Shaq says he would’ve dropped 45 & 16 on Rudy Gobert in 3 quarters

[babyjax13]

The Jazz have won almost every game since the comments of Shaq on Gobert and Mitchell.....

And almost every game before.

[@ndrew]

The Jazz have won almost every game since the comments of Shaq on Gobert and Mitchell.....

And almost every game before.

and all in between!

[Gabe Ball]

Shaq says a lot of things. At this point, I take his statements with a grain of salt.

[Kukoc-Lauri]

Motivated and fit Shaq would drop 60 on Rudy. Just sayin.

[abark]

Shaq can back up his talk. Rudy can't. You not winning a title if Rudy Gobert is your best player

When I see Shaq drop 45 on Gobert in3 quarters...THAT would be backing up his talk.

What he currently does is just **** on any current center for no reason and with no substance from his booth.

Shaq was incredible, but he struggled against late 90's/early 00's level pick and rolls. Why doesn't he "analyze" how he would fair on perimeter defense in today's game?

[DolanIsAnIdiot]

I think Shaq would most likely average 10-12 PPG in today's NBA and be run off the floor by stretch 5s.

[sikma42]

Shaq can back up his talk. Rudy can't. You not winning a title if Rudy Gobert is your best player

When I see Shaq drop 45 on Gobert in3 quarters...THAT would be backing up his talk.

What he currently does is just **** on any current center for no reason and with no substance from his booth.

Shaq was incredible, but he struggled against late 90's/early 00's level pick and rolls. Why doesn't he "analyze" how he would fair on perimeter defense in today's game?

Bc it wasn't a talent issue, it was all just a motivation issue. If Shaq felt the need to guard the pick and roll better, he'd just drop weight and l instantly guard the pick and roll. Hard to hold something against him, when he didn't really have much reason to change it during his prime.

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[robbie84]

Shaq would absolutely destroy Gobert but overall Shaq would also get killed by modern offenses.

[Homer38]

The Jazz have won almost every game since the comments of Shaq on Gobert and Mitchell.....

And almost every game before.

The Jazz were like 4-4 in the first 8 games....They are now 21-5

[ThePersianFreak]

I really would like to see how much Shaq would struggle defensively in todays game.
He would murder anybody offensively in any era.

[Kharnete]

The Jazz have won almost every game since the comments of Shaq on Gobert and Mitchell.....

And almost every game before.

The Jazz were like 4-4 in the first 8 games....They are now 21-5

They were already on a 7 or 8 victory run when he started to BS on Mitchell. With Gobert was already before season started, but again he doubled down well after the Jazz were already destroying teams left and right.

[LewisnotMiller]

He ain't wrong though.

Early 2000s Shaq would do that to anyone. Maybe not a prime Akeem, and Shaq struggled a little bit against Timmy D (at times), but other than that, Shaq could easily drop 45 on ANYBODY.

Easily?
No...he scored 40 or more 49 times, and made 45 twelve times.
Which is awesome, and he was a legit all-timer. But he couldn't easily score 45 on anyone. That's revisionist history.

[dautjazz]

The Jazz have won almost every game since the comments of Shaq on Gobert and Mitchell.....

And almost every game before.

The Jazz were like 4-4 in the first 8 games....They are now 21-5

Mitchell tends to have a slow start to the season, he was shooting awful during that stretch, and so was Bogey because of his surgery in the fall. Now we are really rolling.

[TheSeeker]

The NBA has become soft with calls to protect players. Shaq would foul out on charges and would be exposed on d. He'd still be a beast, but less effective in today's game.

Gobert would still be good, but would have been handled by the bigs and style of play of the 90s/early 2ks.

No way Gobert gets close to a max contract in the 90's NBA playstyle.

[Kukoc-Lauri]

I think Shaq would most likely average 10-12 PPG in today's NBA and be run off the floor by stretch 5s.

i think he would average 40 and 16 and change the game and rules again, full circle and bring back big man in demand. Rule changes stronger fouls allowed again to stop his 60 points game, 8 fouls per game to teams being able to finish games with 5 players on court.

[alebaba]

I think Shaq would most likely average 10-12 PPG in today's NBA and be run off the floor by stretch 5s.

Ok kid, you think stretch 5 can guard shaq? he'll legit foul them all out.

Watch on YouTube

This is not even prime Shaq.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Shaq can back up his talk. Rudy can't. You not winning a title if Rudy Gobert is your best player

When I see Shaq drop 45 on Gobert in3 quarters...THAT would be backing up his talk.

What he currently does is just **** on any current center for no reason and with no substance from his booth.

Shaq was incredible, but he struggled against late 90's/early 00's level pick and rolls. Why doesn't he "analyze" how he would fair on perimeter defense in today's game?

