Timberwolves’ fatal flaw that will doom 2027 NBA championship chances
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It’s hard to deny that the Minnesota Timberwolves have looked good in the early goings of the 2026-27 season. The addition of LaMelo Ball has worked as intended, with Ball coming in to enable a more high-octane offensive system for the Timberwolves. They also finally have the floor general they’ve sorely needed these past few seasons, freeing up Anthony Edwards to focus more on scoring the basketball.
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Through four games, Edwards is averaging 33.3 points per contest, with Minnesota winning three out of those four contests in convincing fashion. The problem, of course, is that Edwards is going to be out for up to two months after he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery — putting the Timberwolves in a bit of a tricky spot as they try to buy time for his recovery.
Heading into their Friday night NBA Cup game against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Timberwolves have lost two consecutive games, and some cracks may be starting to show which Edwards won’t be around to help cover for.
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This flaw, in particular, could end up being Minnesota’s undoing as far as their chances of competing for the 2027 NBA championship goes.
The much-dreaded Rudy Gobert decline is here, and it’s not pretty
Susan Mullane-Imagn ImagesThe Timberwolves made the decision to pivot into a faster style of play this offseason by trading away two important big men in Naz Reid and Julius Randle. Both Reid and Randle allowed the Timberwolves to play a supersized and bruising style of basketball that looked downright grimy and ugly at times. No one could say, however, that it didn’t work as intended.
But in deciding that they wanted Reid and Randle gone, it meant having to put all their trust in Gobert to handle rebounding, paint protection, and other interior business for the team. Gobert has been so good on defense for so long that it made sense for the Timberwolves to upgrade other areas all while having confidence that they’re not going to suffer too much of a drop-off in the areas of the game that require size.
However, Gobert is now 34 years of age, and he’s been anchoring top-ranked defenses in the NBA for over a decade now. He has put so much mileage on his tires; since emerging as an undisputed defensive star in the NBA during the 2014-15 season, he’s played in at least 65 games (the minimum number of games played required for award eligibility) in 10 of the past 12 seasons, including in each of the past eight.
The heavy minutes and heavy defensive burden may be getting to the Timberwolves center. Make no mistake about it, the Timberwolves’ defense has been elite through the first five games of the 2026-27 season. They rank second in defensive rating, allowing just 102.5 points per 100 possessions. But he has been quite a non-threat on the offensive end that it’s fair for some to be concerned.
Gobert, in five games played, is averaging just 6.6 points per game on 37.0% shooting from the field. Nope, that is not a typo — the Timberwolves big man isn’t just shooting below 50% from the field, he’s shooting below the NBA’s equivalent of the Mendoza line even though his shot diet is still mostly the same.
20 of his 27 shot attempts this season have come from less than five feet. He’s only made eight of those; in fact, he almost has as many shots get blocked (seven) as made baskets from that range, according to NBA.com.
The Timberwolves center has never been the most prolific scorer. But he has one job to do, at least from a scoring perspective, and that’s to make layups and shots near the basket. This is a player who came into this season having made 65.8% of his field-goal attempts for his career.
Alas, Gobert has missed his past 13 attempts from the field. He went 0-of-9 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which one can at least excuse since he’s coming up against a big frontcourt of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. But going 0-for-4 against the Golden State Warriors, a small-ball outfit with nemesis Draymond Green at the five, and becoming so much of a non-factor on offense that he ended up playing just 20 minutes is a red flag.
Also, it is a bit head-scratching to see Gobert actually launching threes. Hoisting them up when the shot clock is expiring is understandable, but doing so early on in the shot clock is just a boneheaded move. What was he thinking launching this three-point attempt with 18 seconds left on the shot clock?
Jaden McDaniels was STUNNED Rudy Gobert pulled a three with 18 seconds left on the shot clock 😭 pic.twitter.com/Fg5s7Hgjpn
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) October 27, 2026
Perhaps Gobert is feeling the need to learn how to at least be a threat from range, which is a sign of aging. Brook Lopez did not have to step out and strictly be a stretch five until his 11th season in the NBA. Maybe the Timberwolves center wants to be of more use on offense that he’s starting to step out of his comfort zone.
But Gobert has always been a paint-bound big man, and his touch near the basket has never been the best to begin with. He thrives off of lobs, open dunks, and putbacks; he doesn’t tickle the twine with sweet hook shots or floaters. He’s a career 63.2% shooter from the charity stripe, so he’s not going to magically turn into a three-point shooter overnight.
With Gobert struggling even more to put the ball through the hoop, he’ll become so much of a non-factor for the Timberwolves on offense that opposing teams will simply choose to wall up the team’s best perimeter scorers, send multiple bodies, and give nary a care to Gobert, who’ll be chilling along the dunker’s spot.
Gobert has already caught flak in the past for failing to make opposing teams who go small pay. Other teams will simply bench their plodding big men, deploy an ultra-switchable lineup, and be unafraid to have a smaller player get stuck on Gobert since his offensive production has been on the decline.
He’ll always be a stout defender. His knowledge of positioning and timing remains almost unparalleled in today’s NBA. But there are two ends of the sport to play, and he might end up being such a negative on offense to the point where the Timberwolves find that impossible to overcome in their quest to compete for a title.
Related: Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert speaks up on his reluctance to throw it down