After reaching the Western Conference Finals last season, the Timberwolves find themselves quickly at the precipice again. Much of this was by their own design; before the season began they disrupted everything they had built by trading Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.

If the Minnesota Timberwolves decide to trade Julius Randle, the Charlotte Hornets would be a great destination.

It sucks,” Randle said. “I guess we’ll never know what could’ve been. I think the more unfortunate part is everything was a build, a constant build — I feel like all our teams overachieved year

A proposed three-team trade could swap three different star forwards. The Wolves would acquire Brandon Ingram, New Orleans gets Miles Bridges, and Charlotte acquires Julius Randle . While this trade works due to contracts, all three teams would have to add another player or some future draft capital to sweeten up the deal.

Just a month into the offseason, though, that dominant core took a massive change. Two months later, that strong core had all but disappeared.

Julius Randle has taken a lot of heat from Minnesota Timberwolves fans and NBA onlookers this season. The criticism is understandable. After all, the only thing that had changed in a starting lineup of a Timberwolves team that reached the Western Conference finals a season ago — at least until recently — was Randle,