Minnesota Sports Forum

Its been hitting me recently,

I haven't thought to myself once this season that Rudy appears to be slowing down, or losing a step. His offense has been as good as we have seen in Minnesota and his defense is DPOY quality. TC obliterated that trade!

RUDY has been the best RUDY we've ever seen in Minnesota in the last month.

Rudy needs to regain his free throw% from last year! The team seems to miss more when he misses more.

Leado01 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 23, 2025 10:47 pm RUDY has been the best RUDY we've ever seen in Minnesota in the last month.

Agreed (knock on wood). He's leading the NBA in shooting %, rebounding like a monster and defending like the best to ever play. How he's not getting paid double is a miracle! We got a steal of a contract so far.

I mentioned last week, he looks springy and twitchy again. I have to think he has ongoing on/off back issues like he had a few years ago. If you've never had back pain you wouldn't know how it can slow you down. I think he's simply healthy. He's noticeably quicker.

Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 24, 2025 12:20 pm

Leado01 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 23, 2025 10:47 pm RUDY has been the best RUDY we've ever seen in Minnesota in the last month.

Agreed (knock on wood). He's leading the NBA in shooting %, rebounding like a monster and defending like the best to ever play. How he's not getting paid double is a miracle! We got a steal of a contract so far.

I mentioned last week, he looks springy and twitchy again. I have to think he has ongoing on/off back issues like he had a few years ago. If you've never had back pain you wouldn't know how it can slow you down. I think he's simply healthy. He's noticeably quicker.

As someone with lower back issues I know exactly what you’re talking about. The key might be the fact that Rudy skipped Euro competition this past summer. I’ll never like the Gorbert trade but I like Rudy and love the way he’s playing for us this season. I think we’re far too dependent on him defensively and that concerns me but that’s not Rudy’s fault.

Take Rudy off this team and they have the least amount of wins compared to anyone else, including Ant. IMO and that’s why the trade was a success

Porckchop wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 3:02 pm Take Rudy off this team and they have the least amount of wins compared to anyone else, including Ant. IMO and that’s why the trade was a success

Agree. And it’s hard to argue with consecutive WC finals in the seasons following the trade.

Sundog wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 4:46 pm

Porckchop wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 3:02 pm Take Rudy off this team and they have the least amount of wins compared to anyone else, including Ant. IMO and that’s why the trade was a success

Agree. And it’s hard to argue with consecutive WC finals in the seasons following the trade.

There’s no telling what this team would have done if the trade for Rudy had never happened. There were a lot of other options with all the assets we gave up for Rudy - both draft and trade options. We won 46 games when Ant and Jaden were 19 and 20 years old respectively the season before Rudy arrived. Naz was 21 or 22. None of those three were nearly as good as they all are now. The question we’ll never be able to answer is what the Wolves could have done to build off of that season with the trade and draft assets they had at the time, knowing the team would invariably improve substantially just through the development of Ant, Jaden and Naz.

Again, I can’t say the Rudy deal was failure and there’s no question Rudy has been fantastic. But we haven’t won a championship and we were pretty easily dispatched in each of the last two Western Conference Finals. So there’s a level we have not yet attained and there were other paths to go down that might have been more successful and more sustainable. In other words, the team could have been constructed differently and been at least as successful, maybe more so, without Rudy Nevertheless, we are where we are and I think we’re in pretty good spot so I’m certainly not complaining about the trade. In fact, I wouldn’t even consider trading Rudy right now given how critical he is to the success of this team as it’s currently constructed. We’re all in on Rudy as a team and he’s giving us all we could possibly ask for. So I think we need to ride this out to the end in my view - at least to the end of this season.

Yes, granted we can’t know what might’ve happened without the Rudy trade… but whatever it might’ve been is just a huge “maybe.” Whereas we “know” the Wolves reached the WCF in two consecutive seasons, and as you pointed out in another thread, could be in the mix for a third or better.

I heard on Locked on Wolves today that the Wolves had a defensive rating of 98 when Rudy was on the court last night, and 137 when he was off.