>most teams would rather have Dwight at the league minimum than Gobert at the max

Now *this* I agree with, but that's because most teams aren't going to start a big that can't defend the perimeter nowadays. Teams that play drop coverage defense, that rely on the rim protection that a traditional big creates? Unless they're super constrained on money, they'd rather have Gobert. But if they're constrained on money, or if they're not playing drop coverage and just need a big man for 15-20 MPG for specific defensive matchups? Yeah, Howard on the min is a better deal.

But Utah's not in that position. And any team that plays defense in the scheme Utah plays would be happy to pay the max for Gobert, I would think. (Unless they're changing their scheme radically from the past few years, or unless they had the Next Great Defender in the wings, and I don't think either of those is true for Utah.)