How Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert revitalized their two-man game in Minnesota
Mike Conley knew. He’d spoken with the Jazz front office. He watched Royce O’Neale depart Utah first. And one by one, a blockbuster sent Rudy Gobert to Minnesota; weeks of negotiations shipped Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland; Bojan Bogdanovic headed to Detroit. Over a long summer, the Jazz dismantled their starting lineup, leaving a 35-year-old Conley holding Doc Brown’s photograph after each character dissolved from the frame.
Conley knew full well he could be next. He would be next, if the right trade package presented itself. Utah wasn’t sure a deal would ever materialize for its veteran point guard with guaranteed money on the books for 2023-24. But the Jazz always lurked as a possible landing spot for Russell Westbrook’s expiring contract, and Conley’s $22.6 million salary was all but required to make any math with the Lakers work.
With all that runway, Conley still learned of a three-team trade developing between Utah, Los Angeles and Minnesota the afternoon before the Feb. 9 trade deadline, “When the world found out it was a possibility,” Conley told Yahoo Sports. The framework was building off a similar structure the Lakers and Jazz discussed back in the preseason, when both Utah and Indiana were adamant, league sources said, acquiring Westbrook and his $46.2 million cap hit would require two first-round picks for their troubles. Then as the final days ticked away on this season’s trade market, the Jazz informed the Lakers they would be willing to accept just one first-rounder for Westbrook, sources said, plus they were now open to including versatile defender Jarred Vanderbilt.
Conley, nonetheless, arrived at Vivint Arena around 3 p.m. that Wednesday for his normal pregame routine, scheduled to face the same Timberwolves who were trying to acquire him.
Some factions of the Los Angeles front office preferred a younger ballhandler than Conley to support LeBron James and Anthony Davis, sources said, and maintaining future financial wiggle room was of some priority to the Lakers. Los Angeles, having pivoted from pursuing Kyrie Irving from Brooklyn, set its sights on Minnesota’s starting ballhandler, D’Angelo Russell, instead. The Timberwolves, meanwhile, were exploring trade scenarios before Russell’s own pricey contract expires and he reaches free agency. And having dealt with Utah over the summer to land Gobert, Wolves officials long understood Conley’s availability.
Conley was still preparing to play against Minnesota amid it all. Not until a text message from Gobert vibrated his phone, and an emoji of bulging eyes flashed on the screen, did Conley affirm his new reality. O’Neale dialed soon after to celebrate the news. The once-upon-a-time Jazz forward rang his former center next.
“I was just excited,” Gobert told Yahoo Sports. “Mike is one of my favorite human beings.”
Years of pick-and-roll prowess can do that to a man. When a jitterbug point guard serves lob after lob to his rumbling giant on an iron platter above the net. The tandem became All-Stars, together. Over three seasons in Salt Lake City, they weren’t quite attached at the hip, but Conley brushed his wily dribble past Gobert’s strong stance on thousands of possessions. Gobert set 1,397 screens for Conley during the 2021-22 campaign alone, per SecondSpectrum, the second-highest total of any pairing in the league. And a cold winter in Minneapolis left Gobert with a heightened appreciation for the southpaw he’d left behind.
“It’s human nature, sometimes we take things for granted. We take our situation or our teammates, the connection that we had, our friends and family, we take a lot of things for granted,” Gobert said. “And when it’s not there anymore, you realize what you had.”
What they had, what Minnesota believes reuniting Conley and Gobert can accomplish alongside Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, marks a rare counterbalance on the floor and compatibility of personality. All those reps from those high-screen steps melded their minds.
“The synergy that we have, it’s almost like we don’t need to talk anymore,” Gobert said. “We just understand each other and know how to push each other, too.”
Minnesota can certainly use that connectivity, to get a discombobulated season over the finish line and secure at least a position in the play-in tournament, let alone the postseason. These Wolves have wrestled with injury and illness and plenty of growing pains throughout Gobert’s inaugural season in Minneapolis, after sending Utah the equivalent of five first-round picks and then some.
“I see more and more of the little things in pick-and-roll that we’re starting to benefit from,” said Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch. “Not everyone can make all the passes Mike can make, as well as make shots, but we’re getting better.”
Perhaps there’s solace to be found in Conley and Gobert’s past. Today’s ready-made two-man game wasn’t quite finished when it first came out of the box. Conley joined the Jazz in 2019 after 12 seasons in Memphis, mastering a pick-and-pop pairing with Marc Gasol. He would weave off Gasol’s screens as the Grizzlies center backpedaled to the perimeter, opening the lane for Conley to find pull-ups and his lethal floater. But the bounce passes he flicked whenever Gasol did roll, they were bouncing off the taller Gobert’s knees.
“There’s only five-to-seven feet to make that pass,” former Jazz teammate Georges Niang told Yahoo Sports. And Gobert, mind you, stands 7-foot-3.
So Conley and Gobert got to talking. And they kept talking. They watched film after practice, dissecting pick-and-roll clips at different locations on the court with assistant coaches Alex Jensen and Lamar Skeeter. Jazz teammates would arrive to practice the next day and find their lineup bookends already sharing the floor.
