Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves find themselves at center of NBA’s offseason circus

Here is what Minnesota Timberwolves fans have learned this week:

1. Anthony Edwards is a poor man’s Derrick McKey.

2. Rudy Gobert is the worst player in the NBA. Ever.

3. The Timberwolves will regress this season because they got “lucky” the Nuggets didn’t have more bigs to help Nikola Jokić in the playoffs.

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These are some ominous tidbits when the opening of the preseason is less than a month away. While the discourse itself has been mostly nonsensical, it has been informative in one sense.

For most of the last two decades, while the Timberwolves floundered in the NBA’s gutter and were largely ignored or ridiculed by the rest of the league and those who cover it, fans and the organization’s employees held firm to the belief that the tune would change once the play on the court did.

What has become clear is that three straight playoff appearances and a run to the Western Conference finals that set the Twin Cities ablaze with energy are not yet enough of a turnaround to win over the larger NBA populace.

The run the Wolves had last season was revelatory because they had only been that deep in the playoffs one other time in their 35 seasons in the league. But it appears as though many across the NBA landscape see it as just a cute little season easily dismissed. This season will be the most anticipated one since their very first.

The Wolves will just have to do it again. They have to be even better than they were last season. Their two stirring playoff series wins have been swiped aside thanks to the loss to Dallas, and because they happen to be home to two magnets for derision.

Gobert is the league’s favorite pin cushion. Whether it is Shaquille O’Neal, Chauncey Billups, Draymond Green or Dereck Lively II, everyone loves to poke holes in him. The reasons are easy to identify.

Gobert has made a ton of money in his career and won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards, but has yet to play in an NBA Finals. His offensive game is clunky and he has had some tough moments in big spots. France played its best basketball of the Olympics after Gobert’s minutes were drastically reduced. It needed more offensive versatility next to Victor Wembanyama in the frontcourt and got it from Guerschon Yabusele and Mathias Lessort, both of whom were not on NBA rosters at the time.

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And yes, Luka Dončić did beat Gobert in isolation at the end of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals and proceeded to say some very mean things to him.  (That there isn’t a big man on earth who could have been expected to stop Dončić from getting his shot off in that situation seems bizarrely ignored in examining the context. The way that play was discussed, you would have thought Gobert got cooked by Theo Pinson, but I digress.)

Gobert is a surefire Hall of Famer, one of the best defensive players of this or any generation. His arrival in Minnesota has ensured that Edwards is playing meaningful games early in his career, setting a standard of expectation for him that Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Kevin Love and any other young player that Wolves fans hoped would lift the franchise never had. Gobert was essential for the Wolves’ success last season and will be needed even more this season.

4x DPOY.
4 minutes of blocks.#NBADefenseWeek pic.twitter.com/B7oTtN0tZq

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) September 4, 2024

Then there is KAT, who can’t seem to get the smokey smell out of his clothes after Jimmy Butler’s fiery exit almost six years ago. Towns played well against Phoenix and Denver in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the first postseason success of his nine-year career, but he couldn’t make a shot against the Mavericks for most of the series. He played the best defense of his career last season and has sacrificed more than anyone on the Wolves to accommodate Gobert, but that hasn’t been enough for some people.

Towns and Gobert will make about $93 million combined next season, contracts that they have earned by their All-Star résumés and the league’s skyrocketing revenues throughout their careers.

O’Neal often bemoans how much money the modern players make, but it’s merely a reflection of the growing financial pie that the owners and players share.

It is sad to see someone that has accomplished as much as you did @SHAQ both in sport and business still be triggered by another man’s finances and accomplishments. I get the entertainment part but unlike other folks, you don’t need that stuff to stay relevant. https://t.co/KPHs2VmfIb

— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) September 5, 2024

This is not to say that the Wolves should be considered unimpeachable. Edwards’ comments about Michael Jordan being the only player with skills back in the day are silly and worthy of rebuke. The same goes for some of Towns’ comments on the podcast circuit.

As for the team itself, it will be competing in a Western Conference that will be tougher than ever. Teams all around them have gotten better while the Wolves will be banking on internal improvement, 37-year-old free agent Joe Ingles and rookies Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. to help make up for the losses of Kyle Anderson, Jordan McLaughlin and Monte Morris. Conley and Gobert are a year older. There is not a player on the roster who has been to the finals, so there will be questions about their ability to break through until they do it.

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Gobert acknowledged as much last season as the Wolves were emerging as legitimate contenders in the West. There were times earlier in his career when the criticism stung him much more. Now, he is trying to rise above it.

“We saw it with Giannis; we saw it with Jokic,” Gobert said in April. “Everyone always had something to say about their game and about who they are as players until they won a championship. And then what did people have to say after that? Not much. They can only respect. So I have to earn their respect.”

Lively played great in the conference finals against the Wolves and very well may be on his way to a standout career. But he should pray that he has close to the individual run Gobert has had. O’Neal is one of the most dominant players to ever play the game and it is understandable if he is a little salty that contracts today tower over the deals that he signed in the 1990s.

But calling a player as accomplished as Gobert the WOAT is comically off base. And Rasheed Wallace comparing Edwards to McKey, a very good role player for Seattle and Indiana who never averaged more than 15.9 points per game, is dense for a player of his intelligence.

If anything, it has strengthened the bond between Wolves fans and this team. They have a rising superstar in Edwards, a folk hero in Naz Reid and the most connected and capable front office and coaching staff in ages. The only thing people in these parts might enjoy more is holding onto grievances when they feel like they are being unfairly picked on by people who aren’t from here and have never walked a mile in their snow boots.

They are rallying around Gobert now, just like they did for Towns during the playoffs. They are family, which means they can mutter under their breath when they’re frustrated with their frontcourt, but you can’t.

Every Field Goal Attempt In The 2024 Playoffs Where A Perimeter Player Isolates Rudy Gobert pic.twitter.com/ftJO9ujLRQ

— Pitless (@pitlessball) September 4, 2024

Maybe it is a sign that the offseason is just a little too long. We need some games to cut through all of this foolishness. In a little more than a month, the Wolves will be in Los Angeles to open the season against the Lakers.

It can’t get here soon enough.