LOS ANGELES — From the moment Karl-Anthony Towns was traded to New York, this contract extension was inevitable. Minnesota is building a roster around Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert is this team’s center and defensive anchor, and the only question was what would the price be for his extension.
Three years, $110 million is the answer, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN just before Gobert and the Timberwolves took the court in a clunky and unimpressive opening night loss to the Lakers. Gobert confirmed the news postgame.
Rudy Gobert on his contract extension: "It’s an amazing blessing. At the same time being able to not be too greedy and leave some on the table for our competitiveness as a team. I think it’s important."
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) October 23, 2024
This contract works for both sides. Gobert will decline his $46.6 million option for next season and take a haircut of about $10 million in the first year to help the Timberwolves finances, but he also gets two additional years and $64 million in new money going forward. Regardless of who owns the Timberwolves next season — the Mark Lore/Alex Rodriguez group and current owner Glen Taylor go to arbitration next month over the disputed sale of the team — this extension plus the KAT trade (getting his large, long-term contract off the books) gives Minnesota the flexibility to re-sign Naz Reid next summer and maybe Julius Randle (or whoever they get back in trading Randle).
The third and final year of this contract is a player option.
Gobert anchored the best defense in the NBA last season, earning him a fourth Defensive Player of the Year award, and he averaged 14 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks a game. In the season opener Tuesday night Gobert scored 13 points, had 14 rerbounds and one blocked shot, but could not contain a red-hot Anthony Davis as the Lakers took 59 shots and score 72 points in the paint, bullying the Timberwolves. It’s a sign that after trading Towns and putting Randle into the frontcourt mix, it’s going to take Minnesota some time to figure out how all the pieces fit this season.
Whatever coach Chris Finch and the Timberwolves figure out, Gobert will be in the middle of it, he is locked up as one of their franchise anchors now.
