Timberwolves investment in Rudy Gobert doesn't look encouraging / News - Basketnews.com

Minnesota Timberwolves decided to make a huge investment in Rudy Gobert, acquiring him from the Utah Jazz for one of the biggest deals in the league's recent history. However, the French big man hasn't impressed and is showing some signs of decline in his main quality: the rim protection.

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The Minnesota Timberwolves entered the last offseason with a very clear mindset: they wanted to get bigger and improve considerably on the defensive end. In order to do that, they were ready to make a big splash on the market, no matter the cost.

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So, they decided to trade for Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert, who was on the trade block after the Jazz had decided that the Mitchell-Gobert duo had run its course. To acquire the French big man, the Timberwolves made a huge investment.

They decided to move four players from their current roster (Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, Malik Beasley, and Jarred Vanderbilt), the draft rights to their pick in the 2022 NBA Draft (Walker Kessler). However, most importantly, they sacrificed the majority of their future draft picks, trading four first-round picks to the Jazz, adding a pick swap of first-round selections in 2026.

It was probably the biggest return ever netted in a trade. Many NBA executives thought that the combination of players and future picks paid by the Timberwolves to acquire Gobert actually made it impossible for every other team to trade for Kevin Durant, who had asked in the same summer to leave the Brooklyn Nets.

But despite the original excitement of adding probably the best defensive big man in the league, the results on the court for the Timberwolves have been mixed, to say the least.

The team coached by Chris Finch is currently sitting in 11th place in the Western Conference with a record of 20 wins and 21 losses.

The playoff zone is not that far, and most likely, the Timberwolves will be able to finish the regular season at least in the play-in zone, but the performances of Gobert and his fit with the rest of the roster haven't been exactly on point so far.

Points this season

49%114,7Points made:114,7Accuracy:49,1%Place in standings:12Record max:150Record min:88Best scorer:Anthony EdwardsTeamNBAStatisticsSchedule

Ever since the trade for Gobert, there have been questions about the fit between the French player and the Minnesota Timberwolves another main star, Karl Anthony-Towns.

From an offensive standpoint, it was pretty much a given that there would be difficulties in finding the right formula.

But after 41 regular season games and a losing record, albeit by a small margin, the Timberwolves are most likely already asking questions about issues that go far beyond the offensive fit between the 'Stifle Tower' and the rest of the team.

Gobert finished last season averaging 15.6 points, 14.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 71.3% from the field (the best percentage in the entire league).

This season the French center averages 14.0 points, 11.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists, and 1.4 blocks per game. Basically, all his numbers are going down, not by a mile, but the dropoff is there to see. Gobert also has a worse percentage from the field, shooting 67.5%.

On paper, Gobert's arrival to the Timberwolves should have helped in reversing last season's trend, which saw Minnesota have the seventh-best offense in the league (excluding garbage time) but only the 13th-best defense.

However, the defensive statistic, which on the surface does not seem so bad, was distorted by the fact that the Timberwolves were able to force many turnovers. At the same time, their rim protection ability was extremely bad (second worst in the entire league, according to data from Cleaning the glass).

Timberwolves' defense has indeed improved, especially when Gobert is on the floor. They're among the best 10 teams from a defensive standpoint. But the quality and the efficiency of the offense have decreased in a worrisome way.

Overall, the Timberwolves have the 20th offensive rating in the league. Still, when Rudy Gobert is on the floor, the offensive numbers are even worse, putting Minnesota dead last in terms of offensive rating with the French big man on the floor.

The team coached by Chris Finch is shooting only 31% from 3-point, definitely below the league's average from deep. As noted by Seth Partnow of the Athletic, the majority of Timberwolves' rotation players are shooting with worse percentages from the 3-point zone when Gobert is on the court.

In the minutes shared with Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns is shooting only 19% from deep, while when the French big man is on the bench, Towns' 3-point percentage increases to almost 46%.

While the offensive struggles were predictable, the most concerning aspect is that Gobert is not shining in what has been his main quality for most of his career: rim protection.

This season, the French big man is allowing more than 60% percent at the rim, the worst number of his entire career in the NBA.

Only last season, Gobert allowed 49.3% shots at the rim, so we're not talking about a slow decline in his effectiveness since his presence at the rim in the past few seasons was more than felt.

There's been a huge downgrade compared to last season's numbers. On multiple occasions, Timberwolves' defense at the rim has been more effective with Jaden McDaniels than with Gobert, something that it would have been difficult to predict just a few months ago.

The defense just looks more dynamic, although not as effective, when Gobert is not on the floor.

These aspects are definitely worrisome for Minnesota. The price paid to get Gobert was extremely high, and so far, the results seen on the court do not justify such an effort financially and in terms of the franchise's future prospects.

With Karl-Anthony Towns out with a calf injury and still weeks away from a return, it's almost natural that the Timberwolves would love to see more from Gobert on both ends of the court.

Inside the franchise, of course, there's still the belief that these issues will be solved with time. And that's a fair point, don't get me wrong.

Gobert hasn't even played a full season with the Timberwolves yet, and making any type of definitive statement on his impact would be at least premature. But, at the same time, there's also room to notice that since his arrival in Minneapolis, things are not going as smoothly as expected.

When Towns is back from the injury, the situation will probably improve, especially on the offensive end.

Anthony Edwards, the other main piece of this roster, is still a very young player, showing signs of improvement. However, his overall performances still lack long-term consistency.

As noted before, despite a negative record, the Timberwolves are still in the plain hunt for a playoff spot, and the play-in tournament shouldn't be at risk unless the team completely collapses in the second half of the season.

But with several teams fighting for those last playoff spots, even just a couple of games could make the difference, and so far, the Timberwolves have had the tendency to lose games that were within their grasp.

This type of roster will probably never have a superb offensive production. Still, in order to make a deep playoff run, they need to be among the best teams in the league on the defensive end, and that simply can't happen if Gobert is not at his best level.

'The Stifle Tower' was brought in to bring this team to a whole new level defensively. If that won't happen, the Timberwolves will have a huge problem on their hands.

Gobert's contract will run until 2026 [there's a player option worth $46.6 million in the final year], and the French player has already entered his 30s when it's almost natural to see a decline in his performances.

If the big lineup experiment doesn't work, the Minnesota Timberwolves are destined to continue in their struggle to get out of the NBA's mediocrity, probably one of the toughest challenges in professional sports, for still quite some time.

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