MINNEAPOLIS — Shoulders are slumped. Eyes are glazed over. Shots are being taken, but at each other and not on the court.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are wobbling toward the All-Star break, looking like anything but a team as each one of them tries to pull the group out of these doldrums by himself.
Their offense has devolved into a string of isolation matchups, one after another. Their defense is slow-footed and easy to attack. And many of them, coaches and players, spend whatever time is available after every whistle either muttering under their breath about their misfortune or arguing with officials about a call that isn’t going their way.
Sunday’s 115-96 loss to the LA Clippers marked a low point for this up-and-down season. Minnesota scored 59 points in the first three quarters, turned the ball over 21 times and looked as disconnected, both physically and spiritually, as it has all year. The Wolves are 7-9 in their last 16 games, a mark not befitting a team that believes it is a Western Conference contender.
The body language is terrible. The execution isn’t much better. And there are still two more games before the reprieve of the All-Star break for one of the moodiest teams in the league.
“You can feel the energy and the difference when we’re all connected and all focused and on one mission on the same page, and you feel the difference when it’s not,” forward Julius Randle said. “That’s why we have these ups and downs as a team.”
It feels like a time to zoom out and diagnose what ails the team. On the day after the Super Bowl, in homage to the great Peter King, here are five things that I think I think.
I think Randle is in one of those funks
He has been sullen for more than a week, ever since his name started getting thrown around in trade rumors for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Since going for 39 points in a loss at Houston on Jan. 16, Randle is shooting 43 percent from the floor and 25 percent from 3-point range. Worse, his activity on defense has fallen off a cliff, one of the many reasons the Wolves are 15th in the league in defensive rating since that game.
Randle had 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting, including 1 of 5 from 3, with eight rebounds and only two assists Sunday. The Wolves were outscored by 14 points in his 33 minutes, and he tussled with Clippers guard Kris Dunn late in the game as frustrations spilled over.
He spoke to the media Sunday for the first time since the Antetokounmpo rumors picked up steam. It was the dominant storyline in the NBA for at least 10 days. Even though it all ended with Randle and Antetokounmpo staying put, I don’t think it was easy for Randle to navigate.
“I can’t speak for everybody, but we got a group of professionals, and most of the guys in this locker room have been through it and know what comes with it,” he said. “So I’m not sure if that’s a factor or not, but we’re past it. This is the team we have, and we got to make the best of the rest (of the season).”
The thought of being traded in the middle of the season, especially for someone with a family as tight as his, had to be unsettling. The talks for Antetokounmpo never got anywhere near actionable. Randle and his family very much enjoy Minnesota, and they can rest easy now.
I think Randle might be a little worn down physically as well. He has played in every game this season, battling through some painful bumps and bruises. Last year, he didn’t hit his stride until after he came back from a groin injury. So I think the All-Star break will be huge for him.
I think Chris Finch needs to lighten the load
When the team is fighting the game the way the Wolves have been lately, the coach has to find a way to help the players refocus.
“We don’t have a great spirit about us right now,” Finch said. “We gotta pick it up and try to finish these last two games strong before the break.”
Ideally, the players could do this themselves. But this group has not shown that quality and seems to be in its own head. In addition to figuring out how to get the ball moving again and get better interior defense when Rudy Gobert is off the floor, Finch also has to come up with messaging that gets through to them.
Full transparency: I don’t know what that looks like.
I have covered toxic teams. This is not one of them. They do not hate each other. There are no fights behind the scenes. But the Wolves do seem to ride the emotional roller coaster like few teams that I’ve been around. When things are going well, there is a swagger to them that can make them an overwhelming matchup.
When things are not going well, like in these last two losses to New Orleans and the Clippers, they can begin to feel sorry for themselves.
I have covered teams that just do not care enough. This is not one of them. This is a group that genuinely wants to win at a high level, that believes it can come out of the West. They get embarrassed after games like Sunday’s. And they often respond when their collective heart is challenged.
But right now, everyone is off their game, including the coaches. When Gobert sounded off after Friday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, saying that coaches needed to bench players who weren’t giving effort on defense, Finch’s response came off as dismissive of a real critique from one of the team’s most impactful players.
“There has never been a team that’s won anything meaningful that’s substituted their way there,” Finch said.
Finch wants his best players to figure things out. This is how he has always operated. He doesn’t make major changes to his rotations. He sticks with the players he believes in, even amid outside pressure.
He just got a new one in Ayo Dosunmu, who had 11 points and two steals, but was a minus-33 in 25 minutes in his debut against the Clippers.
