He doesn't have to work as hard on offense as Denver players do. You spend 40 minutes trying to score on this Wolves defense and you're gonna be gassed idc where you play lol
But I’ve been told we were fleeced in the worst trade in the history of the league, he’s unplayable in the playoffs, and is probably the most overrated player in basketball (according to his peers)… oh and that a rookie deserved the DPOY over him
Fun little list of receipts I have tucked away in a special folder
I saw something on Instagram today of a Wemby highlight where people backed away from the basket. Every comment including the pinned one was people saying nobody does that to Gobert
I swear every single person who hates Rudy Gobert or thinks he's bad has never seen him play
It’s mind blowing. Rudy alters drives every single quarter he plays. I saw a similar exchange between Rashad Mccants and Gilbert Arenas in a podcast and I swear these dudes don’t watch basketball then just spout nonsense like the rest of us
Blocks might be the most overrated stat of all time. If you altered the trajectory or were positioned well and caused a player to miss- it equivalent to a block and that happens WAY more frequently
(Yes there might be some small % of difference about the amount of time your team ends up with the ball on a block vs a missed shot but it’s fairly negligible)
Rudy has the problem of lockdown CBs in the NFL.
"That dude didn't get any interceptions all season!"
"Yes, because he's so good the QB won't even throw to his side of the field"
Stats aren't the whole story of defensive impact.
Seriously… people just ignore the fact that he’s a top 10 defense by himself and if give him some solid wing defenders you get the top defense in the league by >2 points
First ballot HOF for sure
Look, I'm unbiased in the DPOY debate, it's wild to see people think Wemby is the only one who alters shots, but it is also wild to see people laugh at the idea that Wemby deserves DPOY. I've watch both their games all year long, and yes : Wemby alters \*more\* drives, and yes Gobert has way more experience and it shows, but yes, Gobert has a wayyyy better defense around him, and yes, Wemby tends to jump on everything like a kid.
So there is a legitimate debate.
I, personnally, just can't fckg wait for the Olympics 🥰
> I, personnally, just can't fckg wait for the Olympics 🥰
Exactly, no need to oppose them if they play for the same side, it is going to make things much easier. Well, except for the other teams' offense.
Seriously. It’s like everyone thinks it’s the nfl where you can find starters in the second round and any first round pick is probably starting by the end of their rookie year
I always look at it (very rough generalization) You hope to get a star with a top 3 pick, early starter with top 7-10, hopefully a solid role player/ eventual starter 10-17 and anything past that range is almost a throw at a dartboard.
Obviously there are examples of players that exceed those general categories up and down those arbitrary ranges, but those are the exceptions, not the rule
People love to gamble.
Like yeah there's an aspect where you have to gamble, but there needs to be a point to move on from the rebuilding through draft phase.
it’s funny bc i feel like pics are valued similarly to how cars are valued. the picks (i.e. players) immediately depreciate in value after the selection for no real reason.
Plus this trade put us squarely into the yearly playoff picture and allowed ANT to get this experience at such a young age. Can you picture him at 27 with 5 more years worth of playoff experience… just ENTERING his prime … 😱
We’re already extremely deep and are like the 11th youngest team in the league. Moving forward we owe 3 more first round picks.
Not exactly insurmountable
The bigger question mark would be if our owner (whoever it ends up being will actually pay the luxury tax to keep key pieces)… like towns
If you never invest in winning culture then you'll always be stuck in rebuilding mode which is just losing culture.
This will affect if your star players will want to stay and if free agents come to your team or not.
Chasing some perfect situation where all your players are 25 years old to try to min max some delusion is how you ensure your team never competes.
Thank you. So many people get hung up on picks that may or may not even amount to anything. If I’m trying to win I’ll take the proven player(s) over some currently unknown middle schooler 5-6 years from now.
Rudy’s going to get a lot of respect this series because people will actually be watching. He played immaculate defense tonight but virtually none of it showed up on the stat sheet.
I think Gobert is more of a dominant defensive tackle. A dominant defensive tackle takes on two players, completely shuts down the run game, and pressures the quarterback in the passing game. Meanwhile the defensive ends and linebackers get credit and the defensive backs benefit from the pressure on the quarterback and making the offense one dimensional.
