Can the Timberwolves find a playoff-level offense with Rudy Gobert?

The Timberwolves went - over their final games of the regular season in the spring with Rudy Gobert serving as a major reason why The French center averaged points and rebounds in that span Zero in on the final games and those numbers balloon to points and rebounds in minutes Minnesota s success largely centered on its man in the middle Then came the playoffs and everything changed With one massive exception Gobert s point rebound performance in Minnesota s decisive Challenge mastery in Round against the Lakers the big man was largely an afterthought in the postseason He played -plus minutes in just two of Minnesota s playoff games He scored in double figures just thrice and had double-digit rebounds only four times That s not even to say Gobert was ineffective In fact he sported Minnesota s best net rating in the West Finals with the Wolves out-scoring the Thunder by five points per possessions when the center was on the floor It didn t matter By that point Minnesota was firmly leaning into more offense-first lineups that worked effectively in earlier playoff matchups in which the Wolves had a large talent advantage Gobert didn t fit that script Come the postseason teams chronically ignore the center knowing Anthony Edwards and the Wolves won t find him enough to make them pay for the tactical decision It was far easier for Minnesota to put in five scoring threats to simplify the reads for the likes of Edwards and Julius Randle While Gobert is a grand ceiling raiser for Minnesota his role in the grand scheme of the - season more closely resembled an innings eater than a high-leverage closer The Gobert-heavy identity Minnesota formed late in the regular season was seemingly null and void though Finch disputes as much I think the identity of the association is a little more multi-faceted than that Certainly Rudy is a big part of what we do and when he s playing at a high level like he did the last games it makes all the difference Finch stated We need him to do that for the whole irrespective of what happens in the playoffs Finch cited Oklahoma City as an example of a unit that changed the roles of players throughout its rotation depending on matchups noting the minutes for Thunder Isaiah Hartenstein fluctuated Hartenstein was invaluable for the Thunder in the conference semifinal win over Denver and dispensable at other points in the postseason They re extremely flexible in their approach on what the series is dictating from them Finch Of subject when Hartenstein wasn t on the floor Oklahoma City was still thriving That wasn t the incident for Minnesota in the West Finals as the Wolves were wiped off the floor when Gobert wasn t out there But it seemed the Wolves had already determined they couldn t points on that stage if Gobert was on the court And yet the version of the Wolves without him proved in that matchup that it was not a title-tier crew and was better suited to beat up lesser foes The question facing Minnesota this season is do you attempt to better integrate Gobert into the offense so it can succeed regardless of the looks provided by the opposing defense Gobert has mentioned the need to be more decisive aggressive and poised with the ball in the middle of the floor so teammates trust him in those situations Randle noted he understands Gobert s offensive event better now Time and chemistry could lead to incremental gains that may solve a insufficient of the postseason problems But should the Wolves also put more of an emphasis on growing the non-Gobert lineups so those can be better prepared when they re thrust into high-leverage playoff battles I think you ostensibly get to enough different things in the regular season I don t think you have to make a seismic shift through the regular season to prepare yourself Finch announced Right now winning every event is so pivotal Finishing between sixth and third in the West can be a two-game spread Right now we re secure enough to go whatever direction we need to Related Articles Six bold predictions for the - Timberwolves season Tom Crean joins Timberwolves pre- and postgame shows as analyst Where do the Timberwolves rank in national top sportsman lists Frederick Don t read too much into Timberwolves preseason results Timberwolves Joan Beringer embracing the rookie s evolution process