Rudy Gobert Reading the comments on Twitter, he knows that Minnesota fans didn’t like him much during his first nine NBA seasons. He also heard Timberwolves director Chris Finch regularly complaining about how to set up the screen.
Those views will probably change.
“Now we are on the same side, so I’m excited,” Gobert said.
As with Minnesota, there are good reasons for that. Timberwolves announced the acquisition of Gobert at a press conference in Minneapolis on Wednesday. It could finally be official that we agreed to a deal with Utah Jazz last week. We needed four players, five first round picks, including one that took place last month, and the option to exchange another pick to move the French center to Minnesota, but Timberwolves still traded well. I feel like it.
“I think he fits perfectly into what we’re already doing,” Finch said.
In an increasingly positionless league where small balls occasionally dominate, Timberwolves now has two of the league’s best big men in the same lineup, with Gobert’s three-time defensive player with the All-NBA. Performers playing in Karl-Anthony Towns..
“He’s not blocking anything we currently have,” said Tim Connelly, president of the basketball business Timberwolves. “He makes it better. He enhances what we currently have. So when we look at the fit, it’s not just talent. It’s about developing a team. … and he’s going to make it better. “
The Utah-Mine Sota deal took place shortly after the NBA’s moratorium on the movement of most off-season players and the signing of contracts was lifted on Wednesday.
This was the final agreement between Utah and Minnesota: Gobert to Timberwolves Patrick Beverley, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro BolmaroNewly drafted rights Walker KesslerMinnesota’s 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029 first round picks and 2026 first round pick swaps.
Jazz owner Ryan Smith said Gobert “will be part of us forever.”
“Rudy Gobert has had a huge impact on this franchise and throughout Utah during the nine seasons of jazz,” Smith said. “One of the biggest defensive players in NBA history, Rudy is forever considered one of the most important players in jazz uniforms. His love and influence on this community cannot be exaggerated. “
Jazz resigned last month from director Quin Snyder after eight seasons and hired former San Antonio and Boston assistant Will Hardy. Then the Gobert trade began and the Utah era was over. No team at the Western Conference has won as much a regular season match as jazz in the last six seasons, but its success has not been carried over to the postseason. Utah played off in each of these six years and did not pass the second round.
“The window to win isn’t always big,” Gobert said. “That’s what happened to us in Utah. I think the organization felt that way. It may have gone through the windows of the last few years. It’s still a very competitive team. I just felt. It was better for them to go that way, as well as all the assets they could get for me. “
Timberwolves may be the opposite. They haven’t seen the second round for nearly 20 years. And Towns, Gobert, Anthony Edwards When D’Angelo Russell It can be the core that changes it all.
“The goal is to win the championship,” Gobert said. “I came here for that. I didn’t come here just to be a good team. I came here to lead this team to the final and achieve it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
