Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert missed Tuesday’s game in Milwaukee due to a league suspension after accruing his sixth flagrant foul in Sunday's win over San Antonio.
And there’s little relief for the big man the rest of the way, with half the regular season still to play.
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If Gobert’s next flagrant foul is also a Penalty 1, as was the case against the Spurs, it will result in another one-game suspension. If it’s a Penalty 2, which also results in automatic ejection, Gobert will be suspended for two games.
Any subsequent flagrant fouls beyond that will equal automatic two-game suspensions, regardless of their degree.
Tuesday’s suspension cost Gobert $201,149, per ESPN's Bobby Marks, while the Wolves receive a “tax variance credit” of $100,575. Presumably, the same math will hold true for any other games Gobert loses to suspension the rest of the way.
The flagrant foul-point counter does reset for the postseason, meaning the only way the center — who’s in the running to win a fifth Defensive Player of the Year award — would miss a playoff game due to a regular-season flagrant foul is if it were to occur in the 81st or 82nd games of the season.
“I try to not think about it. Some of the rules make it hard,” Gobert said of the predicament. “It’s tough, because I try to be aggressive, contesting shots in the heat of the moment. I don’t think there’s, at any time, an intention of getting anybody hurt, putting people in dangerous situations. So yeah, it’s tough. But I’ve got to play through it.”
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