The 2022 offseason saw the breakup of the vaunted Utah Jazz squad led by Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. The pair led the team to the best record in the West in 2021, but just one season later have been split up by the Jazz front office in favor of a rebuild. Gobert was sent to the Minnesota Timberwolves to form a twin-tower frontcourt with Karl-Anthony Towns. Mitchell was sent to the Cleveland Cavaliers and will complete an undersized backcourt next to Darius Garland.
Both these teams have catapulted themselves into the conversation of possibly being top-4 seeds in their respective conferences. Neither Cleveland nor Minnesota ended up giving up their core team players, so Mitchell and Gobert have incredibly enhanced the chances of both teams.
But which former Jazz is on the better team now? That was a question that people on Reddit had as well, as fans of both teams and of other teams chimed in with their thoughts on this situation.
Who Has The Better Roster Between Cleveland And Minnesota?
Both teams look well-equipped to deal with the competition in their respective conferences, but how would they match up against each other? The Timberwolves definitely have a more experienced lineup with a lot of the core playing in the 2022 Playoffs, whereas injuries kept hurting the continuity the Cavaliers’ young core has with each other.
From a ceiling perspective, the Cavaliers have 3 players who were All-Stars last year in Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen, along with a very promising young talent in Evan Mobley. The Wolves have established stars in Karl-Anthony Towns and Gobert but can also rely on Anthony Edwards taking a massive jump this season.
The guard dynamic in Cleveland is incredibly exciting, and the same can be said about the bigs in Minnesota. However, the defensive stability that Minnesota has with Gobert and defensive wings like Jaden McDaniels gives them a slight edge. The Cavs have a lot of non-shooters in their starting lineup with Okoro, Allen, and Mobley, so that may be a challenge to overcome. Younger teams also can take longer to find the right chemistry.
These answers can be answered when the Wolves and the Cavs face each other on the 13th of November, relatively early in the season. Their second matchup will come on the 14th of January, 2023.
