Bill Simmons had Ryen Russillo on his Monday podcast to go over all things NBA. And, for what seems like the umpteenth time recently, they led off the pod with a discussion about the Minnesota Timberwolves. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a lot of positive things to say.
Simmons started things off with a rant about Gobert before diving into Minnesota’s 113-108 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
It’s a sad day for Russillo and I, two of the biggest Rudy Gobert fans around. [Russillo laughs.] You can hear it in our voices. This guy, we’ve stuck through it through thick and thin. And today hurts, Russillo. He got sent home at halftime of a very important Game 82 against the Pelicans because he punched his teammate in the shoulder and had to be separated during a timeout huddle.
And now this team, they end up winning in the second half. A roller-coaster ride of an Anthony Edwards game, which we’ll talk about. They end up winning, and then they’ll play the Lakers in the play-in game, the 7-8 [matchup]. They might not have Gobert, he might be suspended. Who knows? Jaden McDaniels looks like he fractured his hand punching a wall because he got two fouls. And Naz Reid is out for the season.
It just keeps dropping in the Lakers’ lap, Russillo. We can talk about that later, but your Gobert reaction first.
Russillo didn’t hold back.
Ah, well, he sucks. I can’t stand him. All the years, I was guilty of it in the beginning, too. You’re like, ‘Man, look at all these screen assists.’ And we knew the trade wasn’t gonna be very good. I actually thought it would help them with their defensive rebounding, which was a huge issue that would help them defensively in the regular season. I thought they would have a better regular season, but they kinda had to reinvent themselves after the trade.
My question is, do you think Gobert goes home and watches the game? He got sent home!
Simmons acknowledged that this wasn’t the first physical altercation during an NBA game.
I don’t remember – I tweeted that I went to the game where Robert Horry threw the towel at Danny Ainge’s face. That was a Suns-Celtics game, I was in the building for that. And I was at the game where KD and Draymond got really mad at each other right as they were going into overtime. It seemed like they were gonna get into a fight, and they didn’t.
But other than that, teammate vs. teammate, even acrimony is pretty rare. And actual guys getting separated once a year. And a punch? I can’t remember. I’m sure it’s happened in the history of the NBA.
Russillo also pointed out that Anderson can be more aggressive than his demeanor suggests.
It happens, though. Guys do get into it with each other in the huddles and that kinda stuff. And Anderson runs kinda hotter than his demeanor would probably tell you. But Gobert got benched at the end, with four minutes to go – I lost track – where it was like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna switch something up.
I understand his frustration, but now you’re at your second spot. You’re not as good as you were in Utah. Everybody that was pro-Gobert made excuses about everything that we didn’t understand. And I was even guilty of it, as I said in the past. But we knew he was declining. He gets traded. It still doesn’t really work. He’s kind of an outdated player. And when you pass him the basketball, you have no idea what’s gonna happen.
So when Donovan Mitchell, it’s like, ‘Hey man, he doesn’t want to pass to Gobert,’ I was like, ‘Well, no shit.’ Because he still hasn’t quite figured it out despite the defensive presence that he brings to you. Really, what he should be is a role player who comes into the game in defense of specific matchups.
But for him to get into this, this game was so important. So Jaden, who can be frustrating at times despite his great defensive ability, he gets some whistles where I could see he’s kinda like, ‘What the fuck, man?’ It feels like he gets a pretty heavy whistle at times, and I thought the play where he got the whistle on the box-out, he was face-guarding the box-out, and then he chucked the other guy. So, like, you’re gonna get that call on you.
So for all off this stuff looking like it’s gonna fall apart and Ingram goes off in the first quarter, it’s one of my favorite Ant games ever, even if you looked at just the box score, you’d be like, ‘Well, he wasn’t that great.’ And sure, he made mistakes. But he had stretches where when you watch him, Bill, those are the moments where you’re like, ‘He has another level that he can get to that not many players have.’ And that’s the hope.
Simmons thought that even Towns played better without Gobert, and then had a lot of praise for Edwards.
I’m so glad you mentioned that because Towns was reinvigorated not having Gobert in there, and then Edwards realized he needed to step up and took Ingram’s performance really personally. Ingram was great in the first half, I think he had 27. And Edwards, you could see he not only took the challenge of trying to defend him but was talking shit to him, was getting a little aggro with him.
And as you said, Edwards was all over the place in this game. I think he had eight turnovers. He had a couple awful, awful plays. And then he had some of the best plays I’ve seen from his entire career. Some crazy MJ blocks in traffic, crazy offensive rebounds put-backs, a couple big threes. And it’s all the same stuff you and I’ve been talking about with him for over a year. Just some swagger to him.
