Latest / Bleacher Report / The Darius Garland Episode | Marco Is Off the Ball, Ep. 5

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The Darius Garland Episode | Marco Is Off the Ball, Ep. 5 · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Early this morning when I woke up, I checked my
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Twitter missions and I got a screenshot from the Minnesota
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Timwolves subreddit that blew my mind and I want to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: talk about it. It reads, the Temblewolves are ten to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: zero in the last ten games Julius Randu has played.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about it, because I am very, very intrigued
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: if there's any unfortunate part about all of this.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: They're currently in a five game win streak.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: But because the Warriors are playing so well, and because
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the Clippers are playing well right now after Kawhi Leonards
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: game winning in Sacramento, they haven't been able to make
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: any room there still as a seventh seed and they
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: still got the eight seed on that tail. But I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: do believe there's some really cool, intriguing stuff that has
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: happened in the Minnesota that we need to talk about.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Because the last time we talked about Minnesota on this
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: channel was very early in the season. We're talking about
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a month and two where things were not great. Now,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I do want to say we have talked about the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Wolves on small Ball. Can you be to my podcast?
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: You need to be tuned into that. But as far
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: as this channel goes, the last time we talked about them.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: The title is the Timblewolves Chemistry is Destroyed. Of course,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: is on the heels of the car Anthony Towns trade.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And this is the night after we had this whole
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: thing versus the Raptors, where you know, Rudy Gobert has
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a CEO, Julius Randall looks and Dennis eyes and say, Nope,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you're not getting that ball. I also feel like I'm
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: in a flight reacts cash Nasty video because I'm reacted
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to me reacted to something that I'm reacting to if
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: it's a lot going on. But this is where we
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: talked about the chemistry being bad. And then later in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: this game, you know, they're down by five and the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: game is practically over and Julius Randall gave him a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: damn here pass and then we got to the point
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: where people were talking to the media it was just
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: all bad. Now things have changed again. They're ten to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: zero with Julius Randall over the last ten games. So
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I woke up this morning saw that tweet. I was like,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I gotta go see what's different. I gotta go see
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: what's different. So let's talk about it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of Julius Randall critics in basketball,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and for good reason, because when it's bad, it's really bad.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: We talk about the body language late in games if
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: things aren't going his way, or we talk about him
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: being a black hole. That was the conversation around Julius
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Randall as a player. We all recognize how talented he
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: is and how good he he could be because he
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: made an All NBA team not too.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Long ago, But the question was his fit on this team.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: You think about the lack of spacing or changing the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: space in that Canthony Towns provided with this, and I
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: think that Julius Randall's mindset shift has really changed things
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: now for what is worth, Julius Randall just came back
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: from injury five games ago and then he well, they
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: were on the five game win straight before this, and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: when he was asked about his time being injured, he
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: mentioned that from the sideline, he was able to do
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: this different perspective, go from a different perspective to think
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: about what this team needs to succeed, and he's been
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: molding his game around that. Then yesterday he was asked
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: about his play as of late. He said, it's all
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: about winning whatever the team needs. If this is the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: version that the team needs, then I want to do
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: every I want to do that every single night to
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: help us get as many wins as possible, make the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: biggest run that we can make. I'm not really worried
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: about scoring the ball. What Julius Randall? This is the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Julius vandam do we know? Oh man, this is crazy.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I've had multiple years of scoring the ball at a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: high level. That's not really what I'm worried about. As
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: far as the energy on our team and how we've
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: been playing in the co He's in this and together
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: miss hey Bro, y'all know rein quotes in this chournal
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: is hard. Basically, what he's saying is that they're playing
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: their best basketball. However I can help. I want to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: do that, and you feel that, Bro early into the season,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: as you know, you got to remind yourself when this
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: trade happened. It happened what a week before training camp?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So you know, Chris Finch and the coaching staff have
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: to figure out how do we put Julius Randall on
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: this team and have him be successful while simultaneously keeping
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: up with our success. It is not a one to
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: one fit between what Kat was doing to what Julius
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Randall does, so it was very clunky. Now, the reason
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: why this ten and zero streak with Julius Randall was
