{"id":589141,"date":"2026-02-07T22:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589141\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:03:20","slug":"timberwolves-rudy-gobert-calls-out-teammates-for-lack-of-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589141\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert Calls Out Teammates For Lack Of Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert<\/a> called out his teammates\u2019 lack of effort following a 119-115 home loss to the floundering Pelicans on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cAt some point, if the players don\u2019t have accountability, someone has to have accountability for the players,\u201d Gobert said, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m on straight effort. I\u2019m just talking straight effort. I\u2019m not even getting to the basketball side of things, like there\u2019s always mistakes are a part of the game, but the effort to me for a team that wants to play for a championship, it\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four-time Defensive Player of the Year didn\u2019t mention any player in particular. However, Krawczynski noted that while the team\u2019s other stars \u2014 Anthony Edwards<\/a> and Julius Randle<\/a> \u2014 scored a combined 59 points, they didn\u2019t appear locked in on the other end of the floor.<\/p>\n

Gobert implored the coaches to bench players if they\u2019re not giving their all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should start with ourselves, but it seems like we don\u2019t have that, so I think at some point (it has to come) from the coaches,\u201d Gobert said. \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy position for a coach to take guys out of the game. It\u2019s not something that you want to do, but I think if the players don\u2019t show any effort, at some point, no matter how talented we are as a team, if you don\u2019t have that, you just can\u2019t be a winning team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota has lost eight of its last 15 games, ranking 18th in the league defensively during that span. Gobert didn\u2019t give himself a free pass after Pelicans forward Zion Williamson<\/a> powered for 29 points, mostly near the rim.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with me. If I\u2019m not showing effort, bench me,\u201d Gobert said. \u201cTake me out of the game. Everybody else will follow. Our best players, leaders, if we don\u2019t show any effort, it doesn\u2019t matter if you score 50, we\u2019re not going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 32-21, the Timberwolves sit in sixth place of the Western Conference standings, barely above the play-in line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a championship team. We want to lift that trophy in June,\u201d Gobert said. \u201cThis is a lesson that we need to get right now. It starts at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert called out his teammates\u2019 lack of effort following a 119-115 home loss to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3782],"tags":[375,7,376,307,152,3954,6,373,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-589141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-julius-randle","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","13":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-rudy-gobert","16":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116031613610453088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}