Rudy Gobert: Future DPOY

[Kobblehead]

Rudy is better than Nerlens than everything he's good at.

That's not true. Noel generates steals at a 2.7% clip. The quickest hands of any big in basketball. He's also much more mobile and able to guard more positions.

Gobert is the superior rebounder and shotblocker / rim protector, but he's nowhere near as defensively versatile or unique as Noel.

[tmb3]

As a Jazz fan I am admittedly biased here. With that said, in all my years watching the NBA there are not many players that come to mind that have such a dramatic effect on what opposing teams are able to do on offense.

For those that don't have league pass or don't get to watch Gobert, here are some things to note:

*As a starter he averages 4 blocks per game in 32 minutes. As impressive as that stat is, his impact is so much greater than those 4 blocks. As games go on teams go to the basket less and less. If he doesn't block you he will make you shoot a very low percentage shot at the rim because of how much you have to alter the shot to get it over or around him. Guys than normally kill teams by getting into the paint start looking to drive and dish or settle for jumpshots. Lawson, Parker, Ginoboli, Lillard come to mind since they have played in the last 10 days. Because of this the Jazz held the Spurs and Blazers to season lows in points and held the Nuggets to 82 - all within the last week.

*Teams shoot only 37.8% at the rim when he is in the game (6% better than Whiteside, 9% better than Nurkic and Noel ).

*He saves 4.38 points per 36 minutes (1 more than Whiteside, 2.5 more than Nurkic, and nearly 3.5 more than Noel).

*He is very versatile defensively despite what others have said. He has the ability to switch on pick and guard opposing guards. He switched at least 5 times on Lawson last night and Lawson only got 1 good look - and missed a 15 footer.

* He has tremendous BBALL IQ. He has a great understanding of the game which has been apparent the last few months. He never looks lost out on the court and is often correcting teammates and telling them where they were supposed to be.

* He is super competitive and is very intense. He is a leader and has a fire that most players these days lack. This is his most appealing attribute to me, because I think he wants to be the best and has the fire to get there. I don't doubt that Noel, Whiteside, and Nurkic have the talent to be great or even better than Gobert. I do doubt that they have the drive, fire, and competitiveness to actually be better than Gobert (and again this may come from not seeing them play more than a handful of games). Kanter was much more skilled and talented than Gobert without question. But he lacked Gobert's competitiveness and when he knew he had to compete with Gobert for minutes, he asked for a trade. Everyone in the NBA has talent and potential but what separates the good from the great is the mental approach to the game - Gobert has that killer instinct mindset that it takes to be great.

*This isn't to say he is without faults, however. He needs to increase his strength, especially his lower body strength. He struggles keeping physical bigs from establishing position deep in the post. His length helps him recover at times, but also gives up some easy basket due to his lack of strength.

*He is raw offensively. If it's not a dunk, layup, or a 3 foot hook shot he does not even look at the rim. He needs to work on his jumpshot and at least be able to hit a 10 footer with some level of consistency. He may be a couple years away from that, but has great form on his free throws so I think he can get there. But right now with he and Favors the paint can get crowded and the overall spacing can be affected.

With all that being said, I think he has the chance to be a top 3 center in the NBA within the next few years. The impact he has on games will make him a perennial defensive player of the year candidate and will win that award at least once. It will be fun to watch all of these talented young centers and see who winds up being the best. As many have stated it is far too early in their development to know who will be the best, but my money is on Gobert.

[WhateverBro]

Who would take him over Nerlens Noel?

Who wouldn't? That's a better question.

[inquisitive]

very impressed with this kid. certainly already ahead of the curve here.

[jazzfan1971]

He gets a reliable hook shot and it's game over.

[tsherkin]

Gobert is interesting to me. Loving the D and rebounding at either end, and the magnet hands. "The Stifle Tower" is one of the better nicknames I've heard this past decade and a half. I've enjoyed that he's at least moderately competent at the line this year, for a big. I'm impressed that he's shooting better on a lower assisted percentage than last season as well. He's just generally been really good. Leading the league in BLK%, too, at 8.2%.

Great pickup.

[Doctor MJ]

Who would take him over Nerlens Noel?

