By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With the Minnesota Timberwolves losing to the Phoenix Suns 116-107 and falling to 4-4 at the beginning of the season, Charles Barkley believes they have wrongly traded for Rudy Gobert during the summer.
The Timberwolves are the only team in the NBA with two 7-footers in the starting lineup, with Karl Anthony-Towns playing alongside the French center.
“That’s because they got two 7-footers out there like idiots. Nice trade”, Barkley said.
Minnesota gave up Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmero, Walker Kessler, and four future first-round picks for Gobert.
“I hated that trade. They can’t play the pick-n-roll. It would’ve been fine in our day, but they can’t guard in today’s game. They’re not dominating in the paint offensively or defensively”, former NBA star and now a television analyst on TNT added.
With the Western contenders like Phoenix, Golden State Warriors, and L.A. Clippers not having their game based around big guys, Barkley believes Minessota will struggle: “Who the teams they’re going to have to beat? None of those guys got big dudes. So what good is it to have big two big dudes out there? They can’t guard 3-point shooters. I just didn’t like the trade at all”, Charles Barkley concluded.