Would you still make the Rudy Gobert trade if you knew ... ?

In linear time, the sequence of events is the past, then the present and ultimately the future.

In revisiting the trade that brought Rudy Gobert to the Timberwolves five months after the fact, we will proceed a little differently. Let's start in the present to ground ourselves in reality before venturing into the guesswork of a reimagined past and a speculative future.

The premise: Three variations on the same question about the Gobert trade, which gains extra focus as the Wolves prepare to play in Utah on Friday.

Answer: Probably. While it has been more of a struggle than the Wolves would have liked, 1) it is still very early and 2) there have been some recent signs of Gobert becoming more comfortable and his teammates building around him. It was very good timing, indeed, that Gobert delivered one of his best games of the year (16 points, 21 rebounds, game-saving blocked shot) in Wednesday's win.

The Wolves are 12-12, which is far from disaster. Gobert hasn't been a perfect fit with their other cornerstone players — more on that in a minute — but the deal to get him raised their ceiling, as I talked about on Friday's Daily Delivery podcast.

I've thought about this question far too much given that it will never have a definitive answer since, you know, neither Rosas nor Gupta was in charge when it happened.

Here's what I think: Rosas had a penchant for wanting to make big trades for potentially transformative players, so Gobert would have been tempting. And I don't think he would have balked at the draft capital it took to get him.

But Rosas — and by extension Gupta, who was in charge of personnel after Rosas was dismissed a little over a year ago — might have valued three-point shooting and modern analytics in a way that made a Gobert trade less likely.

They might have been more inclined to go after a guard or a big man like Myles Turner (rumored to be pursued by Connelly before the Gobert trade) who can shoot, even if Gobert is efficient in his own way.

The deal was sold as a chance to pair two dominant big men, Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, as part of a tall but still versatile lineup. With Towns out because of a calf injury for the next several weeks, though, we won't get to see that pair develop.

But what if the Wolves — 2-1 since Towns' injury — flourish while they aren't playing two high-priced centers together? Or what if the feeling I can't shake is true: That the plan all along, or at least the well-considered contingency, is an eventual Towns trade?

That can't happen until July because of the nature of the extension Towns signed in the summer, and maybe it never happens at all. But the Wolves could recoup present and future assets if they went that route while committing to a team built around Gobert and Anthony Edwards.

Again, everything but the present is conjecture.

There is a lot of season left — both before Towns returns and after — in which to gain clarity about the future.