After struggling for a lot of years, the Minnesota Timberwolves finally played well last season. They had a good season and made the NBA playoffs after a gap of four seasons. Although they were eliminated in the opening round of the postseason, it’s still better than not qualifying for the postseason at all.
Additionally, they already have a great superstar in Karl-Anthony Towns. On top of that, they also drafted Anthony Edwards in 2020. He is a great talent and is a menace on the offensive end of the court. If they need more offense, then they can always rely on D’Angelo Russell as well.
But the biggest for the T-Wolves has been their lackluster defense. They were outplayed on the defensive end of the court in the postseason as well. In order to finally eradicate that flaw from their game, the Timberwolves traded for 3x NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.
Adding Gobert to the mix definitely changes a lot of things for the franchise. Although they gave up a lot of assets for Gobert, it will be worth it. He knows his job isn’t to score points, and the T-Wolves have three other stars to handle that responsibility. He just needs to be a beast on defense.
Anyway, NBA analyst Bill Simmons talked about this Rudy Gobert trade, and he was confused about why the franchise didn’t include D’Angelo Russell in the trade package. He came up with just one answer. (starts at 20:32)
Via The Ringer:
“I wonder if there’s one more trade here. I wonder if they’re gonna trade Russell for Kyrie.”
That’s an interesting take from Simmons, but it is highly unlikely that the Timberwolves will get Kyrie. Although the team looks good and adding Kyrie to the roster would shoot their chances of winning the NBA Championship, trading for Irving could turn out to be a double-edged sword for them.
It’s a well-known fact that Irving is not an easy player to get along with on any team. He is sometimes a tad bit too difficult to deal with, and not everyone can handle that. So trading for him could very well destroy the chemistry of the Timberwolves.
