“He seems like the same guy that I remember coming in when I went to Utah (2019-22). He’s being a dominant force defensively. Offensively, he has a magnitude with his rim runs and his finishing,” Conley said. “He’s actually done a lot better with touching up around the rim and putting up a lot of tough shots. He seems healthier than ever. He seems more in great spirits more than anything, I think. He’s confident. When you’re confident at anything, man, it doesn’t matter your skill level. You seem to outplay whatever deficiency you may have.”
“I was surprised,” Conley continued when talking about Gobert not being selected to the All-Star team. “I know the rest of us were surprised. We thought he was more than deserving, we understand how important he is to our team and what we would be if he wasn’t here. We would be a completely different team. So we understand his value.”
Conley talks the turning point for Minnesota
As for Conley, while he has been the veteran presence a young Timberwolves team like this needs for players like Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and others, he has been very active with the team. He is averaging 10.6 points and 6.5 assists per game as he talked about what the turning point of the season was when he knew this team was special.
“We had a couple of moments this year. Early on, we had a really tough schedule to start the year,” Conley said. “We played Boston at home and played them well as well as some other good teams. We beat Denver early. There were a bunch of teams that we were looking at like, ‘We have to be like them or be better than them to be in this conversation.’ We started the year off playing at that high level. That made us look at each other like, ‘We see we can do it. We see we can win. We might have something if we continue to head in the right direction.’ That first month of the year was a real eye-opening experience for all of the guys.”
What the Timberwolves need to do to get over hump per Conley
While there has been a bevy of success for Minnesota, it is really the first season where they are in the limelight being the “best team in the West” because of the record. They still need to prove it when the games matter in the postseason as the Timberwolves lost in five games to the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 playoffs.
“Our maturity and growth as individuals as we go forward. We have a lot of guys who are used to playing one way, and now are trying to adjust to playing with so much talent around you. Now we’re like, ‘let’s move the ball’ and ‘let’s be unselfish.’ We can win in 100 different ways,” Conley said. “We don’t have to win by just scoring points. It can be defensively. It can be offensive rebounding nights. We can play with our size through Rudy, KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns] and Ant [Anthony Edwards]. It’s about us being able to realize what those games are, being able to adjust those and know we’re winning this way or that way. The quicker we can do that and form that recognition, I think that takes us to another level. Defensively, we’re there. We can play defense against anybody. Offensively, we still have a lot to work out on with how we’re going to attack and approach things game-by-game.”
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There is no doubt that the Minnesota Timberwolves are playing at a high level of basketball this season due to their explosive offense and their stifling defense. Part of the latter's success is because of defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert, who point guard Mike Conley said to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda that he is a “superstar” and has the “same impact on a game” that LeBron James and Stephen Curry have.
“I think he’s not treated like a superstar because he doesn’t do the superstar things, offensively, that LeBron [James] and Steph [Curry] do. But he has the same impact on a game,” Conley said. “People gameplan for him like they gameplan for others. You gameplan differently for Steph as you do for somebody else. But with Rudy, you do have to gameplan for his gravity offensively. If he goes to the offensive glass, they’re bringing two or three people. Knowing the film session, they are saying, ‘You got to box out. All three of us have to be there. We have to be in the paint.’”
Obviously, it is extremely high praise for Gobert to be compared to James and Curry who are some of the best players to ever hold a basketball. While the French-born player is arguably not on the level of those players, he has had a very productive career that first started with the Utah Jazz and then the Timberwolves who are No. 1 in the Western Conference with a 38-16 record.
Conley talks about Gobert's season with the Timberwolves
Gobert is currently averaging 13.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 64.9 percent from the field. Conley would say to Sportskeeda that this season has shown Gobert to be a “dominant force defensively.:”