Did you see that play? You must have seen it, it was like four minutes left. Ingram did that spin move he does, and Edwards just dived in front of it, just pick-pocketed it with his whole body. Like he just read the move, beat him to the spot, and just stole it without fouling him, which, I don’t know, that’s not a play you see very often, right? Where somebody reads the spin move and just steals it.
Russillo was lukewarm on Towns but compounded Simmons’ praise for Edwards.
The one I noticed, it was like 71-69 – because the other frustrating part is that Towns got his fourth foul with eight minutes to go, or at the eight-minute mark of the third quarter. One of the officials in this game was having a pretty tough go of it. And it was funny because Towns goes to get in front of Valančiūnas, in not like a full transition but like a soft transition.
And players do this all the time, where they just kind of get in front of the other guy, fall down, and get the call. And the officials, who had a tough game, went to call it a charge. Luckily the guy on the baseline saw what happened, but at that point, you’re like, why are you fucking around with this? Why are you even putting yourself in a position where it shouldn’t even be a charge anyway, and then he gets his fourth foul, and he’s subbed out of the game.
And at that point, it’s 71-69, and Anthony Edwards had a drive past everybody, and then there was all this help on him, and he makes a perfect pass, then he hits a three, and I think the Ingram block you’re talking about, he was already in the air as Ingram – like he got off of his feet almost undisciplined, and then Ingram thinks he has him, and then he strips him on the way down.
Simmons clarified that he was talking bout a different play, “No, that was a different play. He had the block, and then he had McCollum in traffic.”
Russillo acknowledged and continued.
The McCollum help one was like, I retweeted it because it was so nasty. But even off that strip, then he turned it over. But then he got the and-1 when he got the turnover again. You’re right, there was some messiness to it, but there were stretches where he had to kinda do this on his own, and those are the special players, and that’s why, again, he has a chance to be one of those guys.
This was actually an awesome win, considering everything that happened for Minnesota. They should feel great today.
Simmons agreed.
Totally. That was a rise-to-the-occasion game from him. And it wasn’t perfect, but I think that’s why we both like him. I think he senses the moment; I think he realized the season was going sideways. The whole team – it was weird for a team that had just had an altercation on the bench an hour earlier, the whole team are all standing, they’re pulling for each other, it looks like they really like Kyle Anderson and Prince. And the Edwards thing, how can you not like that guy?
Russillo agreed he’s in on Edwards and even had a little love for Towns.
And when Towns came back in, too, he lit it up from the outside. New Orleans tried to go five-out, small. Herb Jones was playing on him at that point, and if you just don’t have enough size, like I can understand, if Towns is hitting his shot, it’s a brutal spot for the opposing coach to go, ‘What do I do here?’
But the funny thing is when Towns was out, Gobert’s already gone, they brought in Knight for a stretch there to play center, that wasn’t working out defensively. By going kinda five-out, it allowed for all this room for Anthony Edwards, which kinda gets back to the Gobert point of like screwing Edwards up.
It’s one of those long-term things Timberwolves maybe don’t want to hear about because today was so awesome, getting that win. But that’s just the part of the basketball fit where you go, ‘Man, isn’t it cool when you have Towns on the outside with Ant just attacking, and no one else is there on this team in the middle?’
Simmons laughed in agreement and reveled in his longstanding take on the Gobert trade.
That’s why we hated the trade, to begin with. I mean, we can victory lap this. We’ve been victory-lapping this for six months. I hated the trade, really despised it. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t think it made them a contender. I thought it was gonna change their style of play in a weird way. I wasn’t sold on Towns and Gobert at all.
I could see even in that second half today with Towns as the center, that was the best thing about him, is he’s this weird center who can guard fives on one end and then spreads it out for everybody on the other end, and I thought Gobert not being out there weirdly opened things up for them.
The refs kept Towns in the game. Towns should have fouled out with two minutes left. He missed that layup around the rim, and then he was trying to get the rebound, and he just crashed into the guy and went two feet backward. I think if they would have called that, I think Minnesota was gonna lose.
It’s not a great sign that Simmons and Russillo have panned the Gobert trade since the beginning and been right about it. In some ways, it feels fitting that he had an altercation with Anderson, one of Minnesota’s most popular players, and the team has suspended him for the first play-in game. The trade has been detrimental to the Timberwolves, who had a popular 46-win team last year.
Can they escape the play-in tournament? They face an uphill battle without Gobert and Jaden McDaniels. But the bigger question is how they reorient the team around Edward next year.
