The Minnesota Timberwolves may have moved on from Julius Randle, but that doesn’t mean they’ve automatically moved on from the bigger issue that hovered over them last season.
Randle drew plenty of the blame for the team’s shaky body language, and that reaction wasn’t exactly new. New York Knicks fans had reached a similar conclusion during his time there. But the idea that one trade fixes everything doesn’t hold up cleanly, and Britt Robson made that point on The Dane Moore NBA Podcast.
“We talked about moodiness last year,” Robson said. “The more I thought about this as the season was coming to an end, the more I disliked the way everybody just danced around stuff last year.
Moodiness is a symptom, not a cause…you’re moody because of the situation on the team and something is not to your liking. Moodiness, or whatever the character issues were on this team last year, I don’t think they all go away because Julius Randle left the team.
I do think that (Chris) Finch will have to coach differently, Ant (Edwards) is going to have to approach the season differently, Melo (Ball) is going to have to be molded as much as possible into the best-fitting piece, and Jaden (McDaniels) and TJ (Shannon Jr.) are going to have to be more consistent.”
That’s the heart of it: if the Wolves want the mood to change, it can’t just be about who’s no longer on the roster. Robson’s point is that the issue lives in the group, not one player.
LaMelo Ball is the new face of that conversation, and so far the talk around him has been overwhelmingly positive. Finch has praised his “infectious quality.”
Anthony Edwards said at Fanatics Fest that Ball has already been at his home. Tim Connelly has said Ball will “elevate” the team.
Still, Ball brings his own baggage. Over six seasons, he’s carried questions about shot selection and, at times, defense that can drift. Last season, though, the 24-year-old cut back on how much he fired away while playing alongside his most talented teammates, led by rookie Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller.
Now he’s alongside an even better offensive player in Ant-Man. That should help, but it also raises the obvious what-ifs.
What if Ball slips back into some of those old habits? What if injuries become part of the story again?
That matters because Ball has also been tagged as injury-prone, even though he was mostly healthy in 2025-26. If he misses time, Minnesota would again be without a true lead guard, and that can change the feel of everything - less movement, less rhythm, more frustration.
Finch’s role may be different, too. Last season, he rarely appeared willing to say anything critical about Randle, maybe because he didn’t want to mess with the three-time All-Star’s psyche.
Even when Randle was struggling and the energy looked off, a benching never seemed to be on the table. This time around, Finch may need to be more direct when a player’s mood starts bleeding into his game.
The expectations in Minneapolis are as high as ever, and a big reason is the long-awaited arrival of a star-level point guard. That makes the start of next season especially important. The Wolves can’t afford to let moodiness become the thing that trips them up early.
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