Julius Randle will make his third career playoff appearance Saturday in Los Angeles when Minnesota meets the Lakers for Game 1 of the first-round series.
He noted it’s one of “the few times” over the course of his career where he feels like “I have a chance to really play for something.”
And he’s excited – not just for the stage, but also the circumstances surrounding him heading into it.
“I’m excited in just my comfort level with coach (Chris Finch), the coaching staff, with the team, with everybody,” Randle said. “It’s special there, so I’m excited.”
Indeed, Randle has settled in nicely with the Wolves after some up and down play over the first half of the season. He played a key role in the Wolves’ final 21 games, in which the team went 17-4. It was a process, but he and the team struck a balance of when the forward should be aggressive looking to score and when he should drive pace and spread the ball around.
“It’s been great, honestly. For me, I feel like the biggest growth in my game is understanding different ways to impact the game and impact winning (other) than scoring the ball,” Randle said. “I know if I need to go get 30, then I can do that. But I don’t have to force that, and I can let the game dictate what it needs from me, what the team needs from me.
“That’s the thing that I’ve fought and enjoyed the most throughout the season. As the season progressed and went on, I took a lot of pride in that and a lot of joy in that because the results usually ended up in wins. At this point in my career, that’s all I care about.”
That’s especially true at this point in the season. Come postseason, wins and losses are all that will define a player’s resume.
“At this point in the season, it don’t matter who gets 20 points, 30 points,” Anthony Edwards said. “It don’t matter if I have five points. It don’t matter if Julius has five points.”
On some teams, it might. But not with Minnesota, a deep squad with a number of guys who can have a large offensive impact on any given evening. Randle has gotten better and better at taking advantage of those around him as the season progressed. His efforts have been aided by teammates gaining a better understanding of where to go and what to do to open themselves up for the forward.
But the general realization that Randle doesn’t need to be “the guy” every night for Minnesota to succeed seems to have opened up his game and helped the Wolves’ entire offense flow. It’s a different role than the one he held in New York for five seasons, where his job was to be a primary scorer.
“It was more of a mindset shift than anything. Feeling like, ‘Alright man, I’m not getting 30 so I’m not doing my job,’” Randle said. “When it’s like there’s different ways to impact the game other than just scoring the basketball. I don’t think I have to prove that I can score the basketball. I’ve shown that throughout my career. I think that’s been fun and it’s allowed me to have a lot more balance, be more unpredictable, taking a lot of pressure off my shoulders.
“Then the trust in the guys. We’ve got a lot of guys who are very capable on this team. Being able to trust them, it’s taken a lot off my shoulders and I can be the best version of myself every night.”
Will that help Randle be his best self in the playoffs? That’s a code the 30-year-old, two-time All-NBA player has yet to crack. His consistent regular season production has yet to translate to the most important time of the season. In 15 career playoff games, Randle is shooting just 34% from the field and 28% from 3-point range, while tallying more turnovers (58) than assists (56).
There are many reasons playoff experience postseason struggles. Oftentimes, you simply run into a bad matchup, where you’re forced to play four-plus games against an opponent that simply has the personnel and/or scheme to make life difficult on you.
The lack of instant success causes players to press, which leads to more missed shots and more turnovers. The struggles snowball.
The Lakers could be another case of a matchup problem. With Rui Hachimura, LeBron James and Dorian Finney-Smith, the Lakers are flush with long, sturdy wings that could make Randle’s “bully ball” brand difficult to execute.
In the past, that could’ve potentially signaled a long series for the forward, particularly on teams where he was so heavily leaned upon for production. But now, if he does run into heavy resistance, there’s a sense that Randle will find other ways to be a positive for Minnesota on the floor.
“He’s not panicked by the fact if he only gets 10 shots in a night. He’s at the point now for us, and we’ve actually spoken about a multitude of times, he doesn’t feel the pressure that he’s got to go out and score 30 every night for us to win,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “He trusts his teammates. He’s finding them now at a higher rate. He’s always been a really good passer, so I just feel like he’s unburdened from that responsibility and just knows that one night it might be 10, 11 shots, but the next night, he can still go for 30 and have a massive game like we saw in Memphis. That’s kind of a rhythm that has repeated itself. I think he’s at peace with that.”
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