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.…