The Minnesota Timberwolves are surging up the Western Conference standings after the All-Star break for a second consecutive 12 months.
Last season, the Wolves have been reeling at 32-29, in tenth place within the West, heading into March, with the potential of lacking the playoffs altogether. Minnesota completed 17-4 down the stretch, snuck into the sixth seed to keep away from the play-in event, and arrange playoff collection victories over the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors.
The late-season swell coincided with Julius Randle’s return from a groin injury that compelled him to overlook the complete month of February. Randle performed good, environment friendly basketball within the run-up to the playoffs. He averaged 18.2 factors, 6.8 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per recreation on 52.3/39.8/79.1 taking pictures splits within the final 21 video games of the season.
He rode that momentum into the primary robust playoff exhibiting of his profession and began off his twelfth season taking part in a few of the best basketball of his life. Before the All-Star Game, Randle was averaging 22.3 factors per recreation, seven rebounds, and 5.4 assists whereas Minnesota sat in sixth place within the congested West at 34-22. Since the break, the Wolves are 5–1 and proportion factors behind the Houston Rockets for third place within the West standings with a little bit over a month left within the common season.
But that run has come regardless of a tough patch from Randle.
Since his 41-point outburst in a win towards Portland earlier than the break, Randle is averaging 14.2 factors, 6.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and three.2 turnovers over his final six video games. He’s taking pictures a depressing 38 p.c from the sector and 3-19 (15.8 p.c) from three over that span. He might have flipped a switch within the second half towards the Memphis Grizzlies as he bullied his solution to 23 factors and 11 rebounds. However, the three-time All-Star nonetheless dedicated 5 pricey turnovers and missed all 4 of his three-point makes an attempt.
A usually assured participant and good playmaker for a 6’9”, 250-pound energy ahead, Julius Randle seems to be misplaced on either side of the court docket. He’s nonetheless taking part in his regular model of bully ball on offense. But he’s making the mistaken determination seemingly each time down the court docket. If he’s not spinning right into a double workforce, dribbling into the center of the protection, or throwing the ball away due to a miscommunication with a teammate, he’s clanking all the things from behind the three-point line and even lacking his patented turnaround free-throw jumper.
You may write it off as only a regular six-game hunch that each star participant goes by way of if it have been simply lacking a couple of pictures right here and there and throwing the ball into the third row a couple of instances per recreation. But Randle’s lack of effort on the defensive finish ought to be a serious concern for each Wolves fan hoping they enhance on two consecutive journeys to the Western Conference Finals. It’s been a difficulty all season and on and off all through his profession, however his effort because the All-Star break is nonexistent.
In 2026, Randle’s protection resembles me making an attempt to place a harness on my canine to exit for a stroll. He not often will get down in a correct stance, and when he does, there’s little lateral motion or effort to maintain ballhandlers from a straightforward bucket. Opposing groups’ eyes widen once they see Julius Randle because the low man assist as a result of they know that assist ain’t coming. Minnesota’s protection is 12th within the NBA because the All-Star break, in comparison with seventh earlier than the week off.
Julius Randle isn’t the one Wolves participant struggling down the stretch. Naz Reid is taking pictures 31.8 p.c from three and 42.9 p.c from the free-throw line because the break. Jaylen Clark, Joan Beringer, and Terrence Shannon Jr. are basically out of the rotation because the playoffs close to. And no one however Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo can hit a 3 to save lots of their lives.
But Randle’s errors are the loudest and most damaging.
Since coming to Minnesota within the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, Julius Randle has greater than pulled his weight as Ant’s sidekick. He crushed the Lakers and the Warriors within the first and second rounds of final 12 months’s playoffs earlier than succumbing to the Oklahoma City Thunder buzzsaw.
It might be a bodily wall Randle is hitting 5 months into the season. He’s performed in all 62 video games this season and is main the Timberwolves in minutes performed, second in minutes per recreation, and second in utilization price. It may simply be so simple as giving Randle a day without work right here or there in March to supercharge him for a two-and-a-half-month playoff run.
There’s nonetheless time for Randle to get again to his Galactus planet-consuming model of basketball earlier than the playoffs. The Wovles have 20 video games left to shore up residence court docket benefit within the first spherical of the playoffs. They have the second-hardest remaining energy of schedule, behind the Denver Nuggets, with video games towards the Thunder, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics, and Lakers.
The Timberwolves can climate Julius Randle’s struggles on a game-to-game foundation. However, in the event that they wish to go to the finals for the primary time in franchise historical past, Randle will have to be taking part in the very best basketball of his life to offer the Wolves the additional carry they anticipated once they traded for him.
