cupcakesnake wrote:Tim_Hardawayy wrote:cgf wrote:
The wolves are really good and just a brutal matchup for you, even if steph hadn't gone down. They are a lot dumber than you, but just so much bigger and more athletic. With that endless cycle of drivers leveraging that advantage to keep a defense under constant pressure. If they were also a high IQ team or consistent sharpshooters, we'd be talking about one of the absolutely best offenses in the NBA.
Best thing that can happen for the wolves imo (other than a magical title run) is for Randle to continue to play well and up his value enough that they can flip him for some more positive value and sell high there. Ant is Ant, but you can at least surround him with smarter/headier players (I also think Randle sulks too much when things aren't going his team's way).
Midway through the season, I figured the Wolves would let Randle walk this offseason if they couldn't find a sign and trade. With Naz and NAW as free agents this summer, and us already being a second apron team, I figured Randle was going to end up a rental and a tool to help us navigate the cap.
Now it's been months of him simply being core to our identity. A lot of secondary stars in the NBA aren't necessarily perfect fits with the primary star. They bring value by being a talent add, but sometimes have to suppress their games or get out the way to support the primary star. Randle and Coach Finch have figured out how to make sure this is not the case in Minnesota. Randle driving off the catch whenever teams load up on Ant has been the consistent life force of our offense. He injects a ton of rim protection and functional playmaking into our offense, while also being a super confident shooter when he's open. Defensively, he's not great, but he's found a role as a strong matchup defender, and the effort level is much more consistent.
It's night and day. Randle was a ball stopping black hole with zero effort on defense. Now he's quite often the best all-around player on the floor.
I think this is an excellent recap and analysis of the situation.
Coming in, I saw DiVincenzo as the "prize" of the trade. Not necessarily because I thought he was better than Julius, but I always viewed going from Towns to Randle as close enough value on the court and a win for potential cap flexibility.
But what has really turned the tables over the course of the season is how Finch has been using him. Yes, Thibs and Finch both used Julius as a hub, but he's ued in different ways. In the past, I've called his role changing from Al Jefferson in New York to Lamar Odom in Minnesota. It's just a different kind of role, and it's a better fit for the offense Finch wants to run. Towns could never play that way, and he couldn't (or wouldn't) really play off the initial action as a spacer (speaking to willingness, not ability here). The Finch offense needs corner spacers, and Towns took an extremely low number despite his reputation as a spacer. It just wasn't the kind of spacer Finch needed. It wasn't the kind of big man Finch needed in the initial action either. These are major reasons why Ant and KAT never got on the same page on the court.
I don't know what I would do this offseason though. I think using him as a trade piece is an option, but I also think that they're not going to want to part with him. I think it has to be for the right value and for the right player in return if they move on.
