Julius Randle looks like the Timberwolves’ perfect Robin

Anthony Edwards struggled to find any sort of rhythm in Event of Minnesota s first-round series achievement against the Lakers on Wednesday The guard went for from the field lowlighted by an -for- performance from beyond the arc Edwards admitted postgame he would have continued to try to force his offense to find any semblance of success down the stretch of the Timberwolves success had it not been for Julius Randle Randle was one of the insufficient Wolves players seeing his shots fall as he took advantage of good matchups to get to his spots and number The confident forward called for the ball down the stretch with the idea that we would close out the contest and thus the series Edwards ceded chosen of the creation duties to Randle who had points in the fourth to key Minnesota s - preeminence and put the Wolves into the Western Conference semifinals We a squad Edwards commented Just give him the ball let him go to work and realize he got the matchup that we looking for That s the general idea of offensive basketball create an advantage and exploit it to your benefit But the approach requires buy-in from all involved starting with your best competitor Edwards is Minnesota s best athlete And while Minnesota benefits from the guard being a win-first guy the -year-old superstar still must be convinced that a teammate will produce before Edwards gives way Once that trust is in place that guard will look for you even in the preponderance critical spots The primary incident of that is Jaden McDaniels who Edwards seems to out to every time the wing is open even when McDaniels is in the midst of a harsh shooting slump Because Edwards believes in McDaniels It s now abundantly clear that he also believes in Randle And everyone else likely does now too While Randle previously had playoff questions after a limited rough postseason campaigns in New York he answered the bell against the Lakers Randle averaged points per match in the series shooting from the field and from distance He tallied nearly three assists per each turnover from Games - while competing at a high level on the defensive end Julius Randle was absolutely huge in this series and another guy who s had a lot of unfair criticism in his career Wolves coach Chris Finch explained He was outstanding on both ends of the floor We don t win this series without him Julius was consistently great every night just doing a lot of little things timely things Perhaps his time in New York proved that Randle may not be best suited as a No scorer in a playoff series Very scarce are But latest evidence suggests he slots in quite well as a No That s not dependably the easiest role to step into Partially because it means fewer shots on a nightly basis in what s effectively a contract year for Randle who has a million player option for next season that he can either accept and play on or decline to enter free agency But aside from that the No spot on a squad s scoring ladder also creates a delicate dance as you have to learn when you need to be aggressive for your band versus doing it at all times Finch noted Minnesota merely had to figure out how to best deploy Randle He s noted at various times that the Timberwolves erred in that early in the season But they started to find their way midway through the season just prior to Randle getting hurt Finch points to Randle s return to Madison Square Garden as a key turning point A month prior Randle took eight first-quarter shots at Target Center against the Knicks Minnesota s offense bogged down and the Wolves were destroyed by New York This time around in an emotional return to New York City Randle attempted just six shots on the night as the Wolves won convincingly The offense hummed around him and through him Finch revealed He played defense That had to be an incredibly emotional championship like the maturity to do that and we were just starting to find ourselves at that point like we weren t an established product at that point in time So he could have easily gone in there and made it a revenge competition but he didn t and we won that match which was a huge win for us at the time It kind of all snowballed from there Finch explained Randle realizes the talent around him in Minnesota The Wolves sport one of the best eight-man rotations in the NBA rivaling the likes of Boston and Oklahoma City He wants those guys to succeed as well Finch reported He knows he demands to help create opportunities for them Which is exactly what he has done over the past two-plus months and Minnesota is in a great spot because of it Everyone in this locker room knows who he is and what he does for us explained Donte DiVincenzo who s in his second season playing with Randle He comes in the second half Wednesday and he just dominates the event on the offensive glass getting downhill making plays for everybody else He would ve had a double-double or triple-double if we made shots His playmaking ability is very very special for us and we re going to ride Julius throughout the rest of the playoffs Certainly they ll ride their Batman Anthony Edwards as well But there will be nights when even Edwards can t get it going and the open shots of others may not be falling At which point as was the incident in Match against Los Angeles it s Robin to the rescue When you play next to Edwards it made the event a lot easier Randle noted Because they throw two or three people at him so you ve just got to be willing to move and be in the right spaces on the floor You ve got to be able to take advantage of that There s not a person in the world that can guard him one on one So teams are throwing everything at him I inevitably tell him Go be great But if you need me I m right there for us Related Articles For Wolves to win it all Rudy Gobert must be the Kingslayer s dragon When and where does the Timberwolves second-round playoff series start Five reasons the Timberwolves beat the Lakers in five games Narrative-busting Timberwolves knock out Lakers advance to West semifinals Frederick Anthony Edwards is NBA s next must-see star whether he likes it or not