Bc it wasn't a talent issue, it was all just a motivation issue. If Shaq felt the need to guard the pick and roll better, he'd just drop weight and l instantly guard the pick and roll. Hard to hold something against him, when he didn't really have much reason to change it during his prime.

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lack of motivation was his own problem, what makes you think he could turn it up any moment?

I don't think it's clear how many dunks Shaq would have given up to Rudy had he been playing today, as well.
Good luck with Conley-Gobert two man game

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[Ryoga Hibiki]

The NBA has become soft with calls to protect players. Shaq would foul out on charges and would be exposed on d. He'd still be a beast, but less effective in today's game.

Gobert would still be good, but would have been handled by the bigs and style of play of the 90s/early 2ks.

No way Gobert gets close to a max contract in the 90's NBA playstyle.

Erick Dampier got close to a max contract. Big Country got a max contract.
Why comment if you don't know what you're talking about?

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[abark]

Shaq can back up his talk. Rudy can't. You not winning a title if Rudy Gobert is your best player

When I see Shaq drop 45 on Gobert in3 quarters...THAT would be backing up his talk.

What he currently does is just **** on any current center for no reason and with no substance from his booth.

Shaq was incredible, but he struggled against late 90's/early 00's level pick and rolls. Why doesn't he "analyze" how he would fair on perimeter defense in today's game?

Bc it wasn't a talent issue, it was all just a motivation issue. If Shaq felt the need to guard the pick and roll better, he'd just drop weight and l instantly guard the pick and roll. Hard to hold something against him, when he didn't really have much reason to change it during his prime.

Sent from my SM-N960U using RealGM mobile app

So u admit he had a motivation issue. One that led him to be overweight and already struggle w pick n rolls in his own time. He was an incredibly dominant overall player. But just bc he was good enough to overcome it doesn't mean he didn't absolutely have a reason to change his conditioning. It did hurt him and his teams. A motivated Shaq could have been the GOAT.

But yeah, in today's game which requires centers to cover the entire perimeter, he'd just... y'know drop his weight. No chance motivation is a factor here.

He didn't do it in his own time to fix an area where he was a liability, but he'd obviously just magically get motivated in this hypothetical scenario.

Great logic.

[Pg81]

Shaq is annoying for always seeking attention to stay relevant in the chatters.

But I won't say his statement is wrong though. Shaq is the most dominant force I have ever witnessed.

It kind of is wrong. First off, everyone knows Shaq can score so him saying he can drop 40 on someone doesn't really mean anything. Shaq is passing this idea that Rudy Gobert is essentially a scrub because he's not a scorer, which is a ridiculous assertion - but I'll digress.

But to use Dikembe Mutumbo as an example - as he is a comparable player to Rudy Gobert but worse offensively by a lot (could certainly argue he was a better defender though).

How in the hell was Deke worse offensively by a lot? From 97-00 Deke averaged 12.4 ppg while being 3rd in the league in TS% over that timespan (for players over 10 ppg). Rudy averages slightly more PPG and is leading the league in TS% over the last 4 years but that's only slightly better than Deke.

And defensively they're not comparable, Deke is probably the best defender ever next to Bill Russell. In terms of the +/- numbers he's by far the most dominant defensive player since 1997. Like it's not even remotely close.

Shaq averaged 23 points and 13 rebounds in the games he played with Mutumbo which is his career average - keep in mind that Shaq obviously scored some of his buckets in those games when Mutumbo was not guarding him.

Shaq's career high in a game with Mutumbo was 44 points and 20 rebounds, so while that is very close to what he predicted against Gobert - what is interesting is that Mutumbo also dropped 23 points and 18 rebounds against Shaq himself (keep in mind, Gobert is a better scorer and better passer than Mutumbo).


So while the idea that Shaq might have a crazy explosive game against Gobert is not crazy at all, the idea that Gobert will only have 11 points and foul out in 3 quarters is a little ridiculous. It's not to say that it would never happen if they played a bunch of games, but he's basically creating a caricature of himself where he instant fouls out everyone which isn't true - that is what people remember as most people usually simplify players, but it's not literally how all his games when he went against other big time stars.

Shaq is obviously exaggerating but he averaged 33/16/5 in his only series against Deke with Deke picking up 5 fouls twice and fouling out once in 5 games in a year where Deke won DPOY. Deke is way better equipped to handle Shaq than Gobert is. Gobert isn't staying in the game with Shaq, and he'll get his numbers too, but Shaq isn't crazy to say he'd foul him out. Again his post is just a slight exaggeration.

The funniest part about this is Shaq is beefing with internet randos and taking it out on Rudy for some reason.

Must be nice getting away with murder:

Watch on YouTube

Only to accuse the guy you fouled of flopping:
http://a.espncdn.com/nba/playoffs2001/2001/0611/1212618.html

Shaq was always a rather... unpleasant fellow, and that is putting it very mildly.