SmoothLefty21 wrote:Gobert's biggest problem is that he's a lumbering big man with limited agility. Despite his accolades he's always had a glaring weakness as a defender and it's easy to exploit it with the right matchup. Steven Adams is similar, though a bit more agile. Drummond is just a terrible all-around defender.
While Gobert is a x2 DPOY, Mitch has the makings to be a better defender in today's game in terms of style, not necessarily accolades or even impact. It's the same issue I always brought up with KP, especially during his time here when he was adamant about only playing the 4. He was never agile enough to guard stretch fours.
Not that I watch an enormous amount of Jazz games but I don't ever recall seeing Gobert sequences where he makes 2-3 plays out on the perimeter in a single possession: running a shooter off the line, recovering/rotating to make another play or two. He doesn't fly all over the court like Mitch can. Mitch should be more switchable, granted most teams use drop coverage for their big in today's PnR.
For the record, I do agree that Mitch's ceiling is a high-end role player because that's what shot-blocking/run-running big men are.
It's not about the defense as much as it is the offense, the problem with Gobert in the series with the Jazz is that his vaunted defense has been neutralized cause Jokic has turned into a stretch big. That is how the Warriors were able to win titles, you pull the opposing center out of the lane so that your guards get a free shot at the lane since there's no more rim protection. It's why teams are starting to move towards multiple wings, unless you have an offensively gifted big that can kill the switch with their own offense (Davis, KAT, Jokic, Embiid). Gobert cannot score at a high level, and if they get by the Nuggets he'll have the Clippers waiting in the next round with cheap centers, and wings who will make his lack of offense even more pronounced because of how much ground they cover on defense.
The question isn't about whether Mitch will be able to switch on defense, it's whether or not he'll be able to space the floor on the other end or punish switches when he's on offense. So far, very few bigs can punish the switch, and I don't think he can do it in the future either, there's maybe 6 guys who can do it in the league. If he can't punish the switch he needs to be able to space the floor, there is no more room in the league for a rim runner who is getting paid a large portion of the cap.
If we could somehow lock Mitch into a deal for $10-12 million a year then sure I have no objections, but the league wide value of rim runners has plummeted in the last 3 years, look at what Capela & Drummond were traded for. When Mitch starts he will post numbers and will want a max. You can see this coming a mile away, it's happened with pretty much every good rim runner of the last 15 years.

























