{"id":102626,"date":"2024-10-22T23:43:50","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T03:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=102626"},"modified":"2024-10-22T23:45:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T03:45:02","slug":"timberwolves-needed-multi-year-commitment-to-rudy-gobert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/22\/timberwolves-needed-multi-year-commitment-to-rudy-gobert\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Timberwolves Need Multi-Year Commitment To Rudy Gobert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goberru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rudy Gobert<\/a> might just be the butt of social media jokes.<\/p>\n<p>However, the franchise that he\u2019s playing for sees Gobert in a much different light. While everyone else was busy knocking him for his supposed shortcomings, the Timberwolves agreed to a three-year, $110 million contract extension with the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<h2>Timberwolves Make Necessary Multi-Year Commitment To Rudy Gobert<\/h2>\n<p>To complete the deal, Gobert will decline his $46.6 million annual salary for 2025-26. He\u2019ll now make $36.7 million annually through 2027-28, with a player option in the final year of his contract. With this move, the Timberwolves may have significantly reduced their future financial commitments.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Gobert is declining his $46.6M player option for 2025-26 and receiving a fresh multiyear extension through 2027-28 \u2013 also giving Minnesota significant flexibility next season opting out. Final season has a player option, sources said. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/elXhX9Tl0v\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/elXhX9Tl0v<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1848905878218674277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Of note, when Minnesota made <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/14\/timberwolves-new-star-julius-randle-talks-injury-expectations\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">their splash trade<\/a> for All-Star forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/randlju01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julius Randle<\/a>, his contract was said to be a factor. While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/townska01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> is set to make $220.4 million through 2027-28, Randle only has two years and $64 million remaining on his deal. Should Randle fail to re-sign when his contract expires, the Timberwolves will save $20.4 million in the 2026 offseason by moving Towns for him, even with Gobert\u2019s deal.<\/p>\n<p>With over $30 million in projected practical cap space in what will be a deep 2026 free agent class, they could make any number of moves. That being said, Minnesota may not use that money trying to find a starting center. Gobert is an imperfect player, but the Timberwolves have repeatedly stated their interest in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/02\/timberwolves-president-tim-connelly-addresses-rudy-goberts-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">keeping him long-term<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s their defensive anchor.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not just because he\u2019s an elite rim-protector and rebounder, though that certainly helps. It\u2019s also because of his basketball IQ and communication. Furthermore, Gobert appears to have drastically matured, taking his leadership role seriously.<\/p>\n<p>As time wears on, it\u2019ll be easier to assess whether or not the league has outpaced him. He\u2019s an underrated defender <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/25\/timberwolves-chris-finch-explains-rudy-goberts-ultimate-value\/\" target=\"_self\">when guarding out in space<\/a>, but it\u2019s definitely not natural for him. Yet, for all the criticisms levied towards the Frenchman, there aren\u2019t that many players who are better than him at his position.<\/p>\n<p>The Timberwolves probably recognized that as much as Gobert realized his unsavory reputation might affect his offers next summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert might just be the butt of social media jokes. However, the franchise that he\u2019s playing for sees Gobert in a much different light. While everyone else was busy knocking him for his supposed shortcomings, the Timberwolves agreed to a three-year, $110 million contract extension with the four-time Defensive Player of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":102632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1608,62,3],"tags":[297,394],"class_list":["post-102626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-timberwolves","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-rudy-gobert"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}