Julius Randle embracing, but still adjusting, to new role with Wolves

On one first-quarter possession, Julius Randle attacked the paint and found a cutting Josh Minott for a layup. After collapsing the Dallas Mavericks defense in the second quarter, he kicked it to a wide-open Mike Conley for a corner 3.

Those were two of Randle's game-high eight assists in the Timberwolves' 105-99 Christmas Day victory over the Mavericks, and they exemplified the new role Randle has found himself in during his first season in Minnesota. Randle is often being tasked with facilitating the Wolves offense, a different role than he held during his five seasons in New York.

🇺🇸 Julius Randle today highlights vs. Mavericks:

🏀 23 POINTS
🏀 10 REBOUNDS
🏀 8 ASSISTS

Timberwolves won against Mavericks 105-99 ✅ pic.twitter.com/GyTcsJLhX6
— DV highlights (@DVhighlights) December 25, 2024

Randle was the primary scoring option with the Knicks. He described it as being "wired" to score. In his five seasons in New York, Randle attempted more shots per game than he ever had in his career, including two separate seasons in which he attempted 18.6 shots per game, his career most. He averaged over 20 points per game in four of those five seasons, including his career-best mark of 25.1 per game in 2022-23. His usage rate never dipped below 27% in the Big Apple.

Contrast that with his first season with the Wolves. As he's often being asked to take on more of a facilitating role, Randle's shot attempts have fallen off significantly. This season, he's attempting 14.3 shots per game, including 4.8 from 3-point range. Both of those marks are his fewest since his last season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2017-18. And Randle's 14.3 attempts per game are far fewer than his 18.2 (5.5 from 3) in his 49 games last season with the Knicks.

"You're somewhere for five years, playing a certain way, and I come here and it's a little bit different," Randle told the Star Tribune's Chris Hine after Wednesday's win over the Mavericks. "I love my role here. I love playing with my teammates, but finding what helps the team and what the team needs most on a night-to-night basis has been the harder part. But everybody has been great with me, coaches included, helping me adjust and figure it out."

Here's Julius Randle speaking about the ups and downs of adjusting to more of a facilitator role with the Timberwolves after he was "wired" to score in New York. pic.twitter.com/ObJ0ivJK4i
— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) December 25, 2024

The Wolves have needed different things from Randle during this season. Early in the year, Randle was taking on a more passive role in the offense as he adjusted to playing with the new team. At that point, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch encouraged Randle to play his brand of basketball. Minnesota needs Randle to be a scorer, too, and the team around him needed to adjust to playing his more aggressive style of offense, and Randle needed to embrace what he's best at.

"We know it's an adjustment and it's different personnel," Randle told Hine. "I'm used to playing with certain personnel, too. This is completely different personnel than I played with in years past. Everybody's been great, helping me out, super encouraging and positive."

There's no way to fast track the instinctive understanding of where everyone is going to be on the court like when you've played with the same guys year after year. As Randle's embraced more of a facilitating role, there have been signs of that adjustment. He might expect someone to cut when they're staying in the corner. There have been miscommunications, and Randle's numbers are reflective of that. His assists (4.2 per game) and assist percentage (21.3%) are both down from a season ago. Randle's 12.1% turnover ratio is the highest it's been since his first season with the Knicks in 2019-20.

But there were always going to be bumps in the road, especially with the late trade depriving Randle of a full training camp. He didn't get much of a preseason, either. But Randle is embracing his newfound role, and it's clear he's getting more comfortable (he has 21 assists in his last three games, and perhaps more importantly, 30 rebounds over that same stretch during a season when his numbers on the glass are down). The Wolves have shown flashes it can work offensively.

Players have noted throughout the season it didn't immediately fall into place when Rudy Gobert joined the fold a couple seasons ago. Karl-Anthony Towns was forced to adjust to a much-different role. The team wasn't thriving out of the gates. It always takes time to integrate new pieces, and it takes time for players to adjust to new roles. It comes little by little.

The Wolves have taken steps and shown flashes, and they still have 53 more games to get it all to fall into place.

“We got to have patience to be able to get it together," Anthony Edwards told Hine. "Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it looks bad, and we still trying to figure it out. I think patience is what’s going to take us over the top.”