Talking to those who have worked with Finch for years, one of his strengths has been understanding which problems need to be addressed head-on and which can be left to die of natural causes. He typically gets his teams playing at their best post-All-Star break and into the playoffs. He has done it before. Now he has to do it again.
Rudy Gobert’s comments about his teammates’ defense don’t seem to have made a difference. (David Berding / Getty Images)
I think Gobert was an imperfect messenger
Gobert can be a polarizing player, but his stinging rebuke of the team after the Pelicans loss was met with applause from the frustrated Timberwolves fan base. It showed a sense of pride that fans have wanted to see.
Gobert’s assessment was correct. Too often this season, the defensive effort has come and gone. While he did not name specific teammates, he said it was on the coaching staff to pull players who weren’t going as hard as they could.
“Our best players, leaders, if we don’t show any effort, it doesn’t matter if you score 50, we’re not going to win,” Gobert said. “At some point, if we’re not mature enough to have that accountability ourselves, that might be a solution. And I guarantee you that when we come back onto the court, we’ll show effort.”
There was considerable discussion within the team about Gobert’s comments during a practice Saturday. Finch said it was addressed and should have stayed in-house. But given how flat the Wolves looked Sunday against the Clippers, it is clear that Gobert’s words did not provoke a response from his teammates.
Gobert made the comments after Zion Williamson got whatever he wanted at the rim. Two games before that, Gobert did not play most of the fourth quarter in Memphis because of Jaren Jackson Jr. He also did not help himself with five turnovers and a couple of ghastly layup attempts against the Clippers. Mistakes like those erode his ability to get his teammates’ attention.
To his credit, Gobert said the accountability has to start with him. But if he expected the staff and his teammates to be motivated by the challenge, that did not seem to be the case.
I think Anthony Edwards needs to skip the All-Star game
Edwards has been dealing with a toe injury for much of the season. At least a few times a game, he walks with a noticeable limp and grimaces through the discomfort. All indications are that this is just a nagging injury and nothing to be worried about long-term. But it clearly is giving him some issues.
There are still moments where it looks like everything is fine, including during a soaring poster dunk through Brook Lopez on Sunday. That was one of the few times this season that Edwards, who was called “The Poster Child” as a rookie for all of the violent dunks he threw down, truly punched it on a drive to the rim. He has still had a remarkable season, but it has looked different. More 3s, more turnaround jumpers in the post, more layups at the rim.
Edwards hinted in Toronto last week that he may miss the All-Star game. Like most players nowadays, he hasn’t exactly looked interested in competing at a high level during the league’s showcase in-season event. I think he should sit out, rest up, get his foot right and come back recharged for the final 26-game sprint to the playoffs.
The Wolves are going to need him locked all the way in as they pursue a top-four seed. There have been too many occasions lately when Edwards has been inattentive on defense, like on a slow close-out of Derrick Jones Jr. in the corner Sunday. He has shown up on both ends in the biggest games this season. The Wolves will need him in every game down the stretch.
He missed 11 field-goal attempts, including seven of his eight 3s, against the Clippers and turned the ball over five times.
“Everybody overthinking it,” Edwards said. “We good. I’ll make 11 of those shots tomorrow, and we’ll be OK.”
I think this is very fixable
All of this feels very ominous at the moment. The losses have been ugly. The ties that bind the group appear to be hanging together by their last threads.
But this is a team that has shown it can pull itself up off the mat. At the start of February last season, the Wolves lost back-to-back games to the Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings to fall to 27-23. They went 22-10 the rest of the way, then dominated the Los Angeles Lakers and the short-handed Golden State Warriors in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Two years ago, they were swept by the Phoenix Suns in the regular season, only to bounce back and sweep the Suns in the first round.
Does that guarantee they will do it again this season? No. But the Wolves (32-22) are still 10 games above .500. Edwards and McDaniels are having career years. About two weeks ago, Gobert was hearing that he was emerging as a favorite for his fifth Defensive Player of the Year award. Reid is a leading candidate for Sixth Man of the Year.
In analyzing the trade for Dosunmu on Thursday, Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe both dubbed the Wolves a legitimate title contender. The talent is here. But they have to shake out of this funk, and soon. McDaniels and DiVincenzo cannot combine to score three points in a game. Edwards cannot keep losing his man off the ball. Gobert cannot keep giving up buckets at the rim.
The Wolves host the Atlanta Hawks Monday night, and DiVincenzo referenced another one of the team’s low points this season: a 24-point loss in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve. The Wolves ripped off a four-game winning streak after that defeat, including two wins over the Miami Heat and one over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Everybody was down, (and) we responded back in Miami when we were on the road,” DiVincenzo said. “Everybody is going to come in with a chip on our shoulder and try to respond, and I think we’re ready for that challenge.”
