In 2023, Rudy Gobert threw a punch at then-teammate Kyle Anderson on the Timberwolves bench following an argument. Three years later, the roles looked reversed. On Wednesday night, Gobert sat quietly while his new teammates unloaded on him, and Jonathan Kuminga had his own run-in with the team that let him go.
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Kuminga was playing his first game against the Warriors since joining the Timberwolves. Late in Minnesota’s 119-114 loss, he was caught on camera exchanging words with his former team’s bench. It looked like trash-talking, though Kuminga explained the interaction in his postgame media availability.
“I was just talking to one of my good people out there,” Kuminga said. “Just going back and forth with him because he used to be my (player development) coach, and you know, he was one of my brothers. It goes way beyond basketball, so that’s about it.”
He played well enough to make the moment matter. Kuminga had 20 points, three rebounds, five assists and two steals, his best performance of the season. His 20 points led Minnesota in scoring against his former team.
The second clip is the one that went viral. During a timeout, both Ball and Kuminga can be seen yelling at Gobert on the sideline. The two talked animatedly to Gobert on the bench, while Gobert sat silently. Nobody has said what they were saying, and the video does not include audio.
Gobert had given them a reason. He went 0-for-4 from the field, finishing with one point, four rebounds, one assist and one steal in 20 minutes. The Warriors’ small-ball strategy rendered him ineffective, and Golden State outrebounded Minnesota 53-42. Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 44 points, and Golden State led 64-48 at halftime.
The frustration did not start Wednesday. Even Anthony Edwards was visibly frustrated with Gobert in the 127-125 overtime loss to Cleveland, in which Gobert went 0-for-9 from the field. Teammates being frustrated with Gobert in back-to-back games isn’t a good look. Gobert had one of the worst games of his entire NBA career, and the Timberwolves have now lost two straight.
The timing makes it harder to ignore. Edwards will undergo an arthroscopic procedure on his right knee and miss up to two months, and the Wolves need their big names to step up. The season started with Minnesota looking of challenging the San Antonio Spurs in the West, and now the team has to find its footing without its leader.
Ball and Kuminga arrived in Minnesota only this summer, so their willingness to go at Gobert is interesting. The Wolves rebuilt around Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Gobert, adding Ball and Kuminga after losing in the conference semifinals in May. Two new players speaking up to a veteran who helped the team reach two Western Conference finals shows how quickly the dynamic has changed.
Wednesday’s loss left two stories on the same night: a player facing his old team and a center facing his new teammates. Neither story has an ending yet. Kuminga’s exchange looks like a one-off, while the Gobert frustration looks like a theme that will follow Minnesota until his numbers improve.