Julius Randle confident Nets can exceed low expectations in NYC return

Julius Randle wasn’t kidding when he told rookie Mikel Brown Jr. that the Nets plan to “shock the world” this season.

“Exactly that,” Randle said Saturday when asked what he meant.

The optics — including an over/under of 24.5 wins on BetMGM, a 20-62 record last season, an influx of first-rounders from the last two years trying to mesh on the fly, and an organization trying to take its rebuild to the next stage — suggest otherwise.

But Randle, in his return to New York City after five seasons with the Knicks and two away in Minnesota with the Timberwolves, has a vision to make those an afterthought. He will, of course, be at the center of that, along with Michael Porter Jr., the type of player Randle said he loves playing with.

If Randle can replicate his numbers from the last time he was a primary scorer with the Knicks in 2023-24 (24.0 points per game), he could position himself to become just the second player — joining Michael Ray Richardson — to earn an All-Star Game nod with both the Nets and Knicks.

“Whatever your expectations are, whatever expectations that are put upon us, we’re gonna exceed them and we’re gonna do things at a very high level,” Randle said Saturday at the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center while hosting a back-to-school basketball clinic for 80 kids. “We’re gonna build, come in with the right habits every single day, and we’re gonna do exactly that.”

Randle, 31 years old and carrying a contract with a player option at the end of the year, said he hasn’t thought too much about the rare spot he’s in — with the chance to carve out a legacy with two NBA teams in one city. He doesn’t spend time thinking about possible trades and rumors, either.

When the Nets acquired him ahead of the draft in June, Randle’s exit in Minnesota gave the Timberwolves some needed cap space and his arrival gave Brooklyn another needed focal point of the offense. But as with anything in a rebuild, stints might not last long.

This also marked a return to the city where Randle thrived for half a decade with the Knicks. There he was Saturday, cycling around the basketball courts, going through drills with the kids at his camp. There he was, posing for pictures and walking around in his clinic T-shirt.

“It’s definitely a place that just feels like home,” Randle said, “and I’m happy to be back here.”

When the season starts, Randle and Porter will be tasked with sparking the Nets offense, and Randle — who has already spoken with Porter a lot — said they can “really complement each other.” Porter, who averaged 9.3 3-pointers per game last season and hit 36.3 percent of them, can move away from the ball and serve as a catch-and-shoot wing.

Randle, who averaged 21.1 points per game last year while playing alongside Anthony Edwards in Minnesota, has thrived when creating off the dribble and with his passing.

“I told him that like players like him, I love playing with because of how well he can space the floor,” Randle said of Porter. “He loves big shots, big moments, and, like, they always seem to know exactly like where to be. He does it at an extremely high level, so I’m excited.”

For now, Randle was focused on his camp Saturday, on the present, on his return to the New York City community, on the new place he just moved into Monday and the school year that began Tuesday for his kids.

“That’ll definitely wake you up a little bit,” Randle said.

But later this month, the roots of Randle’s Nets vision will start to take shape in training camp. Offseason chatter will fade. And then the real tests — the ones that’ll gauge the ultimate success of his homecoming and his ability to carve out a legacy with two teams in the same city — will come into focus.

“It was like, actually, kinda refreshing because it was like I lived here for five years but it felt like a fresh start,” Randle said. “And I was kinda like a newbie again.”