The Minnesota Timberwolves are a mess right now.
The sample size of data that teams have been able to collect over a quarter of the way through the NBA season is enough for them to begin making real assessments and changes. For the Minnesota Timberwolves, one thing is clear. They lost the trade to send Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.
The Timberwolves are 14-13 through 27 games played and they are mediocre just one season removed from a Western Conference appearance. They traded Towns in a cost-saving move, but was it really worth it?
Minnesota made the move hoping Randle would suffice in a similar role while saving the club money, but it hasn’t panned out that way. Instead, they are paying the price as a mediocre squad.
Fans will attack Randle, and they have been after a recent showing of poor defensive effort and offensive struggles. He’s also the name being thrown for blame as Anthony Edwards continues to bash the team’s lack of spacing, preventing him from getting to the rim efficiently.
On “Run It Back,” former NBA player Lou Williams made it clear that Randle is not a bad basketball player, though Timberwolves fans will make it seem that way amid recent struggles.
“We don’t have to blame Julius Randle and say he’s playing bad basketball,” Williams said. “…When this trade was first made, we thought it was a bad fit…that doesn’t mean Julius Randle is a bad basketball player.”
Evidently, Williams is right on the mark. There is too much discourse around Randle when, evidently, the blame should fall on management for the ill-advised move.
Recently, the Timberwolves took a 113-103 loss to the Golden State Warriors, who have been in poor form themselves. Still, scoring just 103 points isn’t going to cut it with their defensive inefficiencies. Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch acknowledges the defense isn’t quite the problem, though, but rather their inability to put points on the board.
“We gotta put the ball in the basket. That’s why we were down tonight. We weren’t down because of our defense,” Finch said. “We weren’t down because we had a bunch of breakdowns. We just couldn’t make a shot.”
For Finch, it’s clearly the offense. If you ask Edwards, scoring is harder with no spacing. Asking Randle to be a spot-up shooter won’t work. He can’t provide floor-spacing like Towns used to. That’s just not reality. The blame falls on the management for making the trade in the first place and ownership for being scared to spend money on a contending roster.
Again, Randle is not the issue. Edwards isn’t the issue. The defense really isn’t the issue. The management’s inability to maintain a good team is the issue. They broke up a good team to save money, and, in turn, got a bad fit that doesn’t make sense on the squad.
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