“The best thing that those two have in common, is they were willing to always work it out and see where the other person was coming from,” Niang said. “I just think that’s pretty special.”
Gobert asked Conley to slow his pace off the screen. The split-second Conley needs to zip into the paint, Gobert requires to start his rumble to the rim.
“I was used to just getting downhill and trying to beat the guy to the rim and make a play off of that,” Conley said. “I needed to slow down. I had to learn how to be more deceptive when I shoot a floater, when I’m finding him in different locations where he can be dominant.”
“Mike did an amazing job just modifying his game and adjusting to me and to our team,” Gobert said. “As the season came by, the chemistry started to click a little more.”
Conley recognized the weapon at his disposal. Gobert was always conscientious with how he angles his shoulders. He was always quick to flip the action if defenders went under his long legs, repaving a route for Conley in the other direction. The point guard was tap-dancing in the lane and still had time to spare.
“When you don’t get a good screen, it blows up the play. He’s really one of the elite screeners in the league,” Conley said. “If you’re patient, he does a great job of not fouling. He does a great job of leaning into screens, really holding ’em, giving you space to decide what you want to do. You have more decision-making when that happens.”
The pandemic, though, stalled their momentum, following Gobert’s positive test for COVID-19 that became the match to light an entire pause on NBA games. Before the benefit of hindsight, Mitchell admittedly grew angry believing he’d soon after test positive from contact with Gobert. When play resumed months later at the bubble staged on Disney World's campus outside Orlando, it was a welcomed chance to get back to basketball.
“Our team had been through a lot,” Gobert said.
As the Jazz arrived first for minicamp, and then during early practices in the bubble, then-head coach Quin Snyder organized a more tailored attack for Utah’s burgeoning starting lineup. The ball popped around the perimeter now, a true four-out scheme, with all four shooters ready to fire or find Gobert in the paint.
“A light switch went on,” Conley said.
Their offense started to hum. Jazz players would then race back from scrimmages, bounding for their hotel rooms and the monitors they’d shipped to play “Call of Duty.”
“It really kept us connected, but also kept us connected to the world,” Gobert said.
He and Conley had two of the quicker trigger fingers. They’d team four Utah players at a time in split-screen deployments, sometimes logging six-hour marathons as other Jazz teammates waited for next. Despite dropping a 3-1 series lead to Denver in those playoffs, Utah personnel returned home from that first season with Conley at the controls, bullish on the benefits of their bubble experience.
“I thought that was really a growing pain for us,” Gobert said. “And the season after that, we came back locked in.”
“That second year,” O’Neale told Yahoo Sports, “the connection built from there.”
The Jazz punished opponents that 2020-21 campaign, producing one of the most efficient offenses in league history en route to the best record in the NBA. Snyder’s staff saw how effective Conley and Gobert played together, they plotted most of their minutes at the same frequency. Conley would be Utah’s first substitution out of games, followed second by Gobert. And after Mitchell orchestrated the Jazz’s offense for a little while, Utah would insert their pick-and-roll partners and punish second units.
“It took a little while,” Conley said. “And once we got it, we got it.”
Like a pitcher disguising his two-seamer with the same release for his knuckleball, Conley often fooled his own coaches, unsure on the bench if he was going to loft a floater or a lob.
“When you have two givers,” said Niang, “things end up working out.”
Even with both Conley and Gobert chasing All-Star nods, Jazz coaches couldn’t justify bringing their starters back into a handful of fourth quarters because they were building such staggering leads.
Utah’s alchemy at large never did bring deeper postseason success. The franchise fell short in the second round in 2021 and was bounced from the first round in 2022. Playoff shortcomings often close chapters and spark new eras, just like leading Minnesota to take a plunge on Gobert. The Wolves’ colossal combination of Towns and Gobert was in part a result of Minnesota’s reflections from last spring’s clash with the Grizzlies. Towns then missed over 50 games with a calf injury. Now, the Wolves have incorporated Gobert’s trusted teammate to help further iron any wrinkles with Towns, Gobert and Edwards finally in the lineup at full strength. In the locker room, Conley’s stall is slotted next to his longtime lob threat.
“Patience is probably the thing they have most together. Mike comes off, he has an awareness of how and when Rudy is gonna roll,” Finch said. “And from that, he has great feel on what the defense is gonna do with it. Are they gonna come up? Are they gonna bend back? Are they gonna help in? That obviously is just a learned skill from Utah. But Mike’s been able to impart a lot of that nuance to our guys.”
The bulk of Minnesota’s success falls on Edwards’ growing shoulders, with Towns’ elite shot-making stretching opposing defenses further than most big men ever have. Gobert’s rare ability to mask his own team’s defensive shortcomings, a vacuum cleaner snuffing up loose activity around the basket, is as critical an element as any within this overall experiment. Conley has long marked the point guard who best understands one of the game’s misunderstood greats.
