When the Minnesota Timberwolves took on Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, they did it with the understanding that the coaching staff would have a big task on their hands. Karl-Anthony Towns had been a guiding presence in the Wolves' lineup for the better part of a decade, and removing him would force countless adjustments to be made.
We have already seen the problems that this group has been dealing with collectively. Certainly, adding a new player to your starting lineup will never not create challenges, and yet the Timberwolves still chose to make their big roster-altering move for the simple reason that they believed it was their best long-term play to keep their championship window maximized.
As we get a little further into the season, Minnesota is becoming aware of more issues while simultaneously working to hash them out in real time. One of the most relevant problems that has cropped up involves the starting lineup.
The interplay of Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert was probably at the top of the bingo card for most fans in terms of things to watch for this season. The dynamic between KAT and Gobert took time to build and to become effective, so similar challenges were always likely to occur with this new pairing as well.
Gobert and Randle have been somewhat of a clunky fit thus far
Through four games played, the Timberwolves are seeing something become evident about their new starting frontcourt. After the loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, it became clear that Minnesota will have trouble getting stops on the interior and rebounding at a high level when Gobert heads to the bench.
This would mean to simply get Rudy on a higher minutes average and find additional lineups where he can play effectively, right? Well, perhaps, but the problem is there is also a glaring issue with he and Randle as a pairing as well. We have seen multiple stretches where Minnesota's offensive approach seems to suffer with both of those guys on the floor.
Make no mistake about it, Randle has been excellent as an individual performer on offense. But the problems in scoring while he and Gobert share the frontcourt simply lie in the stark differences between their approaches. In a way, it is reminiscent of when KAT and Gobert were first learning how to play alongside one another.
Of course, this is not a call to disband the pairing and to say that Randle should be traded. There are probably many scenarios where the coaching staff makes this pairing work just fine by season's end, but it is still a problem in need of fixing at the end of the day. The Timberwolves will continue producing at a suboptimal level until things are turned around with Randle and Gobert.