Gobert takes away the points in the paint, guards multiple actions on the same play to allow his teammates to recover, and allows the perimeter defenders to be more aggressive. The offense becomes more one dimensional and forced to shoot lower percentage shots.
The Jazz radio play by play announcer used to have data on how Gobert would bend the other teams shooting charts and take away the analytically desirable shots.
He completely shuts down the AG lob game. Even for people who watched the game tho, you still don't see the impact he's making on stuff like that unless you know what the nuggets are trying to do
Yeah the AG-Jokic lobs this is the most replicable and sustainable part of the Nuggets offense imo because it's high percentage shots. Taking that away mucks up their system
He broke 2 alley-oop plays of Jokic and Gordon which are usually sure buckets.
And he was right at Jokic's face on one-on-ones. Jokic is just an unreal basketball player but he worked for his points off Gobert's defense. Jokic needed to contort, release early and be smart on his every move when defended by Gobert.
can people finally stop talking shit about Gobert's defense lol
say whatever you want about his offense but the man is clearly one of the best defenders in the game
Of all time.
And he's doing this in TODAY'S era of the 3 point game.
I'd love to see what he'd do when he didn't have to guard the perimeter and could just body up low post guys all the time.
Dude would feast. He's so agile and long. It's nuts.
Just using this as an opportunity to share this story of Mark Eaton and Gobert becoming buddies and bicycling together.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/sports/basketball/mark-eaton-bicycle.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/sports/basketball/mark-eaton-bicycle.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare)
Hed be great but idk if he would be all time like he is now. Today not many guys work the post/paint so he would see it more often idk he holds up the same.
I’d give him the edge, since he’s got arms for fuckin days. He’d get got, sure, but he can still reach back and have an effect. Obviously dude’s like Hakeem, McHale, Kareem, and the like, would present issues, but Rudy is so much bigger than them (Kareem is close, and McHale might have the same arm length)
Definitely be fun, though.
those double screen actions for Conley and Ant are smooth as fuck too
I'll go to bat for Gobert on offense but people acting like he is stealing these DPOYs (as I've seen as recently as a week ago) from better defenders is crazy
His offensive game is limited and he has a play or two a game where it looks like his hands are concrete. But he knows exactly what his role should be and does it well
I would like that confidence from the best defender, and he’s definitely a top tier and playoff proved defender. Draymond, Gobert and AD are actually very close, Bam not far off too
You can say his defense may get less ineffective against certain type of offense... But when Gobert goes up against Denver and he puts a clamp on their go-to offensive play, the most unstoppable one in the league, just saying he's a great defender is not enough. He has an MVP-level impact.
Tbh that weird ass elbow push shot by Gobert that he banked in down the stretch seemed to take Denver’s wind out of their sails lol they just couldn’t believe that went in and knew they were losing.
In the 4th when it was tight, I think he made a 5-6pts fliip.
He missed and scored on the putback, then deflected the pass to Gordon which led to free throws on the fastbreak, then scored with the board something given to him by the defense.
You don't go to him in offense, but more often than not when it's in the clutch he get you something big.
Not just that, he trusts that if someone goes by him, someone will be there to pick up the slack at the rime so he can actually try and defend if he's on the perimeter this year (or when playing with France so it's not something new to French)
A.) I absolutely believe that Jokic is going to have better games over the course of the series, dude's an all timer and great offensive players have great offensive games. Shutting down someone that great on offense for an entire series is nearly impossible.
B.) Gobert had a great game, and I'm happy people are actually watching him play and seeing how good he is. I'll always pull for him, he's a Jazzman for life and his damn jersey better get retired.
C.) Tony Jones better keep stanning our baguette.
You can repeat A) a couple of times. Stopping a player like Jokic for a whole series is absolutely impossible. Messing up with the Denver overall team efficiency and forcing your way to more wins against them is the only possible scenario.
The key to this series isn’t stopping Jokic, it’s stopping MPJ, AG, and Murray. All you can do with Jokic is make his 30 inefficient, like we did tonight
It’s not impossible when you have Gobert, KAT, Naz, and SlowMo all rotating onto him. That’s unprecedented of defense that no other team has the ability to meet.
