Much has been made about the Minnesota Timberwolves' eye-popping trade for Rudy Gobert back in the offseason. One would remember that the Timberwolves decided to deal away three solid role players, four unprotected first-round picks and a pick swap for the three-time Defensive Player of the Year. However, Gobert has had his fair share of struggles as he tries to acclimate himself to a new environment.
The Timberwolves, for their part, decided to make Gobert's life easier on offense. They dealt away D'Angelo Russell – someone who made his displeasure with Gobert's stilted offensive game known – for Mike Conley, the 7'1 Frenchman's former pick-and-roll partner with the Utah Jazz. And only two games into Conley's Timberwolves career, the move appears to have paid dividends already.
Rudy Gobert was back to his best efficient self on Monday night against the Dallas Mavericks. In 30 minutes of action, Gobert dropped 21 points and 14 boards on a perfect 9-9 shooting from the field. And in doing so, he notched the eighth 20/10 game of his career on perfect shooting from the field. He has the most such games since the 1976-77 NBA-ABA merger, with noted big men Dwight Howard (six) and Artis Gilmore (four) trailing him in that department, per Justin Kubatko of Statitudes LLC.
There seemed to be a more concerted effort for the Timberwolves to locate Gobert down low. To his credit, Gobert made the Mavs pay for their lack of interior defense. As a result, the Mavs had to go small to space out the Timberwolves defensively in an effort to get Gobert out of the game.
Alas, Rudy Gobert's impact in the overwhelming majority of the game proved to be too much for the Mavs to overcome. Despite Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic's best efforts, the Mavs' spirited comeback ended up falling short.
Gobert ended up with a game-high +15 on the night; while game-to-game plus/minus tallies are too noisy to draw any concrete conclusions from, this was a testament to how well Gobert can impact winning when his team maximizes his skillset.
With Karl-Anthony Towns still on the mend, there's no better time for Rudy Gobert to step up. And with his old buddy Mike Conley in town, Gobert's best in a Timberwolves uniform may still be yet to come.
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