Before the Minnesota Timberwolves' 127-101 win against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Rudy Gobert discourse was about as bad as it could have been. It was justified, too; he had gone two games without a made field goal and was in a horrendous 0-for-13 stretch. He broke that drought against the Clippers and looked more like himself, but there were still some signs of slight concern.
Gobert finished that game with 9 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 assists while shooting 4-for-7 from the field. Fortunately for the Wolves, the Clippers' center rotation isn't super fearsome, headlined by Isaiah Jackson and an over-the-hill Brook Lopez. However, the Wolves won't have the luxury of playing lottery teams every game, and when they face a contender, they need Gobert to show up on offense.
Rudy Gobert needs to show some offensive dominance
Sure, there are games where it's valid to have a tough night as a center who doesn't create his own looks or one who has little range outside of the restricted area. But there are a lot of matchups where he must assert himself.
Teams will at times throw small-ball at the Wolves to try and have a more switchable lineup on defense; the Golden State Warriors just did this two games ago. They started 6-foot-7 Draymond Green at center, and the guys they had backing him were Georges Niang (6-foot-7) and Al Horford (6-foot-8). The only true center they played was Charles Bassey, and he only played two minutes.
Those are matchups where there is absolutely no excuse for Gobert not to have at least an efficient double-double. Instead, he finished with 1 point and 4 rebounds in 20 minutes. Simply put, Joan Beringer, who quite literally just started playing basketball a few seasons ago, should not be more effective on offense than Gobert.
Joan Beringer could make the Wolves question Gobert's future
While Gobert has underperformed so far, Beringer has looked better than advertised, and his development has been extremely noticeable early on. He's not fouling at an extreme rate, and so far, Beringer is averaging 6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while playing only 16 minutes. Not to mention, he's shooting 64 percent from the field compared to Gobert's 41.2 percent.
The Wolves have some Gobert questions to answer this offseason. He has a player option for $38 million in the summer that he'll likely pick up. The Wolves will then need to weigh whether they should field offers for him, given that he would be going into his last year under contract.
Everyone knows how important he is to the defense, but if Beringer continues to improve and Gobert's offense continues to be an issue, trading him for some depth could give the Wolves their best option. It would make room not only to give Beringer the starting role, but to also re-sign Jonathan Kuminga long-term, considering how promising he's looked thus far.
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