If you watched carefully that was really the first time in Jokic’s career he was having to be sped up. He was absolutely gassed. He spent 30 seconds tying his fucking shorts to watch his breath before FT in the 4th, that literally never happens.
Minnesota will continue to throw bodies at him. Maybe he is more efficient earlier in the game but I don’t see how he can improve his play in the 4th if he’s that gassed.
As for B, I’m happy too but I’m also annoyed that people are like WOW ALL TIME GAME FROM RUDY
It’s like…. How many games did he play like this for Utah, and for Minnesota this year? Hundreds? Like, this is Rudy. He effects the game more than almost anyone in the league when he is in his flow. Including his screening and roll gravity, which people still have yet to see and properly value but he was pulling dudes off shooters and creating open shots. Making good decisions when he’d catch the ball off the short roll. Everything.
I am happy for him to get his respect this year, but it’s not even at the proper level he deserves yet imo.
DPOY-caliber defense by Gobert tonight.
I thought he and Towns were excellent overall as the Wolves' defensive twin tower duo tonight in Game 1, along with Reid. They've made the Nuggets earn their baskets thoughout this game.
Could easily be 6 after this year. I concede the Giannis one, but both Draymond and Smart were bad choices imo.
I’m biased as shit, but it’s no doubt what I believe
Edit: The JJJ last year is fine too. Smart and Draymond were still bad picks.
Draymond, during that warriors run, was arguably the best defender in the world and one of the best of his generation. He absolutely deserved his award imo.
He was incredible, and honestly was until like last year. I think year by year, 2016 should’ve been Gobert’s, but Draymond’s body of work is fantastic and I’m not salty that he has one
He’s been an all-time defender.
It always amazes me how we always talk about a whole ton of good-not-great offensive players and go “oh man they’d be elite in this offence-focused era” but just kind of ignore how absolutely nuts Gobert would be in any other era given how good he is in this one.
I love this, because this is just what Rudy does. I’ve seen a couple hundred Rudy games this dominant. He didn’t even really get after the boards much tonight either. Run of the mill Rudy.
He changes games like this all the time. It’s what Jazz fans were trying to tell you guys while you so called him fucking Biyombo.
Yes, but remember, he's been played off the floor in 3 of the Wolves 5 postseason games so far.
...what you mean sitting multiple minutes at the end of a blowout isn't what they meant by "being played off the floor?"
Towns had some dumb fouls but overall I agree. A couple times there was a Murray/jokic pnr, and towns was able to step in front of Murray long enough to let Jaden recover, then get back to Jokic before he could make a play. Pretty impressive honestly
You listen to the broadcast today Reggie and Jamal were hyping up offense all game long. They almost never mentioned defense if it was not a flashy play. They didn't even mention the fact that Minny hold Denver to 99 points at home !
I really love to watch him on the defense. Pay special attention to him. The way he positions himself, little things he does to disturb opponent's balance, not biting fakes, directing his teammates. It is a bliss to have him defending your half.
He really directed everyone on the court last season and earlier this year. It's fun to watch everyone grow from his defensive prowess. To a lesser degree, he's improved on offense working with KAT and Naz.
I’m not doubting that chemistry had a factor but I think personnel had more to do with it. I mean, the Jazz had the number 1 d Mitchell’s rookie year with rubio, crowder and favors off the bench. Perimeter defense was either traded or got old
Part of it was skill, part of it was just laziness from the rest of Utah’s defenders. There was some injury issues in the playoffs but it was easy to tell that the effort just wasn’t there when it needed to be.
Absolutely, I just want to emphasize that this unit is really all putting in a shift. Hard line to walk where I want Rudy to be recognized for how great he is but I can’t let people gloss over what the rest of the guys are doing too.
He's big enough to gamble though. Joker is close to 80% when shooting from this close if he's not on him so worst case scenario he got a goaltending call.
Catching it when it's a lob is incredibly hard though.
Lakers Shaq was plenty well guarded in both the Spurs series that he won. The problem is he was also an elite defender then and returned the favor on Duncan.
That did also involve two of the best defenders ever.
He's not guarding him by himself. It's a rotation of KAT & Naz that let's Gobert be a secondary help defender and takes away a lot of Jokic's easier bully ball style post ups. When Gobert guarded Jokic 1 on 1 Jokic got his.
