The Minnesota Timberwolves pulled off the most surprising transaction of the offseason when they traded four players and four first round picks to the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gobert.

Around the NBA, executives were shocked by the price Minnesota paid for Gobert. 

"We put up the 30 best players in the league on a board," said Chris Finch.

"At any given time, like there's maybe three or four of them available. Some aren't even available if you gave 10 picks. And if you have one you can get and he fits and does a lot of the things that we like -- the more that we looked at it and the deeper we went, like just the more we felt like we couldn't not [trade for him]."

The Wolves believe Gobert will elevate their defense while also unlocking Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and D'Angelo Russell. 

"It's a very small list of elite players," said Minnesota president of basketball operations Tim Connelly.

"When you're able to add a difference-maker and not trade a guy in a similar tier, it's so rare ... we didn't think we'd get a call like this for a long, long, long time."