of the East River, and the 31-year-old forward sees a different assignment from the one he handled with the Knicks: help a young Nets group learn how to become professionals before it learns how to win consistently.
Randle arrived in Brooklyn from Minnesota in the four-team deal that sent LaMelo Ball from Charlotte to the Timberwolves. He comes in with 12 NBA seasons behind him, including the stretch in which he helped pull the Knicks out of a seven-year playoff absence and into the 2021 postseason. The Nets, meanwhile, are coming off a 20-62 season and have posted 50 or more losses in each of the past three years.
Brooklyn also has a roster built around youth after making an NBA-record five first-round selections in the 2025 draft. Randle said the talent was obvious almost immediately, but so was the age of the group during a summer golf outing in his hometown of Dallas.
“They’re kids, first and foremost,” Randle said Monday. “I found that out pretty quickly on the course. By the third hole, they were trying to take their shirts off. They just didn’t know the etiquette.”
Randle added that rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. snapped a driver during the round. Brown, the No. 6 pick in this year’s draft, disputed Randle’s version of the story, though second-year guard Egor Dëmin acknowledged that the group damaged more than one club.
The golf-course moments have not changed Randle’s view of what Brooklyn has assembled. In pickup runs, he has been particularly encouraged by Brown’s command in pick-and-roll situations. Randle said the Louisville product can recognize every available read in the action.
He also praised Dëmin, the 6-foot-8 guard, for his athletic tools and efficient shooting. Randle believes Dëmin’s experience playing in Spain at a young age helped prepare him for the NBA transition after his lone season at BYU.
Passing along the Kobe standard
Randle recognizes the role because he once had a veteran example at the very start of his own career. Drafted seventh overall by the Lakers in 2014, Randle entered the league at 19 and spent two seasons as Kobe Bryant’s teammate.
“When I was young in this league, I had the best example possible in Kobe,” Randle said. “Those lessons, and the example he gave me, have stayed with me through my career. Now, in Year 13, I’m still trying to improve and get better every day.”
Young players regularly ask Randle about Bryant, who died in 2020, and Brown and Dëmin are no exception. Randle said his time around the Hall of Famer shaped his daily habits as much as his basketball approach.
“Being around him and carrying those lessons into everyday life was a huge blessing,” Randle said. “It’s part of who I am now. When you have somebody that great teach you what he taught me, the most important thing you can do is give it to the next group.”
That transfer of habits may be Brooklyn’s first objective. Randle has been on a New York roster that climbed from the bottom of the standings to the playoffs. For the Nets, the immediate work is less about skipping steps and more about getting their young core ready to take them.
