With Wolves on the precipice, trailing 3-1 in their series with the next game to be played in Denver, many voices are rising even more audibly to explain that the Rudy Gobert trade is a total fiasco. , one of the worst “trades” in history itself…
Meanwhile, despite their objectively chaotic season, the arrival of Gobert still allowed Minnesota to appear in the Top 10 for defensive efficiency for the first time in twenty years (2003-04), just that!
“With experience, you become able to adapt to what you have at hand”thus exposes Elston Turnerassistant defensive coach for Wolves in the Star Tribune. “With the number of seasons I’ve spent in this League, the number of coaches and styles of play I’ve seen as a coach, I know almost every system possible and imaginable. It allows me to have a good idea of what I can do with the group we have. »
A hardworking former 1.96m rear-winger who spent eight seasons in the NBA between Dallas, Denver and Chicago in the 1980s, Turner then decided to take the plunge into coaching, after two very quick spells in Europe (in Italy and Greece ) and three final laps in CBA.
A veteran assistant
Back on the NBA scene with the Blazers, between 1996 and 2000, Turner then experienced four other franchises (Sacramento, Houston, Phoenix, Memphis) as an assistant, before landing in Minnesota in the summer of 2021 on the staff of Coach Finch.
“He worked with a lot of coaches who leaned towards attack: D’Antonio, Adelman…”, likes Finch. “He won’t be disturbed by attacks that create problems in defense, whether it’s because of a high pace of play or stray balls. Likewise, he is not against relying on players who are more attacking players. I have known staffs where there were often battles between attack and defense. »
With Turner, Wolves especially have an ideal mentor for Gobert who is still in the process of adapting to his new team. While last year, Minnesota allowed itself to go and dispute the screen exits with Towns in position 5, the Wolves are much more conservative and protective of the racket in “coverage drop” after the screen with Gobert in 5 and Towns in 4.
“Last year, we forced stray shots, this year, we’re making our stops instead on contesting shots because we can no longer afford to run wide with two 2m13 guys! »explains Turner before clarifying his thoughts on the particular case of the Frenchman. “Rudy was great. He has a good personality. Often when a guy arrives in a new team, he arrives with his way of doing things before. He still has remnants of his habits. I’m not saying it’s bad, but you also have to take the players and adapt them to the system in place, which takes time. Sometimes he makes mistakes, but it’s in reaction [à sa nouvelle situation]. »
A relationship of trust with Gobert
Recently bothered by his back, which had led to his frustration and his unfortunate gesture on Kyle Anderson, as lodger as he is, Gobert suffers to contain Nikola Jokic. This evening again, the task awaiting the international tricolor is still immense. But he trusts his technical staff behind him.
“I really appreciate his coaching because he lets me change what we do in defense and really change a lot of the principles that they have built over the last few years,” acknowledges Gobert. “We had a lot of very good discussions during the season, and we are still improving. I especially like the pride he takes in his work. You can see that he is passionate and that he does it with his heart. »
Before thinking about demolishing everything before the first version is even finished, the Wolves continue to advance and the groundwork of assistants such as Turner does not stop behind the scenes…
“It’s a constant, everyday conversation,” concludes Mike Conley, who already knew Turner from Memphis. “Rudy wants something and says to him: OK, I understood. And then ET will tell him: we have to stick to the script and keep it like that, I think it will help us. Their communication is essential. They communicate well with each other and we can be happy about it, because Rudy is one of the best in the world at his job and ET too. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Anthony Edwards | 79 | 36.0 | 45.9 | 36.9 | 75.6 | 0.6 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 24.6 |
| Karl Anthony Towns | 29 | 33.0 | 49.5 | 36.6 | 87.4 | 1.7 | 6.5 | 8.1 | 4.8 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 3.8 | 20.8 |
| D’angelo Russell | 54 | 32.9 | 46.5 | 39.1 | 85.6 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 6.2 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 17.9 |
| Mike Conley | 24 | 31.4 | 46.0 | 42.0 | 86.3 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 5.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 14.0 |
| Rudy Gobert | 70 | 30.7 | 65.9 | 0.0 | 64.4 | 3.3 | 8.3 | 11.6 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 3.0 | 13.4 |
| Jaden Mcdaniels | 79 | 30.6 | 51.7 | 39.8 | 73.6 | 1.2 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 12.1 |
| Naz Reid | 68 | 18.4 | 53.7 | 34.6 | 67.7 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 4.9 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 11.5 |
| Jaylen Nowell | 65 | 19.3 | 44.8 | 28.9 | 77.8 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 10.8 |
| Kyle Anderson | 69 | 28.4 | 50.9 | 41.0 | 73.5 | 1.0 | 4.4 | 5.3 | 4.9 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 9.4 |
| Taurean Prince | 54 | 22.1 | 46.7 | 38.1 | 84.4 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 9.1 |
| Luka Garza | 28 | 8.7 | 54.3 | 35.9 | 78.8 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 6.5 |
| Nickeil Alexander-Walker | 23 | 15.5 | 38.4 | 36.1 | 61.9 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 5.9 |
| austin rivers | 52 | 19.5 | 43.5 | 35.0 | 76.9 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 4.9 |
| Jordan McLaughlin | 43 | 15.8 | 42.1 | 30.8 | 83.3 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 3.7 |
| Nathan Knight | 38 | 7.7 | 56.8 | 36.4 | 68.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 3.7 |
| Bryn Forbes | 25 | 10.7 | 36.1 | 30.4 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 3.6 |
| matt ryan | 22 | 8.2 | 42.4 | 38.8 | 85.7 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 3.4 |
| Josh Minott | 15 | 6.4 | 50.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 3.1 |
| Aj Lawson | 1 | 1.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Wendell Moore, Jr. | 29 | 5.3 | 41.9 | 11.8 | 80.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
