After Rudy Gobert won his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award on May 7, he joined the Inside the NBA crew on TNT. It was a joyous time for Gobert. He missed Game 2 of the second round against the Denver Nuggets because his girlfriend gave birth the day prior.
Despite missing their best defender, the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Nuggets on May 6 in Denver by 26 points, holding Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić to a combined 8 of 31 from the floor.
“It was incredible,” Gobert responded when Shaquille O’Neal asked him what it felt like watching his team dominate on defense in Game 2. “As a competitor, you always want to be there for those types of games. … The guys not only did the job, but they did it in incredible fashion defensively and offensively.”
The Timberwolves were up 2-0 against the reigning champions after sweeping the Phoenix Suns in the first round. Gobert experienced the greatest joy a day before Game 2, welcoming his son, Roméo, into the world. When he rejoined the Wolves, they were in the driver’s seat to make the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years.
It may have been insignificant to Gobert or his team. Still, after becoming one of three players to earn four DPOY trophies, he also silenced the naysayers who prophesied that Minnesota’s trade for Gobert was the worst in NBA history.
O’Neal has taken shots at Gobert in the past, but Shaq bit his tongue while congratulating Rudy during TNT’s segment – only dishing out praise for a player deserving nothing else at the moment. However, it didn’t last long. Gobert didn’t have a great series against the Dallas Mavericks in the West Finals; Luka Doncic repeatedly beat him with elite pick-and-rolls. It was the first time Gobert made it to the Conference Finals. The stage was bigger than it had ever been for the three-time All-Star, which let in a narrative that was not only false but a detriment to Gobert’s legacy.
Five months later, Rudy and his band of brothers must send a message.
Draymond Green slammed Gobert in the Denver series after Jokić dropped 40 points in Game 5. Then, in the Conference Finals, he straight-up told the Target Center crowd, “Rudy sucks,” after Dončić hit the step-back heard around the world to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead heading back to Dallas. And in the summer, Shaq said that Gobert was the worst player in the NBA.
That came only months after Gobert won his fourth DPOY trophy when the Inside the NBA crew lightheartedly joked about the name Rudy and his girlfriend gave their kid. Gobert had his faults against Dallas in the West Finals, but not to the degree that warranted the barrage of scrutiny he received in the coming months.
The Wolves knew what they were getting when they traded five players and five picks for Gobert in 2022 – a max player who averages less than 15 points per game but dominates on defense. Because Rudy doesn’t put up impressive scoring numbers like Shaq did in his prime, pundits – O’Neal chief among them – have long believed Gobert is overpaid. However, the Wolves doubled down on their confidence in Gobert in big ways this off-season.
Tim Connelly extended Gobert on a three-year, $110 million contract moments before Minnesota’s season opener against the Los Angeles Lakers. It was a win-win extension, saving the Wolves money in the short term. It also proved that the front office is taking no stock in the narratives created by big-name media personalities.
The extension came weeks after Connelly traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks. Even though the Wolves had to move on from Towns if they wanted to keep their core intact because of his super-max contract going into effect this season, they essentially chose to keep Rudy over KAT.
Hours after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Gobert’s extension, the Wolves fell 110-103 to the Lakers. The final score is not indicative of how the game played out. Minnesota was flat from the jump, and LA consistently beat them in the paint on both ends.
“We have to find another level of urgency right now,” Chris Finch said postgame. “The season started, and we didn’t answer the bell.”
Gobert finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds in 35 minutes. On paper, that is a successful day. However, the Lakers shot 23 of 35 at the rim, and Anthony Davis scored 36 points in 38 minutes. It was eerily similar to how Game 5 played out against the Nuggets, where Denver shot 25 of 34 at the rim, and Jokič had 40 points.
Tuesday’s season opener was a bad look for Gobert and the Wolves. The NBA confidently gave them the nightcap on opening day in one of the NBA’s most historic arenas, and they responded by looking like a team that didn’t want to be out there at times.
However, the Wolves have stacked two straight highly energetic wins since then. The new-look team still has wrinkles to iron out, but they look far better than they did in Los Angeles.
Now, it’s about sending a message.
In Saturday’s home opener against the Toronto Raptors, the headline was Randle making his home debut. He received a standing ovation while addressing the crowd pregame and finished with 24 points, nine assists, and five rebounds. Randle gave Wolves fans in attendance a reason to buy into what he is selling, especially after passing up an open transition bucket for himself, leaving the ball for Anthony Edwards to put the exclamation mark on a 112-101 win.
Fans will remember Randle’s postgame speech from that night. “I am having a lot of fun,” he told Katie Storm, “I love it here.” However, the Raptors made the game far closer than it should have been, pulling within eight points in the final two minutes.
Without Gobert, Toronto probably would have completed the upset.
“It’s called being clutch,” Rudy told the media postgame. “It’s a clutch gene. You can’t teach that. When it is dark, you have to try and bring the light.”
Gobert finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks against Toronto. Eight of those points, five of those boards, and three of those blocks came in the fourth quarter. As he’s been in the past, Gobert was the one constant when things began going awry for the Wolves.
“Whenever you are in these types of games, Rudy seemingly never lets you lose,” Finch said postgame. “He’s the one who is playing all out all the time.”
The Wolves set the tone early for Gobert, throwing him two lobs in the first quarter. He provided a steady flow of productive basketball all night, starting with his teammates making a point to get him easy touches early.
He caught four lobs against Toronto, all coming from different players. Minnesota’s ball handlers constantly looked for Gobert cutting off screens, and the positive results were noticeable.
“I’m a naive guy,” Rudy said postgame. “Regardless of who has the ball, I think they will throw [me a lob]. I try to prepare myself, regardless of who it is.”
The Wolves did what they were supposed to on Saturday – nothing more, nothing less. However, the challenge grows on Tuesday, as they welcome the Mavericks for the first time since they bounced the Wolves in five Conference Finals games.
Games in late October are important in terms of confidence, but they aren’t typically high-stakes. Teams are still trying to figure out their identity. Minnesota expects to be a contender this year, and that won’t likely change if they beat or lose to the Mavericks on Tuesday. However, they need to prove that other teams must take them seriously.
They will have the stage to do so with the game being on TNT.
Gobert will face Dereck Lively ll, who beat Gobert in the playoffs. Since then, he, too, has criticized Gobert for his performance in the West Finals.
There was a lot of dark around Gobert this offseason. He didn’t spend 64 hours in a darkness retreat again. Instead, he was subject to persistent and often false criticism. Gobert held the darkness away from his team on Saturday with a constant drumbeat on both ends. Now, Rudy and his teammates must send an early-season war cry to the NBA world by replicating Saturday’s performance and stomping Dallas on national TV.
