It was shocking when the Timberwolves traded D’Angelo Russell, but it made sense for the front office to target Mike Conley.
Russell was only 26 years old when Minnesota traded him for Conley — a 35-year-old NBA veteran — and shooting a career-high 39.1 percent on 3-pointers before the trade. But Russell was never a natural fit as the point guard to maximize the output from big man Rudy Gobert.
Considering how much the Timberwolves sacrificed in order to land the three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Minnesota had to find a more ideal fit for Gobert.
Conley showed exactly why he is that guy with a mesmerizing assist to Gobert during a crucial victory over the Knicks on Monday:
Mike Conley incredible pass to Rudy Gobert for the layup pic.twitter.com/kWv37zfxGH
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) March 21, 2023
Conley had a finger roll ready to go for a score, but at the last second, he converted it into a touch pass and Gobert finished it off at the rim.
Russell, meanwhile, is playing well for the Lakers. But he wasn’t the right fit.
The reality of the situation is that Conley has significantly better chemistry with Gobert than Russell ever did. Here is more from Timberwolves’ insider Jon Krawczynski (via SI.com):
“There was this perception that D’Angelo Russell was very frustrated with Gobert and did not seem as open to working with him or trying to find a happy medium as maybe some of the other players were, trying to make what has so far been a disappointing trade, try to find a way to make it work.”
Russell, reportedly privately, and also publicly, criticized Gobert. He had subtle shade directed at the big man for fumbling passes, to which the big man said that he tried to put himself in the right situation for the guard as often as possible.
The damage was likely already done, though. Using data from PBPStats and NBA.com, we found which of his floor general teammates were most likely to check for the three-time All-Star on the offensive side of the floor.
Among those who have shared the court with Gobert for at least 500 minutes, here are the teammates who have passed to and assisted the big man the most often per 36 minutes during his NBA career.
The results suggest that Conley is the player who has gotten Gobert the most involved in the offense, getting more from the big man than Russell ever did:
| PASSER TO GOBERT | AST/36 | PASSES/36 |
| Mike Conley* | 2.1 | 11.0 |
| Kyle Anderson | 2.0 | 7.8 |
| Ricky Rubio | 1.9 | 17.3 |
| Joe Ingles | 1.8 | 10.2 |
| Boris Diaw | 1.7 | 6.1 |
| D’Angelo Russell* | 1.6 | 10.6 |
| Dante Exum | 1.3 | 14.3 |
| George Hill | 1.3 | 17.5 |
| Donovan Mitchell | 1.1 | 6.4 |
It doesn’t take more than a second to look at that chart and see how much involved Gobert gets when Conley is running the offense compared to when Russell ran the show. But the good news is that it also translates to winning.
The Timberwolves scored 111.5 points per 100 possessions and they were outscored by 0.5 points per 100 when Gobert and Russell shared the court, per PBPStats. They are scoring 118.8 with Gobert and Conley, however, and outscoring opponents by 4.6 points per 100 during these minutes.
Conley is feeding Gobert in the paint, and as the big man is getting the ball near the basket, he is drawing contact more often. Gobert attempted 7.2 free throw attempts per 100 with Russell as his floor general but 9.0 FTA per 100 with Conley.
This is helping his overall productivity, too, as he averaged 21.9 points per 100 alongside Russell and is scoring 23.7 points per 100 with Conley.
But as with everything with Gobert on the offensive end of the floor, this trend is most noticeable when he is dunking the basketball.
According to Stathead, we can gather that Gobert averaged 2.89 dunks during the 47 games he played for the Timberwolves before Russell was traded. He has since averaged 3.54 dunks in the 13 games with Conley.
Meanwhile, via NBA.com, he attempted 1.32 alley-oops before the trade and has averaged 1.46 alley-oops since he reunited with his former Utah running mate. For comparison, that is nearly exactly as many alley-oop attempts as he averaged (1.45) over the course of his final four seasons with the Jazz.
This might not be the season that Minnesota wanted, but at least Conley brings Gobert closer to his normal output than Russell ever did.
