It took Anthony Edwards ten games to record his first dunk in 2022. Until that point, he averaged 23.2 points on 45.7% from the floor. Still, many were concerned that his lack of explosiveness around the rim was attributed to a poor fit next to Rudy Gobert.
Gobert didn’t play in the game where Edwards dunked for the first time, only feeding into that belief. The nerves made sense; Gobert is exclusively a rim-running big, and Edwards had yet to play with such a polarizing force around the basket.
The Minnesota Timberwolves knew it would take time for Gobert to fit well alongside his new teammates. Chris Finch and his staff needed to find a way to integrate Gobert into Minnesota’s offense without drastically changing what Edwards did best – attacking the rim. However, they were confident it would be a good fit.
Edwards eventually got on the same page with Gobert. Together, they formed a partnership in 2023-24 that led the Wolves to their first Western Conference Finals appearance in 20 years. However, it took an entire season for Gobert to regularly look comfortable with his new team.
Recalling back to the 2023-23 season, fans got PTSD when the Wolves unexpectedly traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks on September 27 in a package centered around Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo days before training camp started.
Expectations were high for the Wolves entering the off-season. Many expected them to build on last season’s success and learn from mistakes. However, Tim Connelly sent Edwards and Minnesota’s coaching staff back to the drawing board by bringing in Randle, a polarizing on-ball threat.
Will it take another full season for Randle to play well next to Edwards?
Did the Wolves trade away their only shot at a championship?
Should Connelly have waited one more season before blowing the roster up?
Many fans were reasonably upset, anxious, and confused. However, less than ten games into the season, the Edwards-Randle paring has already looked better than Edwards and Gobert did during the 2022-23 season.
“The biggest thing that I pride myself on is adaptability,” Randle told the media during the preseason. “Being able to adapt to different players and schemes. I’ve had a great amount of success under many different coaches with many different players. Going into my 11th year, the only way you can have success and longevity in any career is to be able to adapt.”
Randle knew he was joining a team deep in the development process. His focus was building on Minnesota’s successful foundation by adapting to his surroundings. Randle averaged 22.6 points on 17.7 attempts per game over five seasons playing under Tom Thibodeau, who always had Julius near the top of the league in usage rate.
Randle excels in isolation, so most people overlook his passing abilities. But not Finch, who coached him as an assistant for one season in New Orleans.
“I’ve always felt, to this day, that [Randle] is one of the most misunderstood players in the NBA,” Finch told Paul Allen on KFAN last week. “A lot of people look at him as a heavy ISO player who is a methodical, high-volume scorer and shooter. Maybe less efficient and not creating for his teammates, playing slower and more deliberately. I look at him as almost the opposite – he’s increased our speed with the ball in his hands and set up his teammates.”
Randle has had an assist percentage that CleaningtheGlass ranks in the 90th percentile or higher for six of his total nine seasons. Despite the stereotype associated with his game, Randle has always been a willing passer.
The Wolves needed him to carry over that willingness to set up his teammates, but Finch said he wanted Randle to hunt his own shot more after Minnesota’s season-opening loss in Los Angeles. “He’s defaulting too much,” Finch explained. “We told him the last few days, ‘You got to be more aggressive. You got to look to do your thing a little bit more.’”
Randle took that message to heart. He has flipped a switch after dropping 16 points on ten shot attempts in the season opener.
“We told [Julius], ‘Don’t fit around us, we’ve got to fit around you,’” Edwards told the media following Minnesota’s 117-115 win over the Sacramento Kings in Game 2. “He averaged 28, 5, and was an All-Star one year. Get back to that, and we will figure it out.”
After an uninspiring season opener that led to widespread overreactions, Randle gave Wolves fans a reason to buy into what he is selling against the Kings – dropping 33 points on a blistering 13 of 17 (76.5%) from the floor.
Since then, Randle has attempted 13 or more shots in all but one of Minnesota’s games. He’s averaging 22.3 points, six rebounds, and 4.8 assists on 58.3% from the floor and 48% from three this season, excluding the season opener.
When the Timberwolves traded for Gobert, the focus was figuring out how to fit him around his new team. However, the same isn’t true for Randle.
Minnesota’s offense has flowed through Randle. Finch allows Julius to play how he prefers and frequently puts the ball in his hands. Edwards said the Wolves needed to fit around Randle, and that is precisely what is unfolding three weeks into the season. However, it would not be if Ant wasn’t making a sacrifice.
“[Julius] is a punisher, so we try to give him his five to six seconds where, if he doesn’t have anything, I will try to cut or relocate for him – just playing off of him,” Edwards explained to the media. “I told him, ‘I am cool with giving him the ball and just catching and shooting.’”
Edwards told the media that he worked on his catch-and-shoot three-point shot this summer. Finch has encouraged him to take more threes over the years. However, nobody could have predicted the numbers he would put up from behind the arc to open the season.
Edwards has attempted 80 threes in the first seven games, averaging 11.4 attempts per game, ranking third and fourth in the NBA, respectively. In the past, Ant taking more threes was a bad thing. It meant he wasn’t getting into the paint and probably settling for contested threes that left Finch scratching his head. However, Edwards is shooting a blistering 45% on those 11.4 attempts, the second-highest three-point percentage of players who have attempted at least 60 threes this season.
He is shooting 50% (13 for 26) on catch-and-shoot threes and 42.6% (23 for 54) on pull-ups.
With those splits, it’s hard to be upset with Edwards living behind the arc. He likely decided to work on his three-point shot long before the Wolves traded for Randle. Still, it was a choice that unlocked the flourishing partnership Ant and Julius are quickly building.
“I definitely give them a B+,” said Finch when asked about Randle and Edwards’ offensive fit ahead of Monday’s game. “I love the way Julius looks for Ant in transition. I think Ant recognizes that when Julius has the ball, he has the ability to get somewhere and get his own shot.”
Randle has passed to Edwards 95 times through seven games, leading the team by 50. Of those 95 passes, 12 have been assists, also a team-high. Additionally, Ant is shooting 51.3% (20 for 39) overall, 45.5% (10 for 22) in the paint and mid-range, and 58.8% (10 for 17) from three when Randle passes him the ball.
Fans were concerned that Randle would limit Edwards’ offensive freedom, similar to what D’Angelo Russell did in Minnesota. However, he’s had the opposite effect on the offense.
“He is making our best player even better with a great partnership and early chemistry,” Finch explained Randle’s impact on Edwards to Paul Allen on KFAN. “That all has to do with freeing him up, letting him play fast and free, and giving him the ball to do his thing.”
Randle has a unique ability to combine his slower on-ball approach with elite passing, which makes it feel like he is playing faster than he is to the defense. However, it also gives his teammates more time to react to what is developing on the floor. Edwards is feeding off that the most by knowing when and where to be off-ball, which he’s struggled with over his career.
Finch is grading the early Randle-Edwards connection with a B+, worth a 3.3 GPA. Randle and Edwards can be proud of that grade, which shows off the sacrifices and hard work they have put into their partnership. Gobert and Edwards couldn’t crack a 3.0 GPA in their first season together, but Ant and Julius have done it in only seven games.
Dropping one ball-dominant player on the same team with another can create an offensive imbalance. Minnesota’s offense as a whole needs work; It’s averaging the tenth-most turnovers per game. However, Edwards and Randle are early into a partnership that could stick together for many years if they keep up their current play.
