For Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, family was the key to settling in with the Timberwolves

When the Timberwolves traded for guard Donte DiVincenzo and forward Julius Randle, they finalized the deal in late September, which is not a typical time for trades to happen.

Not only did the timing of the deal put the lives of DiVincenzo and Randle in flux on the court as they tried to figure out how best they would function on the Wolves, but it upended their lives off the court as well.

“This was most difficult in terms of off-the-court [adjustment], and all that transitions to the court,” said DiVincenzo, who has played for five different teams.

In the NBA there are two major transaction windows. One is in late June or early July, and players who sign somewhere else or get traded have the rest of the summer to figure out their family living situations before the following season begins. Or trades often happen in February at the deadline, and players (such as Wolves point guard Mike Conley a few years ago) might finish out the final months of the season in their new city, then figure out where they and their family will go next in the offseason.

Getting traded in late September just days before training camp opened didn’t provide much time for DiVincenzo and Randle to make a lot of family decisions, so perhaps it’s no coincidence that it took both a little time to fit in with the Wolves both on and off the court.

They figured out the playing part first; Randle has embraced his role as a distributor and playmaker while taking fewer shots than he did with the Knicks, and DiVincenzo’s shooting greatly improved after a slow start. But more than half a year removed from the trade, both recently reflected on how difficult it was at first — and how crucial their partners were in helping their families navigate a turbulent time.

“I got a great wife. Just makes my job, my life easier,” Randle said of his wife, Kendra. “She tries to eliminate as much off-the-court responsibilities and all that stuff the best that she can, so I can just focus on basketball and being the best basketball player I could possibly be.”

At the time of the trade, DiVincenzo had a 6-month-old at home with his fiancée, Morgan Calantoni. He went from thinking he would be in New York, where he has a house, to spending the next several weeks in Minnesota and on the road for the Wolves’ preseason schedule.

“She did everything,” DiVincenzo said of Calantoni. “Taking care of the baby, first and foremost, is like the hardest thing to do while being on the road. Then also, taking care of me. Mentally, it’s tough, it’s a battle, it’s a grind. She’s been there every step of the way. There to vent, but also there to knock some sense into and get you back into playing like yourself and being yourself. It really helps.”

Randle said one of the things he had to make sure to do upon coming to Minnesota was to have enough “dad time” for his children. Making sure they were doing OK with the changes in their lives was at the top of his mind, and it was hard the first weeks when they would visit him and they’d all have to hang out in a hotel room.

“They still want dad time,” Randle said. “That’s probably the bigger challenge, just getting them adjusted on a day-to-day basis, spending time with them and being there to be a dad for them, because they’re adjusting, too.

“My oldest, he had all his friends in school that he was growing up with, he loved his school, and now he’s adjusting to a whole different life.”

This is something about NBA life that not a lot of fans see, DiVincenzo said — how the well-being of a player’s family can weigh on that player’s mind, and roll over to affect how he plays. This applies to a lot of Wolves players, he said.

“A lot of these guys on the team, they’re hugely impacted by their families. When they’re good, and they’re settled, they’re all fine, I think it allows everybody to be themselves on the court,” DiVincenzo said. “There’s no weight, there’s no stress, there’s no anxiety about anything, everything’s taken care of.”

But in those early months after coming to Minnesota, DiVincenzo and Randle were still figuring everything out, even as they praised the organization for helping them through that transition. Randle did say he felt like he adjusted to life in Minnesota “fast,” all things considered.

“Home is where my family is. I’m used to traveling. I’ve been in the league for 11 years now, so I’ve had my share of adjustment,” Randle said. “I adjusted pretty fast. Only thing I didn’t adjust to fast enough was the cold. I’m still not really adjusted to that.”

Though Randle said he did enjoy a couple of snow days this winter when he and his family got to break out their sleds.

DiVincenzo said he started to feel comfortable around December, after he got a house and all of his family’s furniture was in there. Getting his family in a house in Minnesota also meant they had a home base from which to come on more road trips as the season progressed, and that helped ease DiVincenzo’s mind.

“Now I get to have so much more dad time,” DiVincenzo said. “Basketball is always as a job is always first, but my first duty is being a father and being a fiancé and handling that first. When I handle that, then basketball just takes over and allows me to be myself.”

Coach Chris Finch said in the preseason he couldn’t tell anything was weighing on the minds of Randle and DiVincenzo because they handled everything with a professional approach. Then the season began, and the Wolves went through fits and starts in the first two-plus months. But when the calendar turned to 2025, they helped turn the Wolves’ season around.

“Donte, when he finally became comfortable and locked in here into his role, gave us the shot in the arm that we really needed,” Finch said. “Julius, we’ve talked about many times, leaning into being that playmaker role, doing a bunch of everything. Those two guys really got it kick-started in different ways.”

Randle averaged 18.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game during the regular season. DiVincenzo averaged 11.7 points, but he shot 40% from three-point range in December and every month after. It was no coincidence this happened after his family got settled.

“You have expectations for yourself, but you also have fans’ expectations, and you want to give them everything that they’re thinking that they’re getting,” DiVincenzo said. “It’s not easy. There’s no excuses behind that. We have an amazing job, and we have the best job in the world, but it just takes a little bit of time.”