Minnesota spent the offseason remaking its backcourt, trading for LaMelo Ball and Josh Green while sending Julius Randle to Brooklyn and Naz Reid to Charlotte in a four-team deal completed July 10. Three preseason games in, split 2-1, the question hanging over this season has not changed: whether a deeper roster finally gets the Timberwolves past the wall they keep hitting, or whether that climb still rests on how much Rudy Gobert has left.
A Roster Remade
The trade brought in Ball and Green and sent out Julius Randle, Naz Reid and Mouhamadou Gueye, the biggest swing of Tim Connelly's tenure. It also pushed payroll to $215.3 million, above the $200.4 million luxury tax line and into the first apron, with Anthony Edwards ($48.9 million), Ball ($40.8 million), Gobert ($36.5 million) and Jaden McDaniels ($26.2 million) carrying the four largest salaries. Minnesota's own first-round picks are swapped through 2028 and protected into 2030, the cost of building around this current group rather than the next one. The bet is that Ball gives Edwards and McDaniels more room, not less competition for shots.
The Anchor's Clock
Gobert is 34 and starting his 13th season, still the four-time Defensive Player of the Year who anchored a defense that finished eighth in the league last season. He averaged 10.9 points, 11.5 rebounds and 31.3 minutes a night across 76 games. In the home loss to Detroit this week, he managed 8 points and 4 rebounds in 22 minutes and finished minus 4 as Minnesota blew a 10-point lead and allowed 128. It is one preseason game, not a verdict, but it is the exact math this roster is built to answer.
Two Timelines, One Wall
Minnesota has reached the conference finals twice since 2024, losing to Dallas and then to an eventual champion in Oklahoma City, before a six-game loss to Denver and a conference semifinals exit to San Antonio last season. Chris Finch, in his sixth season as head coach, now has Ball alongside Edwards, Ayo Dosunmu and Donte DiVincenzo to spread the shot creation that used to fall on Edwards and McDaniels alone. That depth should make the regular season easier. It does not change who has to hold the defense together in May. The backcourt remake buys Minnesota margin, not a younger Gobert, and the wall it has hit three years running is still waiting on the other side.
Why did the Timberwolves trade for LaMelo Ball?
A four-team trade completed July 10 sent Julius Randle to Brooklyn and Naz Reid to Charlotte in exchange for Ball and Josh Green, adding a third shot creator next to Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels.
Is Rudy Gobert still Minnesota's defensive anchor?
Yes. At 34 and in his 13th season, he is still a four-time Defensive Player of the Year coming off 10.9 points and 11.5 rebounds a game last season, and how much he has left is central to how far this defense can carry Minnesota.
