The Minnesota Timberwolves are reportedly expecting huge things out of the tandem of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert during the 2022-23 season.

On his podcast, ESPN's Brian Windhorst said the following (beginning at the 17-minute mark):

"What I'm going to tell you about the Timberwolves is that they believe—they really, really believe—that this is going to be a smash hit, this pairing. They believe that Rudy is going to, you know, it's very hard to have any kind of good defense when your center position isn't great defensively, or good defensively, which it hasn't been. Towns is not good defensively. ... So, they think that's been shored up.

"They love everything about Towns, obviously, just gave him a $220 million extension, but he's not the greatest pick-and-roll player. And so, they think D'Angelo Russell playing with Gobert as a pick-and-roll partner is gonna open stuff up for him. So, they're excited about Rudy's effect on Russell as much as they are on Towns."

The T-Wolves sent Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, Walker Kessler, four first-round picks and one first-round pick swap to the Utah Jazz for the All-Star center.

In Gobert, the Timberwolves received one of the NBA's most dominant defensive players, as he is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, six-time All-Defensive Team selection, one-time rebounding champion and one-time blocks champion.

During his nine-year run in Utah, Gobert averaged 12.4 points, 11.7 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game while shooting a remarkable 65.3 percent from the field.

The Frenchman had a career high in rebounds per game last season with 14.7 and the second-best scoring production of his career at 15.6 points per game. He has also led the NBA in field-goal percentage in three of the past four seasons.

Given that Gobert shot a career-best 71.3 percent from the floor last season, it could behoove the T-Wolves to get him more involved offensively than he was in Utah, and Windhorst suggested that will be the case:

"Their team dinner that they had Monday night, Rudy spoke at the team dinner, you know, sort of getting to know his teammates. And one of the things that they apparently hammered away on in their first few days of camp is ... they want to make sure Rudy gets taken care of offensively. Reward him for defending by taking care of him offensively. That's been a Day 1 high bullet point thing."

The offense ran through Donovan Mitchell in Utah, and while Towns will undoubtedly be the top scoring option in Minnesota, it seems as though feeding Gobert in the paint will be a point of emphasis.

While Gobert is the NBA's premier defensive center, it can be argued that Towns is the best scorer in the league among bigs.

The 6'11" Towns is a three-time All-Star who averaged 24.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game last season, and Gobert's arrival figures to open up things for him even more.

Minnesota made the playoffs as the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference last season and won two games against the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. With Gobert and Towns forming the most dominant interior tandem in the NBA, the T-Wolves have a chance to go on a much deeper run this season.