This Is Why Minnesota Re-Signed Julius Randle…

This Is Why Minnesota Re-Signed Julius Randle…

You can almost directly connect the dots between the bad version of Julius Randall last season to the bad version of the Minnesota Timberwolves last season and then flip it and do the same for the good version of Julius Randall and the good version of the Wolves. We’re talking about a guy who looked like the main reason Minnesota was struggling around 500 during the first half of the season and a guy who was dominant in the back end of the season and those two straight playoff series wins. It was a crazy position for both Randall and the Wolves, but it wasn’t coincidence. His game took on some pretty dramatic changes and that directly impacted Minnesota’s run to the conference finals last season. and it’s likely to impact what they do next season now that they’re running it back with Randall signed on for three more years. You can see here how his numbers ticked up after he came back from injury after the all-star break, both in terms of efficiency and with his potential assists as a playmaker. Now, I want to get into the stylistic changes he made in his game, which I think is the most important shift that we did see, but it is important to point out the improved three-point shooting numbers here and how that impacted his effectiveness. We all know how important shooting is in today’s game and how hurtful missing open looks from deep can be for a team. So, I don’t think I can just skim past how much of a difference it made for the Wolves to have Randall making threes at the back end of the season compared to the way he was clanking these open looks throughout the first few months. Minnesota was already shooting deprived in their starting unit with Rudy Goar and Jaden McDaniels in there as well. And when Randall’s shooting started to disrupt the flow of their offense, it did become a real problem. Capitalizing off Edwards drawing these two defenders off the ball screen should be bread and butter for Randall’s shooting game, but that just wasn’t there to begin the season. That means teams became more willing to throw two on the ball at Ant when Randall was one pass away and Minnesota lost one of its easiest offensive actions that they had there with Carl Anthony Towns. And then defenses started to extend that to wherever Randall was on the court. If he was in the weak side corner, his man would happily overcommit as the lowman helper with no real fear of being punished by a Randall three. If he was in the strong side corner, his defender would sit heavy in these gaps on Edwards and risked Randall making him pay on that simple kickout pass. So when Randall did catch a rhythm with his three ball, it was obvious right away how much that helped Minnesota’s offense. Now, when Ant comes off that screen and the defense allows Randall to pop out here uncontested, that becomes simple twoman game that Minnesota relied on a ton down the stretch of the season. I speak about it a lot, but as long as teams are going to jam up Edwards with two on the ball like this, then they’re going to need players who can score directly from that. And Randall as a pitandop shooter needs to be one of those scoring avenues. The same thing applies for when he’s in that strong side corner and the helper is in these positions. If Randall is making those jumpers, then he becomes a much more dangerous weapon in Minnesota’s offense. Now, look, Randall’s jumper is always going to come and go. It’s been that way throughout his entire career. So, I think the more bankable shift in his game during the back half of the season was actually the speed he played his game at. Earlier in the season, Randall rarely played off the catch. And when he did, he did it in a way that brought the offense to a standstill. There was too much dribbling, too much east west movement, and too many possessions where he was turning drives into slow posttop opportunities. I think turning these possessions into straight line torpedo drives completely changed Minnesota’s season. Randall got to a point where as soon as he saw his defenders front foot on these closeouts, he started attacking downhill right away. There was no hesitation, no extra dribbles, no side to side movement. He became a demon off the catch and that instantly made him a better fit on this Minnesota roster. When Randall was playing with that sort of attacking mentality, that’s when he became a real matchup nightmare. If a big is closing out on him here, he’s too nimble and too quick tweaked for them to stop once he puts the ball on the deck. Again, if Bigs are having to defend in space and close out on him, he’s too quick off the mark for them to keep up with. I thought Randall looked leaner and faster coming back from injury, but mostly this felt like a mentality thing. Whether it was physical or just having a better synergy with his team or simply shifting that mindset completely to fit in better, Randall became a tough cover for big defenders to handle. And because he’s a big who is built like a big, smaller defenders struggle with his new attacking mind state as well. against those smaller defenders. He’s able to use his strength and that quickness to overpower them and get to the rim with relative ease as long as he’s playing in that fast downhill style that became such a massive part of his game in the second half of the season and into the playoffs. Even if Randall wasn’t getting all the way downhill to the rim, opening up better mid-range looks became so much easier when he was playing at this pace off the catch. If he’s attacking into this mid-range