After trading five first-round picks this past summer, the Minnesota Timberwolves were hoping that Rudy Gobert would be the final piece to a championship roster.
But through the first few months of this season, the Wolves haven’t looked nearly as dominant as they were expecting. The result has been a flurry of hate and criticism from angry fans online as the Timberwolves organization is left to wonder how to fix the mess they made.
On Twitter Thursday, one fan decided to take the matter to Gobert directly, sneaking into his DM’s to sneak in a diss about the Timberwolves’ season.
RIP twolves season
— spam (@Alex6664603) December 29, 2022
Gobert gets comments like these all the time, and he usually ignores them. In this case, however, it seems he felt compelled to respond in his own way.
Not so fast Pal 😊 https://t.co/HH1QvjrFCl
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) December 29, 2022
Gobert’s impact on the game may not be easily noticeable to casual fans. He’s not a player that will drop 30 points or grab 20 rebounds, but he can do all the little things that make a big difference in games. As a premier defender and expert rim-runner, he’s one the last true centers in the game, and the Timberwolves saw fit to give up five first-round picks to get him.
Whether or not that deal was worth it for Minnesota, however, remains a subject of great debate.
Is Rudy Gobert Part Of The Problem In Minnesota?
The Timberwolves have several glaring flaws this season, and not all of them rest on the shoulders of Gobert. But considering what the team gave up to get him, his play hasn’t exactly been up to par.
“After watching Gobert get outplayed by a rookie center on a two-way contract in a loss to the severely short-handed Miami Heat on Monday night, the Timberwolves have to ask themselves if the Gobert they got in the trade with the Jazz is a shadow of the player who was such a force in Utah for so many years, or just one that needs a little more time to find his way,” said a Timberwolves insider. “Last season Gobert averaged 15.6 points, a league-leading 14.7 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and shot a league-leading 71.3 percent from the field to make his third straight All-Star game. His numbers so far this season are down sharply across the board — 14.0 points, 12.3 rebounds, 66.2 field goal percentage and, most troubling of all, just 1.2 blocks per game, his lowest number since he played sparingly as a rookie in 2013-14. It just isn’t the same guy yet.”
This season, the Timberwolves still have a chance to make some noise. As the 11th seed in the West, and 16-19 on the season, they aren’t too far from the major players in the Conference.
But if they want to keep their season alive, Rudy Gobert is going to have to be better, and Karl-Anthony Towns needs to come back fully healthy. Only time will tell how it all plays out, but Gobert is still holding out some faith that his team can get it done.
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