Timberwolves, Rudy Gobert end up on wrong side of NBA trade history after loss to Spurs
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Timberwolves, Rudy Gobert end up on wrong side of NBA trade history after loss to Spurs originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Hot commodities in the NBA market rarely fizzle out fast. When they do, it causes a lot of problems for the star and the team. This is exactly what happened in Game 6 between the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves. It was supposed to be about the battle of Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert but one of them was not able to produce big numbers.
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Gobert, Timberwolves end up on wrong side of NBA trade history after loss to Spurs
After 48 minutes of the painful 139-109 loss, Timberwolves fans were treated to a box score which was more harsh. See, Coach Chris Finch entrusted Rudy Gobert to play 22 big minutes to save their season from the Spurs' wrath. While the veteran big man was on the court for those times, he was barely making an impact.
Gobert finished the game with zero points after just attempting four shots from the field. He was also not able to register a single block on Victor Wembanyama. In fact, Luke Kornet had a game-high four blocks with Wembanyama following it up with three of his own. The role of rim protector for the Timberwolves was delegated to Jade McDaniels and Joan Beringer. Even then, they just recorded a block each.
The Timberwolves big man did get three rebounds but that was not substantial enough to move the needle. It is largely because the Spurs grabbed 60 rebounds while the Timberwolves only got 29 boards.
What made this more difficult for Timberwolves fans? They traded more picks for Gobert more than his total NBA Playoffs points between Game 5 and 6, per StatMuse.
Notably, he only scored four points in the span of those two crucial games. The Timberwolves gave up five picks (2023 first-round pick, 2025 first-round pick, 2026 pick swap, 2027 first-round pick, 2029 first-round pick) alongside Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Walker Kessler, Leandro Bolmaro, and Jarred Vanderbilt to get the big man.
Yes, Gobert is a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year winner. But, this failure to show up against the Spurs is going to leave such a bitter taste on the mouths of most fans.