The process of getting Julius Randle to work with the rest of the Minnesota Timberwolves' roster has been a challenging one, to say the least. Any kind of big change from last season's roster was going to make life difficult for this team, given all they achieved in the 2023-24 season.
But Randle's skillset and play style in particular have proven to be more than a little bit of a clunky fit for this Wolves roster. It has become apparent that Julius does not have the same brand of game-changing offensive repertoire that Karl-Anthony Towns brought to this team, and the result of that is Minnesota's offense still being a work in progress.
Even so, Chris Finch's words after the win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday indicate how high his view of Randle is. "Listen, I got a lot of respect, admiration for Julius," he said. "His shot attempts overall are down from where he was in New York. His numbers have been in line with them too, so he's having a bit more of an efficient season for us. We've asked him to do different things at different times as our team ebbed and flowed ... He's tried to respond to it all.
"I'm always conscious we're asking him to do a lot of things, and maybe he's not able to settle into his own rhythm sometimes. But he's been a trooper. He's guarded a lot. Taken a lot of really good matchups for us, and tonight was a good example of that."
Here's Chris Finch discussing how much "respect, admiration" for what he and the team have asked of Julius Randle this season. pic.twitter.com/SFbMBtu81Q
— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) January 8, 2025
Finch heaped praise on Randle, but fans don't seem to share his view
Now, it is of course not uncommon for a coach to give some praise to one of his best overall players, especially one that he has coached on a different team in the past. And Finch's words aren't necessarily wrong. Randle has definitely played a slightly different style than when he was wearing a Knicks uniform, and he has done some good things for this group.
But at the same time, there seems to be a disconnect between Finch's perception of Randle's overall impact from that of the fanbase and other outsiders. From the viewpoint of someone not in the locker room with Julius every day, it seems pretty clear that Randle's fit with this team is sketchy at best. Even Finch has spoken on the issue of Julius' ball-holding and how that mucks up the Timberwolves' spacing on offense.
This begs the question of what Finch's intentions behind his words were. Does he truly believe Randle and his contributions can be a major solution for this team going forward? Judging based on what our eyes have told us to this point, it would seem to be pretty difficult to draw that conclusion. Or is Finch shouting out the positives of a player the team is potentially looking to trade in the coming weeks instead?
Only time will tell. In the meantime, this will be an interesting storyline to follow. Perhaps Finch sees something we are all missing, but there is clearly a big divide between how Minnesota's coach views Randle and how he is seen by the fanbase.