I think at this point that he'd be #1 on the re-draft for 2013 in the eyes of many, and the only serious debate would be vs Giannis. While he's older than either guy, there's really no reason to talk about him as being more experienced. He just seems to have figured out the NBA faster than the other two, which is pretty crazy: North of 7 foot, agile, and smart? When was the last time we even saw that?

I think that Noel clearly shows promise as a defensive anchor, and because his offense is so lacking, he'll probably focus on that more than Gobert. As a result he may end up the superior defender - though he's well behind at the moment - but only because I could see Gobert having a more balanced game.

[dautjazz]

Gobert is interesting to me. Loving the D and rebounding at either end, and the magnet hands. "The Stifle Tower" is one of the better nicknames I've heard this past decade and a half. I've enjoyed that he's at least moderately competent at the line this year, for a big. I'm impressed that he's shooting better on a lower assisted percentage than last season as well. He's just generally been really good. Leading the league in BLK%, too, at 8.2%.

Great pickup.

Yeah it wasn't only a STEAL at 27th in the draft but we got him from Denver for Erick Green (46th pick) and cash. Green played 22games, 167 minutes, and is out of the NBA already! While Gobert is the best rim defender in the NBA, in what is basically like his rookie season since he played very little his rookie season. It's really insane, this could go down as one of most one sided trades in history down the line.

[CoreConcept]

Yeah it wasn't only a STEAL at 27th in the draft but we got him from Denver for Erick Green (46th pick) and cash. Green played 22games, 167 minutes, and is out of the NBA already! While Gobert is the best rim defender in the NBA, in what is basically like his rookie season since he played very little his rookie season. It's really insane, this could go down as one of most one sided trades in history down the line.

Lol Erick Green played like 10 minutes against the Jazz last night. But yeah, it was definitely a one-sided trade

[dautjazz]

Yeah it wasn't only a STEAL at 27th in the draft but we got him from Denver for Erick Green (46th pick) and cash. Green played 22games, 167 minutes, and is out of the NBA already! While Gobert is the best rim defender in the NBA, in what is basically like his rookie season since he played very little his rookie season. It's really insane, this could go down as one of most one sided trades in history down the line.

Lol Erick Green played like 10 minutes against the Jazz last night. But yeah, it was definitely a one-sided trade

Oh I thought he played last year, my bad he is in the NBA, still he's hot trash lol

[Stoked]

He gets a reliable hook shot and it's game over.

Id add hand strength, a 8-10 jumper and 15 lbs. of muscle. Mostly in his lower body.

[Pan Jia Yuan]

Ohhh ... the long list of where NBA GMs went wrong in terms of international scouting.
I'd seriously love to debate this issue in a separate thread.
Why is it so difficult to get it right with international players? Is it really that different from college scouting?

Just off the top of my head:
Gobert #27
Batum #25
Ibaka #24
Parker #28
M.Gasol #48
Manu #57
Dirk #9
Nash #15

Might throw in Pekovic #31, or Vucevic #16. Etc.

That's a multi-generation dynasty right there, built with late first-round or secound-round picks.

Tanking? What an embarrassing approach to run your franchise. You're basically declaring your own incompetence.
You just need one or two competent, experienced, reliable scouts for international talent. Is it really that difficult? Seriously? Why?

[CoreConcept]

Rudy
http://streamable.com/iaus

Rudy
http://streamable.com/ncdv

Rudy
http://streamable.com/bttr

[Catchall]

Gobert averaging 13/11/4blk in the last 3 games. Jazz have won 4 of their last 5, including wins over Portland, San Antonio and Milwaukee.

[Catchall]

Rudy
http://streamable.com/iaus

Rudy
http://streamable.com/ncdv

Rudy
http://streamable.com/bttr

MCW didn't get the memo.

[Amish Mafioso]

Rudy is better than Nerlens than everything he's good at.

That's not true. Noel generates steals at a 2.7% clip. The quickest hands of any big in basketball. He's also much more mobile and able to guard more positions.

