Home Sweet Home (Nuggets vs. Wolves GT3)

[Carlos Danger]

Minnesota traded for Rudy Gobert, in part, because the '22 Wolves were a poor rebounding team.

Denver has outrebounded the Timberwolves in each game in this series (+25 overall).

Minnesota ranked #26 in the NBA for rebounding this season.

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If playing with two bigs creates problems on offense or defense because of their lack of speed... but doesn't offer any advantages because of their prohibitive size advantage?

... ummmmm... err... ummm...




[Note: That's not an anti-Gobert post. It's a What the Fuck, Tim Connelly post.]

Abe, I hear you, but like, what do we do about it? Both KAT and Rudy's trade values are probably at an all-time low right now. Obviously the trade was a huge mistake, we know that, and I'm still shocked by the Connelly's gall for coming in here and pulling the trigger on that almost immediately. It's like a total outsider making a HUGE gamble with someone else's money. But it's done.

Many times this year, especially after KAT came back and it still felt like we couldn't get anything going, I've had this analogy in mind for where we are as a franchise. Let me know what you think.

Every team's goal is to win a championship. To get to the mountaintop. So basically, we're like mountain climbers. And every team at every moment is somewhere on the mountain. The Celtics, Bucks, etc., are already near the top for this season. The Pistons and Rockets are down at base camp, assembling a team of climbers and collecting gear (draft picks, tradeable contracts, etc).

In this analogy, we were a team that was surprisingly getting close to halfway up the mountain last year, despite having a couple disappointing climbers (KAT, DLO) and a couple promising but young and inexperienced climbers (Ant, McD). We also still had most of the gear (draft picks) we might need for a long climb, because it was clear we weren't going to summit for the next couple of years. In this analogy, when TC came in and traded for Gobert, it was like giving away a bunch of ropes, spare tents, and food in exchange for adding another experienced climber. The idea was that we'd be able to get up the mountain much faster with that additional good, experienced climber, so we might not need all that extra gear anyway. But of course, without more food and spare equipment, our window for reaching the summit would be shorter.

So here we are, a year later. We've still got a few supplies (draft picks occasionally) and possible contributing climbers we haven't seen much from yet (Minott and maybe Moore), but we didn't get any higher up the mountain this year than last year. That injury to a key climber (KAT) explains it to some degree. But the pressure is clearly on for the next couple of years because the supplies are low and some of these climbers are getting older.

Should we have kept those supplies and not traded them for that French alpinist? It absolutely looks like it. But this is where we're at. And if we trade any of these good climbers now, we won't get many supplies for them and it'll probably send us back down the mountain where it'll still take a long time to re-supply. We're kind of screwed, but I think the only thing to do at this point is probably to push on up the mountain.

I think simply not overpaying for the wrong climber would have been a much better option... and it would have resulted in fewer climbers plummeting to their deaths in horrifying fashion.

As far as "nothing we can do about it..."

- Yes. We have no control of this organization. Just like when we couldn't stop the Rambis, Kahn or Darko additions. Just like when we couldn't stop the Wes Johnson pick. Or Avery pick. Or Paul Grant pick. Or Derrick Williams pick. Or Joe Smith signing. Or Ndudi Ebi signing.

- EVERYBODY* saw the Gobert trade as an overpay. It's a historically bad trade. Already... and we're only 1/4 of the way in on it. To just chalk it up as "oh well" isn't enough for me. When a team makes an obvious* franchise-defining misstep like this... it's hard to just shrug and think positively about what's next... if the same people are in charge.

It's literally the ONLY story with this franchise right now.

1) The trade was a disaster.
2) How the heck do we try to recover from it.

This discussion is here to stay because every single move the franchise makes over the next few years will have roots in this debacle of a trade.





* I rounded up. Maybe only about 95% of people thought it was obviously an overpay. Meanwhile, a slightly less percentage of people (75% or so) thought it was a terrible fit. I might be conservative with both estimates...

We all have felt that way since the Gobert trade. And nobody can defend the over pay because there is no reasonable defense for it. But, (and this has been brought up before by me and others), it's possibly not as doom and gloom as it appears on the surface.

Last year's team was good, but clearly not good enough. So TC took a big swing (and miss) at it this year by adding Gobert. Putting the overpay aside...TC was bringing in a 3 time All Star and Defensive Player of the Year. That seemed like a somewhat safe bet to improve the team short term. Some on here say they knew right away it wouldn't work. Those people should get a job in basketball operations. We should at least give TC some credit for taking a shot at something better than just hoping Edwards gets better or hoping Towns will defend etc. Unfortunately, it didn't work. So now what? Well, TC can claim he had two timelines:

1.) Win now with Towns/Edwards/McDaniels/DLO/Gobert. That's a good line up (on paper anyway). Or...
2.) If Plan A doesn't work, pivot to plan B and trade off pieces i.e. DLO and Towns (and eventually Gobert) to build around Edwards/McDaniels.

Skeptics will say TC can never get back what he paid for Gobert. And that's possibly true. Again - I can't defend that (nor can anyone). But I'd think Towns would bring back a lot of what we gave up in terms of players/picks. So, in summary, it's a kick in the nuts. But not a permanently disabling kick in the nuts. TC had one year. He didn't make the team better in that year. But it's not like the wheels fell off either. I'd expect a lot more changes for next year. The success or failure of next year's team will certainly determine TC's future with the Wolves. I'm not saying he gets a free pass for year one. He doesn't. But looking at it as I outlined above, it's easier to accept that he might have always had a "Plan B". Good leaders always look forward - not backward. I'm fine with letting him make more changes around Edwards/McDaniels. I will NOT be fine if he tries to run this shit back (and I don't think he will).