Minnesota Timberwolves stock up, stock down

Jaden McDaniels, SF:  Speaking of lockdown defenders, McDaniels was one of the league’s best wing defenders last season, and the only player with at least 75 blocks and 70 steals. He routinely guarded the opposing team’s best scorer, whether they were a point guard or power forward, and no one logged more minutes than McDaniels guarding All-Stars.

He also improved his three-point shooting to 39.8 percent, a huge bonus for a Timberwolves team that wants to play Towns and Gobert together and needs all the spacing they can get. The one knock? McDaniels showed he still has some growing up to do at age 22 after he broke his hand punching a wall in the team’s final game.

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Rudy Gobert, C: Minnesota made a blockbuster deal to acquire the three-time Defensive Player of the Year from the Utah Jazz, but after one year, it was looking like a bust without the blocks. Gobert had his lowest block numbers since his rookie year, dropping to 1.4 per game. He led the league in rebounds in 2021-22, but he dropped from 14.7 rebounds to 11.6.

His calling card has been his rim protection, and that has dropped from an elite level to merely good. Given Gobert’s offensive limitations, he really needs to be a tremendous rim protector to justify his $41 million salary. But he’s over 30, with a lot of miles on him from his NBA career and international play. If this is the first sign of Gobert’s athletic decline instead of just a down year, Minnesota might be stuck with a $40+ million center who’s virtually unplayable in two years.

Tim Connelly, GM: Normally a team’s new general manager has a certain grace period after he’s hired. That grace period disappeared almost immediately for Connelly, who traded four first-round picks, one first-round pick swap, four veterans and 2022 first-rounder Walker Kessler to get Gobert.

The trade looked lopsided right away, and it only looked worse when Kessler finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting, with better block numbers than Gobert. Incumbent point guard D’Angelo Russell didn’t mesh with the new center, so Connelly shipped him off at the trade deadline for 35-year-old Mike Conley and some second-round picks.

Ultimately, Connelly was able to build a contender. But in Los Angeles, where Russell and two of the players he traded for Gobert - Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt - helped the Lakers go from 13th place to the Western Conference Finals. The future looks brighter in Los Angeles, while in Minnesota the team is suddenly looking old.