If you've been following the Minnesota Timberwolves closely this season, you'd know the non-Rudy Gobert minutes have been a massive problem. The Wolves are 16.4 points per 100 possessions better with Gobert on the court defensively, a number that puts Gobert in the 100th percentile. To put this another way, the Wolves have what's equivalent to the league's second-best defensive rating (108) with Gobert on the court and the equivalent league's worst defensive rating (124.4) with him off the court.
Without Gobert, the Timberwolves turn to lineups with Julius Randle and Naz Reid. Despite their offensive gifts, neither player is a very good defender, and they both particularly struggle as rim protectors.
For the (understandable) talk about the Wolves' need for a point guard, the non-Gobert minutes could ultimately be a bigger problem for this team. However, the solution to this problem is actually on the roster, that being playing Jaden McDaniels and Clark during the non-Rudy minutes.
Simply playing your second and third-best defenders when your first defender sits is logical. The eye test, metrics, and simple logic all support this idea. While Chris Finch has utilized this pairing for some specific stretches, he hasn't used it enough, and that must change for the Wolves to fix this glaring problem.
The Wolves must pair McDaniels and Clark when Gobert sits
I'm far from the only person to point this solution out, and Wolves fans (and media members) are rightfully starting to get baffled by Finch's hesitancy to embrace this pairing.
Have talked about this on the pod quite a bit ... Jaylen Clark + Jaden McDaniels on the floor with no Gobert have been great.
— Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) December 26, 2025
Seems reckless to not have two of those three on the floor at all times. https://t.co/gZiWEKUxce
The main reason why this McDaniels-Clark pairing is so effective is that McDaniels is by far the team's second-best rim protector and a capable low man. Within six feet of the hoop, McDaniels is holding opponents to just 50.5 percent shooting. Per Databallr, McDaniels ranks in the 96th percentile for blocks per 100. Conversely, Reid ranks in the 34th percentile, and Randle ranks in the first percentile for this stat. Yikes.
Unfortunately, McDaniels only plays in 53.7 percent of the non-Gobert possessions. Doing this is setting Reid and Randle up for failure.
Even just playing McDaniels isn't enough for the Wolves to maintain their typically high-quality defense. McDaniels typically serves as the team's point-of-attack defender, so it's a testament to his versatility that he can play as a rim protector. Nevertheless, if McDaniels is playing as a rim protector, the Wolves don't have a natural POA defender other than Clark.
Unfortunately, the McDaniels-Clark pairing only accounts for 24.1 percent of McDaniels' possessions without Rudy. As mentioned earlier, the Wolves have a 124.4 defensive rating without Gobert. With McDaniels and Clark, though, the Wolves have a 112.4 DRTG, a number that translates to the sixth-best in the league. This gives the Wolves a clear solution to maintaining the non-Rudy minutes.
Overall, solving the non-Rudy minutes and building a quality defense with Randle and Reid on the court is necessary for the Wolves to reach their title hopes. I will never be an NBA coach, and Finch is smarter than I am, but I don't understand why he doesn't embrace this seemingly obvious solution to the non-Gobert minutes.