Minnesota Timberwolves traded for Gobert like the future depends on it

From the moment that the Minnesota Timberwolves entered the 2022 NBA offseason, the choices of how to restock their roster had endless opportunities.  But the main categories of the team’s endless options fell into four categories.

The team could either play it safe and run essentially the same roster back for another go of it, wary of making mistakes right out of the gate.  The team had the option to be speculative, to pursue trades of existing highly valued and coveted NBA players by other teams. The team had the option of being draft-centric, of building a winning roster by working the next few NBA drafts better by other teams. Finally, the team had the option of being aggressive, of amassing the team’s current assets and cashing them in this year in one headlining blockbuster trade.

The Minnesota Timberwolves new President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly was quoted right out of the gates stating that the team needed to be aggressive.

We know how the Minnesota Timberwolves handled their business this offseason, trading for Utah Jazz All-Star center Rudy Gobert like the future depends on it. Now the question is, does it?

Perhaps it does, and here is why:

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ future begins today

One of our contributors, Nate Ackert, wrote an under-the-radar article (see link above) about the Minnesota Timberwolves simply needing to use the projected surplus of 2023 salary cap space this year.  His argument was that competing teams were getting better, and the list of available talent was as good as it was ever going to get now.

Of course, nobody suspected that the team was finalizing the trade for Jazz center Rudy Gobert. His argument was published just after the team had added F Kyle Anderson to the roster, and was a bit tight for cap space now, but projected to have enough space in 2023 to sign another max veteran to the roster.

So why cash in the chips now? Well, did the team ‘cash in’ all of their chips? I see it as the team converting potential into production. After all, if the compatibility of Gobert with teammate Karl-Anthony Towns lives up to its projections, the team has landed their third and final piece needed for an NBA Championship team.

Gobert’s arrival to this roster is the equivalent of the Monopoly card of landing on GO! and collecting another $200. He is money in the bank, points on the scoreboard, defense in the paint, and fans in the seats. He is everything that the Minnesota Timberwolves believed necessary to win. That is not Connelly’s projection, but rather that of head coach Chris Finch.

The opportunity to become a better team was now. Thankfully, the Timberwolves took that chance. It is not an easy thing to place your career and reputation in trusting another person, but that is what Connelly has done in his first official acts as president of the Timberwolves.  Did the Minnesota Timberwolves trade for Gobert as though the team’s future depended on it? Perhaps.

But thankfully, in doing so, the team has the chance for a future worth remembering and talking about for a long time.