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: a surprise to me is because the way I've been
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: watching basketball this year is dramatically different than I was
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: doing in previous years. Previous years, if there were six
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: games on, I was trying my hardest to have six
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: games on the monitor, when in reality, that's not a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: good way to learn and watch basketball because you're not
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: really learning anything because you're jumping around from game to game.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: So I pick a couple games a night to focus on,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and you think about their recent schedule. I did watch
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: ending on the fourth quarter of this he Timbwolves, but
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: before that it was the Hornets.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: I want going back to rewatch that game. It was
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: the seventy six ers. I want going back to rewatch
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: that game.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: So like in this current strets, I haven't really been
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: tuned in as much as I probably should. So I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: was like, let me go see what they did against
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the Spurs. Now you look at me and say, Kenny,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: it's the Spurs. They without Victor, women yam and so
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: on and sofa, which is true. But I don't think
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: that really negates any of the cool stuff that has
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: been going on. Now, do you want to say it's
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: obviously a collective effort. This is not just Julius Randall
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: being Michael Jordan Wright. It's a collective effort from Anthony Edwards,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Jada McDaniels, who I talked about on our podcast, Like,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: if there's any silver lining to the injuries of Rudy
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Gobert or the injuries to Julius Randall is that we
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: saw a huge offensive production jump from Jada McDaniels, where
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of the times it felt like he was just,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you know, a corner sitter that when the ball got
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: swung to him, you got to shoot that corner three
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: and that was it. As of recently, he's been used
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: as a picke roll ball handler, he's been used as
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: a screener. He's been putting the ball on the floor
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: and getting into different spots, and I think that is
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: one of the best developments when it comes to Minnesota
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Timboolls basketball. One of the best things Julius Randall has
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: done in this stretch is just play within the Florida offense.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times I've watched the
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Wolves earlier in the season where it felt like it
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: was like, hmm, it's been a minute and a half,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: two minutes since Julius Randall has had a post touch.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Let's go give him the ball and all watch why
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: he tries to create something. I'm gonna point out this
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: possession early on because I do believe this kind of
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: changed some of the game. We're talking about a four
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: zero game right now. This is what you're gonna see
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: from bizmck Byambo from the screen. He just drops just
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: a little too high. I mean it's a little bit
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: too deep. Now, this is not drop coverage by any means,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: but like there's a lot of space between what Anthony
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Verws is trying to do in bizmac byonbo and hits
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: a big three. He's been the best pull up shooter
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: in all the basketball this season.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Seven zero. Now, this is.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Where a moment where Miss Johnson is like, Busy, we
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: need you at that point, way closer than that because
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: we see what Anthony Edwards can do. And when Busy
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: starts to play at the point of attack, that is
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: where things shifted dramatically for this offense. And I'll show
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you and it wasn't even just an Anthony Evers thing.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: They just did it completely. Now I'm gonna go back
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: just a little bit offensive rebound. Julius round to look
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: at the hustle. Now, look, you're gonna see Ruey Gobert
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: say no, we need you out of that. Jada mcdane's,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you know, set a little scream. It's not gonna work
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: to no back door cuff. Real, nobody's really looking at that.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: But it's an empty corner. You see how high busy
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: is Boom Rudy Gobert on the short role. I think
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert's passing in the short row has been really solid.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: It always is gonna look clunky because I don't know why.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: But boom right there in a little spot there for
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Jada mcdames after the clearout. That's great basketball, y'all. We
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: are how many minutes in the three minutes into this game, right,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: this is the first time Julius ran is getting a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: real touch.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Now he hatta catchess you three.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Early in this game he missed this, but this is
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the first time he's been having an opportunity to do
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: anything offensively. He gets the ball here, his's it to
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that corner. Jada McDaniel's eating up that space, additioning it
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: off to Rudy gober like, come on, man, the hoops
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: is elaked right now in this right here. I wish
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I was way better at knowing what the name sets
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: is and stuff like that. This is an action that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: they ran a ton specifically in this first half, and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the Spurs basically didn't know what to do with it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Let's just let's just play it out boom fake that.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: This is the screen shot.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Bro Anthony Edwards is so lethal as a shooter that
