The Minnesota Timberwolves have had an incredibly strong start to their season. The Wolves have the NBA's second-best net rating and have won eight of their 11 games. Seven of those wins were by double digits, and two of the losses came on the second night of a back-to-back.

The foremost reason why the Timberwolves have looked like one of the best teams in the NBA has been their defense, with Rudy Gobert specifically playing some of the best basketball on that end of the floor in his eventual Hall of Fame career.

The Timberwolves have the best defensive rating in the NBA through 11 games. The last time Minnesota had a defense this disruptive to opponents was three years ago, a season when they rode a league-best defense all the way to the Western Conference Finals.

Rudy Gobert's defensive dominance

Gobert has received a large amount of criticism throughout his career. Some of it is fair, especially on the offense, but most of the ridicule he receives is immensely misguided. This is Gobert's fifth season in Minnesota, and each season he has been a foundational aspect of what has been the most successful stretch in franchise history.

Gobert is again driving winning basketball in Minnesota as one of the league's best defenders. When Gobert has been on the court this season, the Wolves have a defensive rating of 97. For reference, the league average is around 113. The only other qualified player with a better defensive rating than Gobert is Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner Victor Wembanyama.

The ugly plays with Gobert stand out. The missed layups and free throws scream out and make fans want to pull their hair out. Meanwhile, his defensive presence is most often silent. He doesn't lead the league in blocks, but Gobert often covers up a mistake from someone on the perimeter and quietly turns what would have been an easy layup into a pass out to the perimeter.

While Gobert's box score numbers may not stand out, the underlying data tells a different story. Gobert is dominating on defense as much as he ever has, and it has created a Timberwolves defense that's once again the team's calling card.

"That’s who we are, that’s our identity," Gobert said of the team's defense (h/t Dane Moore). "We know that we want to be a great defensive team. Personally, as I play and as I breathe, I want my team to be a top defense in the league."

Guards are playing with effort and rebounding

Gobert hasn't been the only reason for the team's defensive success. Joan Beringer has been outstanding off the bench, limiting fouls while protecting the rim; Jaden McDaniels has looked like his usual self as an All-Defense-caliber player, and Jonathan Kuminga has been sensational as the newcomer, largely guarding players bigger and stronger than him.

The Wolves have also gotten better effort and attention to detail on that end of the floor from their guards. Chris Finch, who has been receiving Coach of the Year buzz early in the season, specifically called out LaMelo Ball and Bones Hyland as players who have stepped up their game.

"We’re getting really good defensive efforts from Melo. We’re getting some great defensive efforts from Bones," Finch said (h/t TalkBasket.net). "Some of these guys that we’re challenging them every day to play better defense. Those guys have really responded.”

Ball echoed that, saying, "Pretty much just listening to the coaches and doing the best I could." Hyland himself was a little surprised to hear the Wolves ranked so highly defensively so far, but noted that defense and rebounding have been a point of focus right from the beginning of the season.

"I think coming into the season, people thought we were going to be small. We may be on the paper, but I don’t think we are when we check into the game. We like to muck up the game. We like to get into the offensive players. And we’re just trying to help out the bigs on the rebounds too. I think we’re just pests. We’re trying to be pests as best as we can."

Hyland calling out the team's rebounding is especially important, as coming into the season, it was viewed as the team's weakness. So far, rebounding has not only been a non-issue, but it's been one of the team's strengths, as Minnesota ranks fifth in rebound percentage.

That has been the story of the season so far. Gobert, Finch, and the Wolves made it a priority to be one of the league's best defenses. To do that, the Wolves would have to play with intentionality each game to build a consistent unit that can slow down any opponent.

“You got to try to play to a standard that you lay down at the beginning of the season every night," Finch explained. "Once you play to a certain level and you show it to yourself that you’re capable of it then the challenge is measure up every single night."