DETROIT — It was no secret, the long faces, the whimsical looks worn by the Minnesota Timberwolves as they returned to the .500 mark with a defeat against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday evening.
There’s no shame in losing to these Pistons, who are one game under .500, winners in six of their last seven and who have already surpassed last season’s 14-win mark. But that’s the way the Timberwolves showed up that night and too many nights this season.
This is acknowledged to be an entirely different team, trading Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle in a shocking pre-practice move. An adjustment was expected, with the team no longer having Towns’ spacing from the 3-point line to free up room for Anthony Edwards. But it was difficult.
The chemistry on the pitch has been, to put it kindly, off – and no one really denies that. Randle’s style is awkward, as it always has been. While it has worked at other points in his career, it doesn’t fit perfectly on this list. Terminating Towns’ long contract to move under the restrictive second apron was the motivation for the Randle deal, and basketball is suffering for it.
What makes things worse is The smooth transition from cities to the Knickswhere he looks like a borderline MVP candidate with a starting five unit that ranks among the most productive in the league — and Randle wasn’t a good fit in New York, either, after the rise of Jalen Brunson.
It’s not about getting rid of Randle; he’s having his best shooting season from 3 since the 2020-21 season — the year when there were virtually no fans in arenas — and overall, shooting 48 percent from the field, his best since 2018-19.
But it certainly doesn’t look easy, and his defensive mistakes become visible when he thinks. It doesn’t appear that anyone is exempt, and the book is out on the scouting report.
They are 10th in the West, in last place in play-ins, one game ahead of the Sacramento Kings and 1.5 ahead of the Phoenix Suns – two teams that have disappointed and have discussed or made big changes.
“Every match counts, especially in the West,” said Rudy Gobert. “We have confidence in who we are and who we can be as a team, but it has to show on the field. We need to focus on the things we can control and everything else will follow.
The lack of chemistry is detectable between them, so you know opposing teams sense it and jump on it at the first sign of doubt. It was the Pistons, playing for the second night of a back-to-back and still adjusting to the loss of third-year guard Jaden Ivey earlier in the week, who had springy legs and bouncy spirits entering Saturday’s game.
“I think we can be a lot better with body language. I think our efforts are too random,” veteran point guard Mike Conley said. “When everything goes well, you get a little more. Things are going a little south, we find that the guys are holding their heads a little more. … We don’t react as quickly (on defense), we complain about the calls. All of these things are habits that we need to break, find ways to move on to the next play and just be better.
Edwards, the superstar growing into his own voice, his own position in the league and in the team’s locker room, has had a few sessions with the media where he has aired his frustrations – most recently, the constant double teams he faces and who force it by being more of a facilitator and long-range shooter than a devastating driver to the basket.
Saturday, in a thrilling showdown with Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, showed what the league has to offer in terms of American superstars under the age of 25, as Edwards provided his antidote to those blitzkrieg double teams.
He threw and threw and launched triples all night – hitting 10 of his 15 attempts en route to a career-high 53 points, but looked tired at times, which contributed to his six turnovers to just two assists decisive. Cunningham played a more balanced game because he could, scoring a season-high 40 with nine assists and six rebounds.
Randle didn’t make his first field goal until midway through the second quarter, perhaps so as not to disrupt Edwards’ rhythm, but by then the Wolves trailed 15. Edwards, usually outspoken, refused to speak to the media after career night, but it appears his response this season has been to play a pseudo-point guard — which, truth be told, has invited double teams because Towns isn’t there as a valve security and there is no has no fear that Randle will soften the offense when the Wolves have the numbers.
Remember, Gobert clogs the paint and isn’t the most graceful offensive center. There was the moment earlier in the season when Gobert had Toronto’s Scottie Barnes sealed in the paint and called for the ball — and Randle ignored him.
Gobert stood there and that caused a three-second violation, and at that point you could see both sides of the argument, but therein lies the problem. Randle doesn’t view Gobert as having the best pair of mitts, rightfully so, and didn’t want to take a chance. Gobert, however, did what big guys are taught against smaller defenders and was not rewarded.
These moments build and fester, even if they were resolved immediately afterwards. And Gobert, as the anchor of the defense, has to support Randle, but would he have a habit of rotating when he doesn’t get the ball in the most obvious situations?
The human element isn’t just creeping in, it’s firmly in play — changes brought about by a new collective bargaining agreement that has kept the Timberwolves from being able to take the natural next step of playing in June.
Instead, they’re playing for the record and it’s ugly.
It’s the clunky offense, it’s the spotty defense that was a feature when this team got off to a 25-9 start to this point last year. The Wolves led the league in efficiency last year, and they are now ninth. That second-round series where they collectively choked the life out of the then-defending champion Denver Nuggets seems like a distant memory.
“To some extent you forget what got us here and you think because we got there (last year) we’ll get there naturally,” Gobert said. “We’re not a team that can turn the switch on and off. The previous year, we overcame many challenges that made us even hungrier and brought us closer together. Last year we knew what we had to do and what was holding us back.
“It was maturity, consistency and attention to detail, especially defensively. This year, yes, there was a trade, but I don’t think it should affect our defensive identity.
What they all agree on, at least privately, is that this isn’t a team adjusting to a league that surrounds them on the schedule this year – they’re not moving backwards in front of the expectations of the teams who attack their necks.
They just don’t have it right now, and it will be halfway through the season before you know it. And at this point, it’s not just the start of the season anymore – inconsistency will be their identity, if it isn’t already.
“Sometimes we make it harder on ourselves than it needs to be,” Conley said. “We have guys overworked for opportunities, opposed to simple reads or simple plays. It’s one through five, not sprinting and eliminating each other, cutting for each other, filtering, all those things go into how you connect it.
The season is slipping away, and if the answers are out there, someone better find them.