area off the bounce, it’s easier for him to get his man off balance when he pulls up, making those mid-range jumpers more efficient than when he was slowly kind of working his way into them with a defender draped all over him. It’s just more difficult for a defender to take this bump and stay squared up when Randall is going downhill with such force. And that led to better looks and greater efficiency. While you can see here that the number of drives per game stayed pretty even throughout the season, his efficiency skyrocketed in the second half of the regular season and then again in the playoffs where he became more of a scoring force than a playmaker. Still, his ability to make plays for his teammates was really on show when he came back from that injury. And again, that seemed to be aided by his willingness to play quicker off the dribble. Because he is such a load to deal with in these situations, teams are going to send extra bodies toward him on the drive, and that’s going to create open looks around him. and he’s a smart enough playmaker to find those pretty consistently. With Mike Connley aging out and Rob Dillingham still yet to prove his readiness, the Wolves really do need Randall to be a playmaker. And this is one way he can do that pretty reliably if he’s playing this way. And this faster, more movemen heavy style of game kind of permeated through everything Randall did in this stretch of games. He’s never going to be a huge offball mover, but I love the way he began to sprinkle more cuts into his offense. Something that we don’t see enough of in Minnesota’s offense as a whole. Like instead of going to spot up in the corner here, he curls to the front of the rim and seals off his man deep in the paint for two easy points. That’s a level of offball activity that we just didn’t see from him during the beginning of his Wolves tenure. Again, I think early season Randall would have stayed here, camped out above the ark instead of diving to the rim on this 45 cut and creating a passing outlet for his teammates and rim points for himself. These are small things in the grand scheme, but they point to a player who was more willing to conform to the things that a slow plotting offense needed rather than being one of those slow plotting players himself. Now, I think what the Wolves need even more from Randall next season, that kind of plays into what I’m talking about here with his ability to make decisions going downhill as a scorer and a playmaker is to be involved on both sides of a pitch and roll more often, both as a player handling the ball and as a role man. On a points per possession basis, Randall was Minnesota’s most efficient pitch and roll ball handler in both the regular season and the playoffs. The sample size here is pretty small, but with his blend of speed, power, and finishing ability going downhill, having him come off more ball screens would be a different wrinkle to add into Minnesota’s offense. And again, if they can find ways to have him take on a bigger chunk of their playmaking, that’s going to be a good thing for this team. I’d love to really find out if he’s able to draw this big defender coming off the screen and then find Rudy Gobear slipping in behind that defense on a more consistent basis because that would be a huge development for Minnesota’s offense. With no guaranteed reliable point guard next season, throwing a few more pitch and rolls Randle’s way and letting that twoman chemistry grow could be a fun way to mitigate that lack of point guard play. And because he’s even more capable at reading the defender coming over to help on Gobear’s role and then finding shooters on the perimeter, I do think there’s room for him to grow into that role as well. He totaled up just over a 100red pick and roll ball handler possessions last season, but I do think they could probably double or even triple that next season and still find pretty good efficiency from Randall while maybe even allowing Anthony Edwards to spend a little more time off ball. The same goes for using Randall as the screener in these situations. It’s a little more difficult to get that going when Go is on the floor. But since we’ve seen how much better Randall plays when he’s attacking downhill, working to generate possessions where he’s spinning off a pitch and rolling into seams like this should be a core principle within Minnesota’s offense. Again, it’s easier when Gobear isn’t on the floor and Randall can play in more of a spread situation, but I do think he showed some pretty good touch on the short role as a passer who can read the low man and find Goar for lobs or dump offs in the dunker spot or kick out to shooters as well. It seems like at least for now, Minnesota are committed to Julius Randall as a core piece to their puzzle and this is still a team who will have championship aspirations next season. If those dreams are going to come anywhere close to being true, it’s going to have to involve Randall playing as this downhill scoring and playmaking force who can also make shots from deep just like he did in the second half of the season. with the added bonus of continuity helping to fuel that from the beginning of next season rather than having this adjustment period at the start of the season. Minnesota really need that version of Julius Randall to be their reality going forward. If you enjoyed this breakdown, you can support House and Brows in the links below. If not, you can always like this video or subscribe to the channel to see more breakdowns like this one. Thanks again for watching.

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