3 Timberwolves who tanked their trade value in 2023 season

3. Rudy Gobert

We are all aware of what exactly happened last July when the Minnesota Timberwolves acquired Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz. They gave up a massive haul of picks, along with several rotation players to fix what had been a glaring hole in their rim protection and rebounding departments.

Gobert’s presence certainly helped quell those issues to a degree in 2022-23, but he did not always look like the Rudy Gobert of old in his first season in Minnesota. He blocked less shots per game than he had in any season since his rookie year, and was not named an All-Star since the 2018-19 season.

Much of this can be chalked up to playing in a new system under a new head coach, with an array of teammates he had never stepped on the floor with a year ago. But the problem is that there is very little room for nuance when it comes to a player of Gobert’s caliber underperforming the expectations, especially when a blockbuster trade like last summer’s went down.

For the price the Timberwolves paid, Rudy Gobert was expected to be worth every bit of those first-round picks. The fact that he did not look like the game changer Minnesota needed at times this year puts a major damper on his potential trade value.

It is unclear whether the Timberwolves even have the option of trading Gobert at this point. They obviously see him as a multi-year investment, but if they decided to move him they would likely be getting far less back than what they dealt away last summer after how the 2022-23 season played out for him.