Sports

RandBall: Do the Wolves need to shake things up or play things out?

The Wolves are 13-8 at roughly the one-quarter mark of the NBA season. Do they need to think about a big trade before February’s deadline?

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By Michael Rand

The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 3, 2025 at 5:32PM
Should the Wolves try to acquire Memphis guard Ja Morant via a trade? It's a high-risk/high-reward proposition. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

With a few exceptions, I’ve found myself in a strange predicament over the first 21 games of this Timberwolves season: Bored while watching a winning team that has made it to back-to-back Western Conference Finals.

Aren’t these the golden years? The ones for which everyone has been waiting?

Well, yes. But there’s probably a good explanation for the “meh” feeling of watching the team so far this year.

They’re bored, too.

“Kind of started the season a little bored,” head coach Chris Finch said before Tuesday’s game in New Orleans. “That’s not something that you want to admit to, but a team that’s had two deep runs, I think we just maybe started the season a little bit flat and bored and just realizing you got to put the work in.”

The Wolves did very little to prove him wrong or show they had changed once the game started. They flirted with disaster all night against the three-win Pelicans, prevailing in overtime only after heroics from Anthony Edwards (as I talked about on Wednesday’s Daily Delivery podcast).

A win is still a win, and that’s three in a row for the 13-8 Wolves. They’re in sixth place in the brutal West. They’ve also played the third-easiest schedule in the league, per ESPN, and things will get tougher soon.

Is this just a bored team that can turn things on when necessary? Or is there something more at play?

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Do the Wolves need to shake things up or play things out this season? Let’s dissect that at the start of today’s 10 things to know.

  • The strength of this year’s team was supposed to be continuity after losing just one notable rotation player (Nickeil Alexander-Walker) from last year’s team. But the Wolves have looked out of sync on defense too often and limited at point guard many times. The roster looks like it’s missing a piece.
    • But if it truly is just the natural but unfortunate boredom that good teams encounter during the slog of an 82-game season, a move could be hasty. Last year’s Wolves looked shaky for much of the year, too, before they found their footing and made a second straight playoff run.
      • The Wolves almost certainly think of Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels as untouchable. Naz Reid’s age (26) aligns with those two better than Julius Randle’s (31). It stands to reason that the Wolves could deal Randle, and it has been reported that they are open to that even as Randle excels this season.
        • But trading Randle would put even more pressure on the Wolves’ limited point guard options because he’s such an adept initiator of offense. And would he have enough trade value to bring back a hefty return given that the Wolves don’t have draft capital to deal?
          • One name that is persistently out there: Ja Morant. The Grizzlies guard is a huge risk, with tons of upside and baggage. He would solve problems if he was healthy and engaged — a dynamic scorer and ballhandler next to Ant, in particular — but it could also blow up on the Wolves.
            • There is also a school of thought that says nobody is going to catch the Thunder this season. The Wolves lost to OKC in five games in last year’s conference finals and it wasn’t particularly close. This year the Thunder are 21-1 and looking like an unstoppable juggernaut. Why not just let the year play out and try to see if young players like Rob Dillingham, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Jaylen Clark make considerable strides?
              • In any event, the Wolves have two months to figure out the answer with the trade deadline not until early February. Maybe they’ll take a flier on the recently released Chris Paul? Or maybe we’ll all be a little less bored in two months?
                • Jesper Wallstedt is making the Wild a legitimate threat. Minnesota is all the way up to third in the Western Conference standings.
                  • Also on Wednesday’s podcast, I chatted with the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Randy Johnson about the Gophers football team’s recruiting class, their win over Wisconsin and bowl game projections.
                    • Thursday’s show will feature the Daily Delivery debate with La Velle E. Neal III. We’ll get into Byron Buxton trade rumors, the Vikings’ sinking ship and more.
                      about the writer

                      about the writer

                      Michael Rand

                      Columnist / Reporter

                      Michael Rand is the Minnesota Star Tribune's Digital Sports Senior Writer and host/creator of the Daily Delivery podcast. In 25 years covering Minnesota sports at the Minnesota Star Tribune, he has seen just about everything (except, of course, a Vikings Super Bowl).

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