After seeing many players scroll by his side in the ranks of Jazz, Rudy Gobert joined new ones with the Timberwolves last summer. He has just revealed the identity of his favorite partner throughout his career.
On the verge of completing the 10th regular season of his NBA career, he can legitimately believe that the league has nothing more to hide from him. Now considered a veteran across the Atlantic, Rudy Gobert knows the circuit like the back of his hand, just like his hundreds of counterparts. He also displays a liability with those he has worked with as a teammate, more important with some than others.
Rudy Gobert reveals close ties to Wolves star
Traded to the Timberwolves last summer, Gobert took time to acclimatize to his new environment. Its automatisms with its current partners also continue to develop, apart from those already well established with… Mike Conley. Interviewed by Jake Fischer from Yahoo Sportsthe Frenchman reveals that he was delighted at the announcement of his meeting with the leader:
I was really excited. Mike is one of my favorite human beings.
Authors of three common seasons in Utah, the two men had been separated independently of their will a few months ago. An event that Rudy would have quickly deplored:
Sometimes we take things too much for granted. It’s part of human nature. Our situation, our teammates, the connection we can have, our friends and our family, we take a lot of things for granted. And it’s only when it’s gone that you realize what you had.
Nostalgic for his duet with Conley, the international tricolor was therefore happy to find him in Minnesota on the sidelines of the trade deadline. All this, without their agreement having disappeared in the meantime, according to him:
The complementarity we have is almost as if we didn’t need to talk to each other. We understand each other with our eyes closed, and we also know how to pull each other up.
Such a connection necessarily takes time to establish, and requires substantive work from both parties. This is good, since the American back would have made big sacrifices to allow the pair to shine simultaneously:
Mike did an amazing job, in the sense that he changed his game for me. He adjusted to me and our team. The more the season progressed, the more our chemistry developed.
Slower in pick-and-roll situations than in the past, Conley would allow time for Rudy to get closer to the circle, allowing him to benefit from more options himself. A winning recipe for everyone, including Wolves, who can now count on a finely tuned 1-5 axis!
Blossoming alongside Mike Conley at the Jazz, Rudy Gobert is once again benefiting from the experience and sense of sacrifice of the leader with the Timberwolves. A reunion that necessarily facilitates its development under its new colors!
