The Timberwolves spent the offseason making a clear choice on Rudy Gobert.
After years of seeing his defensive value hold steady while his offense got squeezed in the playoffs, Minnesota decided not to move on from the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Instead, the Wolves reshaped the roster around him, sending out Julius Randle and Naz Reid and bringing in LaMelo Ball.
That change matters because Gobert’s problem has never been whether he can defend. It has been whether Minnesota can actually put him in position to matter on the other end.
In postseason losses, opposing teams have repeatedly treated him like a non-factor offensively, sagging away from the rim and loading up on the other four Wolves. Minnesota has not consistently found a way to punish that coverage, and the result has been a crowded paint and a style that has not held up in playoff basketball.
Ball gives the Wolves a different answer.
His size and passing give Minnesota a true offensive engine, the kind of player who can make defenses pay for ignoring Gobert. Lobs, dump-offs and easy looks at the rim should become a bigger part of the equation now that Ball is in the fold. The idea is simple: if defenses want to stay home on everyone else, Ball can make them pay by finding Gobert near the basket.
There is recent evidence that this can work in Minnesota. Gobert’s best offensive season with the Timberwolves came in 2023-24, which also happened to be the first full season with Mike Conley at point guard.
That year, Gobert and Conley formed a dangerous pick-and-roll partnership, a release valve Minnesota could lean on when the offense bogged down. The Wolves have since moved away from that look after shifting Donte DiVincenzo into the starting lineup.
Now they are back to starting a pure point guard in Ball, and the fit looks built for a similar kind of chemistry. Minnesota ranked near the bottom of the league in pick-and-roll frequency, but that number probably has to rise with Ball running the show.
Ball’s impact should not stop there. In the Wolves’ read-and-react offense, his playmaking and shooting gravity should make Gobert easier to find around the rim even when the action starts somewhere else. That kind of spacing and creation has been missing for stretches, and Minnesota is betting Ball can change that.
The roster move also matters because Randle never quite fit cleanly next to Gobert. His shooting came and went, and his inside-out game did not mesh smoothly with a center who lives in the paint. The spacing problems were constant, and the Wolves never fully unlocked the two-big alignment.
Minnesota still has work to do to replace the power forward minutes left behind by Randle and Reid, but the player they brought in should complement Gobert far better than Randle did over his two seasons in Minnesota.
The Wolves are also trying to build chemistry away from the floor. Edwards and Ball are attempting to gather the full roster in Gobert’s home country of France so the group can work out together and get acquainted.
For now, the big picture is obvious: this is a roster built to help Gobert on offense, not hide him from it. Minnesota has added one of the NBA’s best playmakers, moved on from one of its streakier pieces and improved the spacing with what could be one of the league’s best shooting backcourts. If that still is not enough to keep Gobert from becoming an offensive problem in next season’s playoffs, then the Wolves may be staring at the end of his run in Minnesota.
In Other News...
Timberwolves Just Made Ayo Dosunmu Even More Important
Ayo Dosunmu has already become a central piece of Minnesotas plans since arriving in a trade six months ago, then quickly turning that move into a long-term stay. The guards production last season, when he averaged 14.8 points, 3.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds with strong shooting efficiency, made it easy to see why the Timberwolves moved to keep him in the fold. He brought scoring punch, playmaking and a level of reliability that fit into a roster still trying to define its next shape.
Now the question is less about whether Dosunmu belongs and more about how Minnesota builds around him. The Timberwolves have major money committed to him, LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards, which only sharpens the stakes for every roster decision that follows. When that much salary is concentrated in three players, the pressure shifts to balance, depth and size, and it leaves the front office trying to make sure the pieces around them fit cleanly enough to justify the investment. [Read more 🡒]
Anthony Edwards Faces A Frustrating Timberwolves Contract Twist
Anthony Edwards has already become the face of the Timberwolves, but the next step in his contract situation comes with an awkward layer of NBA math. Because he played 61 games last season, he missed the 65-game threshold tied to award eligibility, which means he is not automatically on track for a four-year, $301 million supermax extension next offseason.
Instead, Edwards will need an All-NBA selection in the upcoming season to put himself back on the path for the bigger payday next summer. If that does not happen, the timeline pushes back to 2028, and the Wolves would be looking at a different kind of extension picture, one shaped by the leagues award-based rules more than by how a team values its star. [Read more 🡒]