Because he had been very ill during the previous summer and then missed 52 games during the regular season, Karl-Anthony Towns left the keys to the team, even the franchise, to Anthony Edwards. But his absence also had an impact on his budding relationship with Rudy Gobert. Many were skeptical about their complementarity, and even the effectiveness of “Twin Towers” in today’s basketball, and they will be more than under scrutiny.
“Rudy and I needed more time”recognizes Towns. “Obviously my injury didn’t help, so it’ll be good to be on the field with him, get healthy and get to work. »
A threesome relationship
For the president, Tim Connelly, Chris Finch had a lot of merit during this first season, and the Wolves coach is ready to get the best out of his three All-Stars since the complicity between Gobert and Towns should not be made at the to the detriment of Edwards, called to be the number 1 option in attack.
“For sure we will do a lot of work with them together, player development, small group work” ad Finch. “Over the last season, Ant and Rudy have understood each other better. It’s not yet the finished product, far from it, but we felt that it was getting better and better. I think the key for us is to find the automatisms that Ant and KAT always had.”
At the end of a very average season, with declining stats and lost All-Star status, Gobert is vengeful. To the local press, he announced that he had worked a lot on offense this summer, with “the icing on the cake” being 3-point shooting. But more than his first 3-point basket in the NBA, we expect him to have a real technical relationship with Towns.
“I think it remains ongoing work” replies Gobert, interviewed during “media day”. “It’s never enough. We have progressed individually and collectively, and I am really happy to be back with this group. I can feel the energy. I feel like it’s going to be a good year for us. »