After years of being stuck in mediocrity, purgatory, or both, the Minnesota Timberwolves have righted the ship in a big way over the last two seasons.
The Wolves have made the Western Conference Finals in each of the last two seasons. It was even more impressive that they did so last year, after trading away franchise legend Karl-Anthony Towns away to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle.
The evolution of Anthony Edwards has been a big reason for Minnesota’s success, but the emergence of supporting players like Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, Donte DiVencenzo, and others has helped the Wolves go far in the postseason.
Minnesota is essentially already in the playoff field and if the season ended today, they would draw the injury-ravaged Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. Despite that potential beneficial matchup, there is one problem the Wolves need to address before it’s too late.
Minnesota needs to get Julius Randle going again with the playoffs approaching
Randle had a legitimate All-Star snub case during the first half of the season. He was having one of the most efficient seasons of his career, and he looked a lot more comfortable as Edwards’ second option.
Randle however, completely unraveled during the month of March. He had two good games at the end of the month to save his averages, but it was still an overall rough showing. He shot 27 percent from three-point range overall, had eight games with four or more turnovers, and had seven games scoring 15 points or less.
There were too many games in which Randle was just going through the motions or just forcing the issue, which led to a number of poor showings. Edwards missing a few games shrunk the floor a bit for the Wolves, but Randle should be looking to assert himself in those games.
Part of the reason Minnesota went to the conference finals last year was because of how good Randle was during that run. He averaged 22 points per game, six rebounds, and five assists on 50 percent shooting and 38 percent from three-point range. It was his best playoff showing by far.
The Wolves are going to need that version of Randle if they want to go far again, not the one that showed up in March. With the playoffs about two weeks away, Minnesota has time to figure it out, but they have to before game one of the first round.