Julius Randle & Donte DiVincenzo: Familiar faces in both familiar & unfamiliar spaces
Emotions will run high when Karl-Anthony Towns returns to Minnesota as an opponent, with a pair of ex-Knicks unlikely to turn the temp down any . . .
After a four-game losing streak left the Minnesota Timberwolves sub-.500 and Anthony Edwards calling them “soft as hell,” the Wolves bounced back with a stirring late-game victory that sparked five wins in six games heading into tonight’s big showdown with the Knicks.
Be a might pretty story if that Randle three to beat Phoenix was the trigger point of the Timberwolf turnaround.
It wasn’t.
I never saw any Knick great with as wide of a gap between mind and body as Randle. Often there’s some corollary between what an athlete can do and how they carry themselves doing it. To watch Amar’e Stoudemire explode from the triple-threat position to a drive and dunk over some poor mother’s child was to witness the physical expression of his purest self. When he had everything rolling, STAT was audacity and tenacity personified.What kind of dude dunks on entire frontcourts? A dude who bathes in tubs of red wine, that’s who.
Then there’s Jalen Brunson, basketball’s answer to Record of Ragnarok’s Kojiro Sasaki. In real life Sasaki was a legendary swordsman; in the anime, his gift as a fighter is that he always loses. That’s because his miraculous memory is forever cataloguing and identifying fighting patterns and styles; he loses over and over until he’s considered all the possibilities, after which, having now seen it all, he becomes unbeatable. Brunson moves like someone who’s covered all the angles and imagined counters to counters to counters. The stop-starts, the syncopated dribble-drives, the Old World craftsmanship drawing fouls: Brunson plays like a chessmaster.
Even Karl-Anthony Towns, new as he is, appears to have a clear through line from chicken to egg. When he’s playing well and his team is winning, Towns is described as light-hearted, child-like, a true innocent. When he and/or his team struggle, the language changes; KAT becomes flaky, goofy, cringe-worthy. Doesn’t that seem par for the course for someone his size with his skills? In the sense that there is no par for that course; it doesn’t really make sense, a 7-footer who can shoot the way he can. So why would Towns inspire anything but contradiction? This isn’t normal.
Against all this symmetry stands Randle, who along with Donte DiVincenzo plays his first real game against the Knicks since the pair were traded for Towns 10 weeks ago. Randle is a physical freak, a man bigger than Charles Oakley who can face-up, drop-step, side-step, step-back or back defenders down in the post like a two-guard and rack up assists like a point guard . . . all while rebounding like Oakley. At his best, Randle suggests an inevitability, or rather the inevitability of multiple inevitabilities compounded: maybe you can handle his size, but can you also deal with his strength? And his ballhandling? And his shooting touch? There aren’t many players built to handle Randle.
But therein lies the asymmetry, the little touch of irony the Greeks so dearly loved. For often when Randle is stymied, he either seems to be fighting against himself or a sense of self that doesn’t readily translate to reality. Just like no Knick has ever really approached Jamal Crawford as far as streetball style, I’ve never seen one telegraph their frustrations as clearly or consistently as Julius; he made Kurt Thomas look like Steven Wright. Randle never shied away – neither from confirming nor confronting them.
It’s an oldie but a goodie, the story of the superman and what makes one vulnerable. With Samson, it was his hair, or its absence; for Cal-El, kryptonite; for Randle, the world between his ears. Even heading into this emotionally charged reunion against the team with whom he enjoyed his greatest success as a pro, Randle keeps trying to keep things in perspective.
“I’m going to go home, play with my kids, going to eat some food . . . and I’m going to sleep,” Randle told reporters when asked how he’ll approach what’s clearly not just another game. “I’m going to wake up in the morning, go to shootaround, probably get a little treatment. And then I’m going to shoot. And then I’m going to go home and have some breakfast and then I’m going to go the arena and play the game.”
I recognize and respect understatement as a defense mechanism. Worst-case scenario, it feeds into one’s delusions, but applied judiciously it can help one feel grounded. I’m willing to bet all the money in my pocket against all the money in yours that Randle doesn’t sit still, always has a leg shaking or a finger tapping. Bet he doesn’t even notice. If emotions cause your mind to reel, then narrow, narrow away. Less is more when more’s too much. Randle cares so, so much about this game. I have no idea how that manifests.
For DiVincenzo, his first year in Minnesota doubles as the last most Knicks fans likely pay him any attention. He seems destined to go down as one of the more popular one-year Knicks of my lifetime, along with Xavier McDaniel and Jeremy Lin. You wonder what the future holds for DDV and Minnesota when the player has three years left on what’s considered one of if not the league’s best value deal – from DiVincenzo’s perspective, that’s a lot of words to call him the league’s most underpaid player, a label any would look to shed ASAP.
And yet the Wolves haven’t enjoyed any of that alleged disparity; if anything, DiVincenzo’s play has failed to live up even to his current, modest salary. If that continues, would the Wolves look to move him this summer? And would whatever happens with Randle play a role in DiVincenzo’s fate?
The Timberwolves traded Towns for Randle and DDV for financial flexibility. Period. It was never about getting the West runner-ups any closer to their first Finals. Whether Glen Taylor remains the owner or Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez complete the purchase of the team they thought they bought a year ago, the greatest pressure facing the organization is to do whatever it takes to keep Edwards in the fold for as much of the four years and $200 million left on his contract as possible.
The Wolves are that friend who never has luck with love somehow implausibly ending up with someone entirely too young, hot and promising for them. That’s Edwards, a Madison Avenue/Hollywood star doing community theatre in the Midwest. The moment the Wolves regress, he’s out. Like that pathetic friend taking another few hundred out of their savings because they know the moment the good times stop, that young hot starlet is out the door. Having built a team that was thisclose to the Finals, a historically significant Wolves team – one of only two to ever win a playoff series! – decided the best way to make Edwards wanna stay was to *checks notes* trade their second-best player to hopefully create enough flexibility to try and rebuild what they already had a year ago.
So even if DiVincenzo struggles all season, how can they justify trading him? Knowing they’d be selling on him at his lowest value? The consensus seems to be that Randle will decline his $31 million player option and hit free agency in a summer that isn’t exactly brimming with stars, and that the Wolves hope he does, preferring the cap space and room on the depth chart more than a player turning 31 next season. How can they possibly trade Towns for two players they let walk after a year and then tell Edwards . . . what? It’s all part of God’s plan?
I keep thinking back to Randle – his whole time as a Knick, his aura. I go back to that game-winning three he made for the Wolves over the Suns, how it had all the earmarks of a transformative moment, and yet how his team went on to lose four in a row. I think about compartmentalization, how it’s sometimes a lifesaver and sometimes it feels like you’re dreaming, trying to get from point A to point B, only someone’s turned on a treadmill you’re walking against, forever taking action while never getting anywhere.
Randle broke his leg early in his first NBA game, missing the rest of that season. Did he breathe a sigh of relief when he returned from that? Did he when he signed his first free agent deal with New Orleans? Maybe a year later, when he became a Knick? Two years later, when he signed what was considered a team-friendly extension? Maybe he’s still waiting to exhale, and tonight’s just a chance to inhale more sharply.
The re-match in January when Randle and DDV return to MSG will be the real heartstring-tugger. Tonight may offer some closure for some, but don’t forget those left behind while the world moved on. Wherever this year’s Knicks end up, they wouldn’t have gotten there without Randle and DiVincenzo. Tonight that pair hope to help the Knicks end up losers. Who’s truly “soft as hell”? Tune in and find out.