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: they're sending two at him. You get Harrison Bars trying
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to prevent the role man, and it leaves Julius Randall
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: wide open. And though Julius Randall was only shooting like
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: twenty seven percent and three in this ten game stretch.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: That's bottoms. I've seen no disrespect to Ride Goobert.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: But this is where things get really juiced up offensively
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: when it is nas read there because the game opens
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: up so much more curl from Anthony Edwards and one
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: on the rookie Stefancastle who earlier in this game. I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: ain't gonna show you that, I guess, but he putting
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: oas Reed in.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: A cup like twice.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I'm like dang young fella with the shoulder. But let's
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: talk about Randall. I keep forgetting. I'm jumping around just
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: because I've been having I watched this game and has
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: so much fun. As you can see, Jada mcdam's up
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: top pointed like nas Red got Chris Paul on him.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: You better get him that ball.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Unfortunate Julius, gentlemen, But but he gets to retouch and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: then we get a relocation. He draws a lot of attention.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: He jumped past y'all know I hate jump, but it
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: leads to a three Nasried. There's only a few possessions later.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: But you're gonna notice what the Spurs were doing because
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: they are so small. Look at this lineup that is
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: on the court with him right now. Their tallest players
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: like Devin Vassela, Kelton Johnson. They are a really small
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: team right now. And because they are so small, and
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Julius Randall can be a wrecking ball. Anytime he touched
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the ball near the paint, they sent another body, but
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: he figured out boom, I got Nasrie and I'm gonna
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: kick it out to nas for another three.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Right before half.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Here's that same exact action we mentioned earlier, but they
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: do it just a little bit different, different variation.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Juleus Randall gets.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: It, screen comes, double screen up, Rudy Gobert with the hands.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Look at that.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: We would just talk about how bad the chemistry was
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: in November and uh yeah, yeah, things have been looking
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: good for Julius Randall in the squad. This is a
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: conversation that we had on the podcast recently where we
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: were saying that Julius Randall, if he can tap into
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: this more than he taps into the other version of himself,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: it will just overall be more lucrative for him. He's
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: one of the top names in this free agency class,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and when not a lot of people having money, the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: question is what's gonna half with Julius Randall. Of course,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: you got the rumors of Kevin Durant with the Minnesota Tembles.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know what that's gonna look like, but it's like,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: how much money can Julius Rando make when there's not
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of teams with cap and his fit alongside
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of teams feel a bit.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Washy, Butch's fan like this. His fit is pretty universal.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Especially I can't even show you all the defensive plays
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: or the defensive effort that he's been given over this stretch.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: So like, I think this version of him is going
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to be more productive for the tem Wolves this season,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and more productive for him when he thinks about his
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: long term financial goals. And you can say, oh again, Kenny,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: they played against the Hornets, they played against the seventy
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: six ers, the Spurs in this span, those teams are
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: not very good.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: But I want to remind you earlier in the season when.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: We talked about them having that lack of chemistry, they
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: were not winning against bad teams. They were four and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: four against small sample sets. We're talking about the first
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: couple weeks of the season, but they were four and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: four against bad teams, and now since Christmas they are
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: sixteen and two against those sub five hundred teams, which, like,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: is a real recipe to a good team not letting
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the bad team sneak up on you and just taking
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: care of business.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: So I'm a true I don't know if.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: This means, like the Wolves were a team that made
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the conference finals next last year, I doubt that they
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: would be able to do that again this year, but
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: This is a team that earlier in the season we
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: kind of talked it up to be a season that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: will be lost, and now I'm just like looking at
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it like the recipe or the reward for winning the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: two seed could be this Minnesota timblewalls team dog. You
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: see them in a seven game series, which is not
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: a cake wall, And I think I personally got to
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: get better at not just looking at things from that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: bigger picture. Oh, this team is contended, this team is
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: not a continent, so let's not talk about it. Sometimes
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the hoops is just good, and we need to talk
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: about the hoops being good.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: And that's what the Wolves are going through right now.