Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves are now officially (metaphorically–or maybe literally, who knows) in Cancun after losing to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. While that series was a major frustration for Timberwolves fans everywhere, it shouldn't take away from what was overall an excellent season for the franchise, led by Edwards, who emerged into a true star player this year.
One target of heavy criticism for the Timberwolves this season was center Rudy Gobert, who won the Defensive Player of the Year Award this year and was the anchor of one of the best defenses we've seen in recent NBA history, but who has a propensity for having his rare bad moments at the worst possible times, often ending up on the wrong sides of memes and other forms of internet banter.
One person who thinks that the Timberwolves should completely undo a large part of what made them great this year and trade Rudy Gobert is former NBA champion and current ESPN employee Kendrick Perkins, who has taken several jabs at Gobert throughout the course of this postseason, and who is now proposing that the Timberwolves try to trade Gobert for New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram.
“B.I. needs a fresh start. B.I. can fit in a lot of places to be honest with you,” said Perkins, via Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “I’m looking at Minnesota and B.I. can fit in at Minnesota because here’s the thing: you might have to give something up. Let me ask you this: You take your chances and you challenge Karl Anthony-Towns to play the 5-position and get rid of Rudy; see if New Orleans wants to take him and get B.I. over there.”
An uninformed take
Rudy Gobert certainly has his flaws and has indeed ended up on the wrong side of some epic highlights throughout the course of his career. However, his size, mobility, and most importantly, his basketball IQ have turned him into the best defensive player of his generation and one of the game's greats of all time in that department.
Getting rid of Gobert now would undo so much of what made the Timberwolves great to begin with this year, including most obviously their rim protection, as well as the ability of Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and others to “gamble” on steals, knowing that they have the best shot blocker in the game behind them if they fail.
It is true that the Timberwolves could probably use another perimeter scoring option this offseason after having their lack of depth in that department exposed during the loss to the Mavericks. However, making Rudy Gobert–who, in terms of pure effectiveness was clearly the second best player for the Timberwolves this regular and postseason–would not make a ton of sense from a “winning games” perspective.
Still, this is unlikely to stop highlight watchers and others in the media from spewing false narratives about the Frenchman due to, well, there's not really a good explanation for it, actually.
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