Julius Randle has moved on from the Minnesota Timberwolves after being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in a move that seemed to be a longtime coming and was made primarily to shed Randle's salary in preparation for LaMelo Ball joining the team in a separate trade.

Randle's tenure in Minnesota wasn't the most prosperous of stints, but it only seems that way because of the responsibility that was so suddenly thrust on Randle when he first joined the Timberwolves. 

He came over to the Timberwolves alongside guard Donte DiVincenzo in a trade with the New York Knicks that sent franchises standout Karl-Anthony Towns to New York, where he's since played a pivotal role in winning a championship. 

Randle was all of a sudden looked at as the premier big man on a new team and adjusting to playing alongside Anthony Edwards. But beyond his typical responsibilities, Randle was also expected to be a major offensive engine with Edwards still developing and looked at to be the team's primary playmaker.

Prior to adding Ball, the Timberwolves as a whole haven't had an effective true point guard for years now, so head coach Chris Finch turned to Randle, banking on the big man's experience, to step up for that role, as uncommon as it was for him. 

That pressure became counterintuitive to the role that Randle was best suited to play, and if Finch could go back in time to do things differently, he would try and adjust around Randle rather than try to make him something that he wasn't. 

"I just didn’t realize the limiting factor of some of the other things that happened," Finch said in in an interview with Britt Robson of MinnPost. "Whether it be the [physical] toll it took on Anthony at times, the [mental] toll it took on Mike [Conley] at times, the pressure it put on Julius [Randle] to have to do even more."

Finch continued, "I think we took Julius’ last 35 games from two seasons ago for granted and we didn’t create enough easy stuff for him because we relied on him to try and create for everybody. That’s not fair and that’s all on me."

Randle does have the natural skillset that makes him suited to being a playmaker, a talent crucial for the upper echelon of big men in today's NBA, but those skills make him an asset in addition to a point guard, not as the replacement for one. 

Forcing a fit onto any player is inherently a difficult experiment, especially for a player that's a relative newcomer to the organization. It made for a rough transition for Randle and because of the responsibility that was put on him within both the locker room and the public eye, Randle drew particular ire for his run of meager playoff performances. 

He may be able to find a better and more natural fit for himself on the Nets, though it may be hard to expect a lot of postseason success from Brooklyn as a whole, but a resurgence from Randle in a new environment could be good for his own personal reputation and lead to more reflection as to what exactly went wrong with him time in Minnesota.