Gobert is the superior rebounder and shotblocker / rim protector, but he's nowhere near as defensively versatile or unique as Noel.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr4_fW4xOZ0[/youtube]

[HawaiianJazzFan]

So obviously, this isn't a huge sample size but since Kanter was traded and Gobert was inserted into the starting lineup, the Jazz are 4-1 (they laid an egg against the Lakers). They held Portland to their season low of 75, they held San Antonio to their season low of 81. In their 4 wins they have held their opponents to an average of 78.5 pts. Their defensive rating is first in the NBA over that stretch. It is an otherworldy, 87.1. They also have the highest net rating with Cleveland since the all star break at +12.2 (technically the cavs are .1 lower).

Rudy has been so good defensively that Derrick Favors is now the 6th best rim protector in the NBA (both Favors and Gobert, gave up higher percentages at the rim when next to Kanter). I think that has to do with the fact that everyone on our team, including Favors, can gamble a little and don't have to worry as much about someone blowing by them because the stifle tower is there. I've also noticed that a lot of players will completely and utterly turn around when they see Gobert and forget that Favors can block shots too. Favors is getting a lot of blocks because players are avoiding Gobert and forgetting about Favors' ability.

Gobert's stats as a starter since Kanter was traded:

9.8 ppg
10.6 rpg
4.0 bpg
1.2 apg
1.0 spg
only 1.8 fpg
in 31.0 mpg
He is also shooting
66.7 FG%
65 FT%

[greg4012]

Gobert is interesting to me. Loving the D and rebounding at either end, and the magnet hands. "The Stifle Tower" is one of the better nicknames I've heard this past decade and a half. I've enjoyed that he's at least moderately competent at the line this year, for a big. I'm impressed that he's shooting better on a lower assisted percentage than last season as well. He's just generally been really good. Leading the league in BLK%, too, at 8.2%.

Great pickup.

Definite stud, but once Whiteside has played enough games to be counted among season leaders (he's played 31 games -- can anyone tell me what the threshold is?), he will likely be leading the league in block percentage as he's currently at 9.6% for the season

[abark]

Ohhh ... the long list of where NBA GMs went wrong in terms of international scouting.
I'd seriously love to debate this issue in a separate thread.
Why is it so difficult to get it right with international players? Is it really that different from college scouting?

Just off the top of my head:
Gobert #27
Batum #25
Ibaka #24
Parker #28
M.Gasol #48
Manu #57
Dirk #9
Nash #15

Might throw in Pekovic #31, or Vucevic #16. Etc.

That's a multi-generation dynasty right there, built with late first-round or secound-round picks.

Tanking? What an embarrassing approach to run your franchise. You're basically declaring your own incompetence.
You just need one or two competent, experienced, reliable scouts for international talent. Is it really that difficult? Seriously? Why?

You make it sound Like the teams that picked those guys knew theyd be stars. The Lakers picked Jarvis Crittenton before Gasol, and the Spurs wouldn't have waited till the second to last pick if they knew Ginobili was a sure thing.

You could also make a list of Darkos, Bargnanis, and Tskitishvilis just as long. Either way, as you move down the draft it gets exponentially harder to hit on any player, foreign or not.

Plus, it's kind of difficult to just get better at scouting foreign prospects. A guy like Dante Exum isn't hard to scout because he's far away. No matter how many scouts you send to Australia, he was still be in a completely seperate league from all of the competition in the draft. That makes scouting him inherently more difficult.

[MountainDrew]

Gobert's stats as a starter since Kanter was traded:

9.8 ppg
10.6 rpg
4.0 bpg
1.2 apg
1.0 spg
only 1.8 fpg
in 31.0 mpg
He is also shooting
66.7 FG%
65 FT%

@NerlensNoel3 since the deadline…

12.4 PPG
8.0 RPG
2.2 APG
3.8 BPG
1.8 SPG
45.5 FG%
73.3 FT%
in about 33-34 MPG

Why does it always have to end up in crap-all-over-the-sixers whenever a comparison is made? It's not like it's such a landslide...

I really like Gobert, think he has DPOY potential and is a very unique player. Same goes for Nerlens, is going to be a defensive anchor. I don't think Gobert will be able to sustain this level of production, but I'm happy for the Jazz he turned out this good, makes that team infinitely more fun to watch.