Gobert to lead Timberwolves to the top
So the ownership group in which Alex Rodriguez is a shareholder hired Tim Conelly as the new president of basketball operations.
And the new president made the mega-deal of the summer so far: he got Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz in exchange for five players and four draft picks. A big gamble.
1- What’s keeping the franchise awake at the moment?
While they probably won’t admit it in Minnesota – where a new era provides excitement with young talent, Tim Connelly running the show and Alex Rodriguez as owner – there has to be a level of concern surrounding the arrival of center Rudy Gobert to join Karl Anthony-Towns and form an imposing front-line duo.
Given the different skill sets they provide on the court, Gobert and KAT should work well and succeed, especially during the regular season. But the playoffs, when most teams run smaller, could be another story. Chances are high that in the deep West, a postseason contending team will manage to cause problems for the duo; Gobert on the bench in the playoffs due to matchup issues would be a disaster.
If so, then the Wolves would have sacrificed their future – four first-round picks – for Gobert in vain.
The development of Anthony Edwards is also a key factor, as is the future of point guard D’Angelo Russell, but everything in Minnesota revolves around their ‘Twin Tower’ and the gamble he can generate.
2- What is the Wolves’ main unfinished business?
Being NBA champions…even if they are far from it.
The Wolves have been a franchise with very little NBA success since their founding in 1989 – a conference final is the most they have achieved – and the new owners are ready to change that trend.
The challenge is not easy because in the West they have to overcome the champion Golden State Warriors, the favored Phoenix Suns, the ever-silent Denver Nuggets and the never to be discounted Los Angeles Lakers. And if they manage to win the West, something that looks complicated next season, there is still the East champion.
The big bet -and question mark- of the Wolves to get out of the middle zone and conquer the top of the NBA is the Gobert-Anthony Towns duo. Their near and long-term future depends on it.
3- Fact or fiction: Anthony Edwards is ready to jump to superstar status.
Fact. At least he already has something, which is personality. Since being selected as the first pick in the 2020 draft, player analysts and former players like Karl-Anthony Towns, Shaquille O’Neal and Draymond Green have praised the shooting guard’s skills and ideal star conditions. Improvement has been seen on both ends of the court in his first two seasons, and he made a nice jump in the 2022 playoffs. At 21 years old there is still room for improvement, mainly in his per hundreds shooting and in mistakes typical of players his age.
To his credit, he has several things that will help him continue to grow. First, he already feels like a superstar and second, he doesn’t know what stage fright means. He proved it with both his performance in the first playoff series of his career – when he produced 36 points in his postseason debut and averaged 25.2 points in the series against Memphis – and in his work in the film Hustle, which has earned him good reviews.
