Playoffs will reveal much more for Timberwolves on Rudy Gobert trade, 'twin towers' strategy with Karl-Anthony Towns

Taking the floor in Denver on Sunday night will be three of the four people who have battled for All-NBA berths at the center position the last several years.

The Timberwolves' two-big man experiment of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert will take on two-time MVP Nikola Jokic in a battle of two teams assembled by Tim Connelly.

The July 1 trade the current Wolves president pulled off in Minnesota has received a lot of flak and attention around the league and from fans. But despite the many doomsday judgments of the trade, the Wolves might have gone into the offseason not knowing enough information about how the Towns-Gobert tandem could work long-term if they had failed to secure a playoff berth Friday.

Their 120-95 victory over Oklahoma City on Friday night at Target Center essentially enables them to hit the reset button on evaluating this pairing. There is nothing like a playoff series to reveal your weaknesses and strengths.

The four to seven games the Wolves are about to play with Towns and Gobert on the floor together may be more valuable and more telling than the 28 they played together during the regular season and play-in tournament.

Last season, the Wolves got confirmation in the playoffs that D'Angelo Russell likely wasn't their point guard for the long term when they had to sit him in the final minutes of a close Game 6 against Memphis. Forward Jaden McDaniels has said the confidence in his offensive game took a leap during the playoffs last season, and that continued throughout this one before he broke his hand punching a wall during last week's regular-season finale.

The Wolves' playoff berth allows everybody to turn to a clean sheet of paper in their notebooks and evaluate this trade from a different angle. They will be facing a championship contender in Denver, and playing a player who might win his third consecutive MVP award.

Towns looks back to form after missing 52 games because of a right calf injury. His offensive output in his past five games is reminiscent of the player who used to tangle with Gobert and Jokic for those All-NBA slots. Towns is averaging 25.2 points over that stretch.

Back spasms have hampered Gobert recently, but he had 21 points and 10 rebounds against the Thunder and said afterward he should be good to go again Sunday.

Gradually, coach Chris Finch has learned how the two can operate in tandem. On offense, Finch said the Wolves look different with both out there than they did in October and November. The biggest thing they have worked on over the season is spacing.

"They continue to really like to play with each other," Finch said. "I have to call more stuff that activates that partnership from time to time. … Rudy had a bunch [of plays on Friday] where he could get right to the front of the rim, and KAT can find him and keep it simple. That was the dynamic we didn't necessarily have last year. We had to play to the perimeter, and then move it again and drive it again. But now we can just kind of play big to big."

Defensively, Towns has been getting more comfortable defending a position he hasn't had to much in his career.

"It's not easy when you play the same way for eight years, getting out of your comfort zone," Gobert said. "And same offensively, he's used to being in every action, and now I'm telling him that when I go set a pick-and-roll with Ant [Anthony Edwards] or Mike [Conley] or anybody else, he has to learn how to space, and that's the difference for us being here and being here, and that's how you maximize his talent."

Still, for the progress they have made following the mega-trade — the Wolves paid the sky-high price of five players, four future first-round picks and a pick swap to acquire the 30-year-old center — it can be frustrating for fans to hear how incremental it has been, especially when the clock is ticking on this window for the Wolves to compete.

The Wolves have tried to embrace the fact they are so big. When teams go small against them, the Wolves have done a decent job of making their opponents pay. They did so against an Oklahoma City team that didn't have anyone to match up with Towns. Gobert has not been "played off the floor" often by opposing teams' strategies. When he was earlier this month at Brooklyn, Finch wasn't afraid to sit him down the stretch and the Wolves pulled out a victory.

Now they will be going against a frontcourt of Jokic and Aaron Gordon. It's unlikely the Nuggets will be going small against them in the important moments, considering their best player is also a center.

The matchup with Jokic can show just how far the Wolves will be from contending and show what they may need to do going forward to build around Towns and Gobert. Or it might provide more evidence to blow it up.

Regardless, Friday's game meant everyone will have an opportunity this week to gain a better understanding of where the Towns-and-Gobert strategy stands.