Minnesota Sports Forum

I wanted to get beyond the merits of the trade that we've all been discussing in the Gobert to the Wolves thread. I've said all I have to say about that deal, which I wouldn't have made if I were in Connelly's position. Instead, I thought it made sense to start a fresh thread focused solely on these next four years as we enter the Gobert era. I envision the discussion addressing the following, but other things as well:

1. What Rudy Gobert will bring to the team
2. Who on the current roster will fit best with him
3. Who or what types of players the Wolves should attempt to bring in around Rudy, KAT and Ant

Gobert is not Shaq, Tim Duncan or Embiid because he's only a star on one end of the floor. You won't see him dominate on both ends like the others I just listed. However, there is no doubt he is a defensive star - perhaps the best defensive big man in the League right now if not second only to Embiid.

As a good start to this thread, I'm posting the following video. It's hard to argue that Gobert is anything other than the best defensive big in the game today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtacIvNCK_E

So the Gobert era is about to start. Let the forward-looking discussion begin.

I thought monsters' comparison of KAT/Gobert to Dirk/Chandler was pretty intriguing!

JonK just posted an article on who benefits the most on the T-Wolves roster:

https://theathletic.com/3396968/2022/07/03/rudy-gobert-blockbuster-timberwolves (requires a subscription).

He covers a number of people, but Russell is probably the biggest beneficiary on both ends of the court.

#1 - I'd argue he IS a 2-way star. Now he can't break down a defense off the bounce or kill someone in an iso post-up, but he puts a ton of pressure on the rim because he is an elite screen setter and roll man. But yeah, his defensive rebounding and rim protection are elite and fills a major hole for us.

#2 - I agree with Tim/Jonny K....DLO is one of the biggest beneficiaries because he finally has a true PnR partner that actually sets good screens and can roll hard to the hoop. This has never been KAT's strong suit. The other beneficiary is KAT of course because now he's not stuck trying to mud wrestle in the paint with the beasts of the NBA like JoVal, Jokic, Embiid, etc. Gobert takes a TON of pressure off of KAT and should alleviate some of his foul trouble (in theory!).

#3 - The absolute #1 key to success this season is going to be the growth of Ant and Jaden as two way players. These two guys could make for a terrorizing combination defensively on the wings with Gobert as a backstop. Ant needs to be a lot better as an off-ball team defender and Jaden needs to learn how to defend without fouling. Both need to hit their 3's consistently.

If we can find a backup PG that can really defend well and pair him with Jaylen Nowell off the bench, I think that would really help matters. I love JMac, but I worry that him, Nowell, and Prince as our bench perimeter defenders is pretty flimsy. I love Nowell as a 6th man creator/scorer, so it's up to the other two perimeter roles to provide good defense.

Can he catch the ball in the dunker spot and dunk it?

How many missed dunks did we have last year because of Vando bad hands. We're literally asking him to outproduce Vando on the offensive end which shouldn't be hard to do.

I really think KAT is the biggest beneficiary. He will pick up less fouls. He should score more. He won't expend as much energy during the game. He won't have to play against Gobert several times per year.

I see a lot more of those games where we get off to big early leads. And then we should be able to maintain them better because one of KAT/Rudy will always be on the floor. Hopefully we also see Jaden pick up where he left off in our season finale.

Jester1534 wrote:Can he catch the ball in the dunker spot and dunk it?

How many missed dunks did we have last year because of Vando bad hands. We're literally asking him to outproduce Vando on the offensive end which shouldn't be hard to do.

It's a great point Jester and it's why he really helps us offensively as well. I love my guy Vando, but he was a weak screen setter and couldn't catch and finish without the ball being delivered to him on a silver platter with tons of space around him. Gobert can screen, catch, and finish about as well as anyone in the league.

On offense, Gobert provides about 16 pts per game, is an elite offensive rebounder, top 10 in screen assists per 36 minutes, #1 last year in true shooting percentage ... so while he's not Duncan or Embid, he's not a zero.

60WinTim wrote:I thought monsters' comparison of KAT/Gobert to Dirk/Chandler was pretty intriguing!

JonK just posted an article on who benefits the most on the T-Wolves roster:

https://theathletic.com/3396968/2022/07/03/rudy-gobert-blockbuster-timberwolves (requires a subscription).

He covers a number of people, but Russell is probably the biggest beneficiary on both ends of the court.

Yeah, I thought the dirk/chandler comparison was very good also.

60WinTim wrote:I thought monsters' comparison of KAT/Gobert to Dirk/Chandler was pretty intriguing!

JonK just posted an article on who benefits the most on the T-Wolves roster:

https://theathletic.com/3396968/2022/07/03/rudy-gobert-blockbuster-timberwolves (requires a subscription).

He covers a number of people, but Russell is probably the biggest beneficiary on both ends of the court.

One guy I hadn't thought of that will benefit from this deal is McDaniels. He now will be spending plenty today time as a wing instead of as a PF. If the Wolves want to play small they also have Anderson as well. The Wolves stay pretty big as they can cover all their SF minutes with McDaniels and Prince. Idk how much those guys played PF last year but it's going to be less now. I think both guys may end up playing a few minutes there in small ball lineups but it will be less.

Russell is a polarizing player and As much as ai wrote positive stiff about him the last few weeks I was ok with him being dealt. It seems he will be here for this season so why not look at some past examples of a guy making it in at least somewhat similar situation?

The Pistons backcourt that won a championship were not considered remotely good defenders before they went to the Pistons. Rip Hamilton was a skinny not overwhelmingly athletic scorer on losing teams considered pretty much allergic to defense. Billups had the physical tools but he wasn't a particularly good defender in his season with the Wolves that ended up getting him a good contract with Detroit and...the rest of it is history. The Pistons happened to have Ben Wallace who was easily one of the best defensive players of his era if not the best.

Russell benefited last year from the defensive scheme and he seemed more bought in. He has a lot of length of a PG he is really the size of a SG. Could Russell and the Wolves find a way to get the most out of him again now that he will be playing with one of the best defensive players ever? It seems possible. Likely? No but why not find out this season? If I'm Russell I'm plenty interested in it too even if I have to play on an expiring deal. Gobert's screening is gonna be huge for the offense and for Russell to get space. I remember the vast difference there was between Taj Gibson and Towns years ago. Gobert is gonna add something this team hasn't seen since Pekovic. Sometimes guys that play reasonably well on really good teams get paid for that whether for not they deserve it or not. Russell is now a guy on a team legitimately hoping to contend for a championship. I know some people don't like him but I think he is gonna be up for that.

D-Loser wrote:

60WinTim wrote:I thought monsters' comparison of KAT/Gobert to Dirk/Chandler was pretty intriguing!

JonK just posted an article on who benefits the most on the T-Wolves roster:

https://theathletic.com/3396968/2022/07/03/rudy-gobert-blockbuster-timberwolves (requires a subscription).

He covers a number of people, but Russell is probably the biggest beneficiary on both ends of the court.

Yeah, I thought the dirk/chandler comparison was very good also.

Gotta give Jason partial credit for that one. :)