Draymond Green Glazes Timberwolves, Including a Little Love for Rudy Gobert…?

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Rudy Gobert dunking on Draymond Green in the 2025 NBA Playoffs - Minnesota Timberwolves at Golden State Warriors
Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards scored an easy 22 points in game five of the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday night, to help put away the Golden State Warriors for good.

But game five wasn’t about Ant, who mostly took a playmaker role, facilitating 12 assists while his teammates daggered the Warriors’ season over and over again. As a team, the Wolves shot 62.8% from the field and 41.9% from deep in game 5 against Golden State.

Meanwhile, Julius Randle led the Minnesota Timberwolves with 29 points. Mike Conley had his best game of the postseason, scoring 16 points, dealing 8 assists and grabbing 6 rebounds. Then, there’s Rudy Gobert, who seems to have a thing lately for closeout games in the playoffs.

Rudy Gobert shows up big for MN Timberwolves in yet another closeout game

Rudy Gobert dunking on Draymond Green in the 2025 NBA Playoffs - Minnesota Timberwolves at Golden State Warriors
Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

Wednesday night, the 7-foot Frenchman was a +21 (highest +/- of game 5), shooting 8-of-9 from the field for 17 points. It was his second-best performance in the playoffs, behind only game 5 of their last playoff series, when he went off for a team high 27 points and 24 rebounds to close out the Lakers in Tinseltown.

During Wolves vs Warriors second round series — one in which the two went head-to-head throughout much of the five games played — Rudy Gobert mostly dominated Draymond Green. Both guys averaged ~10 points per game, but scoring isn’t Rudy’s game. Still, the offense he did provide was efficient and dependable.

Gobert shot 64% from the field and led both teams in scoring efficiency (1.714), getting many of his looks off the 2.6 offensive rebounds he averaged in the series. He also averaged 2 blocks per game.

Compare Rudy’s round two production to Draymond’s 10.6 points, 0.2 blocks and 5.4 rebounds per game, along with his lousy 1.019 scoring efficiency rating… and it becomes even more obvious which “post player” was better in round two.

Draymond Green — the ultimate Rudy Gobert bully

When Rudy Gobert first landed in Minnesota, he was known mostly as a great defender, who had struggled to find his fit during the playoffs. While in Utah, Rudy struggled to stay on the floor at the end of games and proved to be a shell of the player he had been in the regular season.

It wasn’t just his inability to make foul shots, which created a hack-a-Rudy strategy from opponents that made him damn near unplayable at the end of games, but early and often teams were spreading out the Jazz and forcing Gobert into defensive responsibilities that no big would be comfortable with, no matter his acumen on that side of the floor.

But that’s not the way much of the NBA saw things. They saw Gobert as an over-inflated defender who could be taken advantage of in the postseason. Then, there’s Draymond Green, who didn’t just have his doubts about Rudy, as a basketball player… he straight up did not respect him, or his four Defensive Player of the Year awards.

Draymond was more than happy to discuss his thoughts on Rudy Gobert through whatever public forum he could find, including this time last year, when he took his spot on the TNT Inside NBA crew during the later rounds of the Western Conference Playoffs, where he called out Gobert, disrespected him and drug his basketball name night after night.

Draymond turned into a wing playmaker vs Gobert, Minnesota Timberwolves defense

Then, in round two of this playoff series, Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and the Minnesota Timberwolves defense reduced Draymond Green to a point-forward who was forced to facilitate and make shots from deep… and he tried to take what the Wolves were giving him. It just didn’t work. And banging down low against Rudy, who he claimed to see as a defensive joke, was now out of the question.

That’s right, the 13-year veteran — who averages 2.6 three point attempts per game in his career — averaged over double that against the Timberwolves during the 2025 NBA Playoffs, hoisting a rather insane 5.8 three pointers per night. Draymond finished 27.6% from deep, in the series.

Related: Video Surfaces Proving NBA Refs Will Allow Just About Any Crime Against Rudy Gobert

So… how does the bully feel after being bullied by his own victim for most of five games? Well, during his final postgame press conference of the 2024-25 season, Draymond Green appeared humbled. He tried to avoid excuses, even though the Steph Curry injury gave him an easy one, had he decided to take it.

Draymond Green opens up (not really) on Rudy Gobert

Green did (somewhat begrudgingly) bring up Rudy Gobert twice… very briefly. Early on, he said that “Rudy played really well”. Then about eight and a half minutes in, Green mentioned Gobert and his “four-time defensive player of the year” status, as one of the weapons Minnesota has in its championship caliber arsenal. And, well… that was it.

While his praise of the Minnesota Timberwolves was a bit light on nice words for his arch-DPOY-nemesis, I think it’s safe to say after watching his presser, that Draymond Green won’t be talking much about Rudy Gobert. Recently, Draymond Green berated reporters over things his mom and dad taught him as a kid.

More than likely, I imagine he will suddenly remember another thing thing his parents taught him back in the day. ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’ After this series, even Draymond knows nobody is going to take him seriously for negative Rudy Gobert opinions.

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