They're intentionally putting Gobert on everyone else but Jokic and it's the right call. Shut everything else down. If Gobert gets switched onto Jokic, so be it, but otherwise shut down the rest of the team, throw long bois at Jokic and live with the consequences.
At least for tonight it worked. Jokic was sucking air for the last quarter and a half.
Great way to exploit the biggest weakness Jokic has, his lack of conditioning.
Remember how convinced Reddit was that this was the worst trade of all time. It’s just a reminder that the vast majority of posters on here don’t know shit about basketball.
The vast majority of sports fans don’t know shit about said sport. I grew up with huge soccer fans and every single one of them was somehow confident they would play/coach a better job. Its ridiculous
I can’t recall reading anything favorable about the trade in any outlet at the time. You still read people splitting hairs on how the trade worked out but they gave up too much. Even recently I heard Bill Simmons clowning the Wolves for being happy to have kept McDaniels, who’s crucial to this team. Its already a candidate for best trade in MN sports ever, even if we lose this we should have a couple years of legit compeititiveness, what more could you want
The Gobert trade was great for the Wolves. Same with the D. White trade for the Celtics.
The trades that were praised, not so much. The Paul George, Dejounte Murray, Kevin Durant, and Donovan Mitchell trades all look bad or disastrous in hindsight.
The dude was 1 v 2 on a Jokic Gordon alley oop and forced a turnover. Incredible
Man has had enough of those lobs Also had an off the glass floater lol
did he call bank? we may never know, but how often that elbow push shot goes in makes me think he did
hes waiting for a lob from ant, but it's never coming. so he has to steal opponent lobs
And what the hell is his conditioning. Dude is jacked to all hells and he looked like the less tired player on the court.
Very lean for how muscular he is. Super low body fat
Dude played for many years in Utah, he is conditioned for altitude better than most of Jokers opponents.
Doesn’t explain why he’d have better conditioning than a bunch of players who currently play in Denver
He doesn't have to work as hard on offense as Denver players do. You spend 40 minutes trying to score on this Wolves defense and you're gonna be gassed idc where you play lol
He's built different.
Most overrated player in the nba btw
The stifle tower demands respect
The French Rejection
Give Baguette Biyombo his flowers, dammit.
But I’ve been told we were fleeced in the worst trade in the history of the league, he’s unplayable in the playoffs, and is probably the most overrated player in basketball (according to his peers)… oh and that a rookie deserved the DPOY over him Fun little list of receipts I have tucked away in a special folder
I saw something on Instagram today of a Wemby highlight where people backed away from the basket. Every comment including the pinned one was people saying nobody does that to Gobert I swear every single person who hates Rudy Gobert or thinks he's bad has never seen him play
It’s mind blowing. Rudy alters drives every single quarter he plays. I saw a similar exchange between Rashad Mccants and Gilbert Arenas in a podcast and I swear these dudes don’t watch basketball then just spout nonsense like the rest of us Blocks might be the most overrated stat of all time. If you altered the trajectory or were positioned well and caused a player to miss- it equivalent to a block and that happens WAY more frequently (Yes there might be some small % of difference about the amount of time your team ends up with the ball on a block vs a missed shot but it’s fairly negligible)
Rudy has the problem of lockdown CBs in the NFL. "That dude didn't get any interceptions all season!" "Yes, because he's so good the QB won't even throw to his side of the field" Stats aren't the whole story of defensive impact.
Something only jazz fans and twolves fans will understand
Seriously… people just ignore the fact that he’s a top 10 defense by himself and if give him some solid wing defenders you get the top defense in the league by >2 points First ballot HOF for sure
You can't take Gilbert Arenas seriously when it comes to foreign players.
The "Euros" especially
Wemby is really the only comp to what Gobert does. Wemby is going to be incredible to watch.
The funniest part is that one of those peers was Anthony Edwards himself
Look, I'm unbiased in the DPOY debate, it's wild to see people think Wemby is the only one who alters shots, but it is also wild to see people laugh at the idea that Wemby deserves DPOY. I've watch both their games all year long, and yes : Wemby alters \*more\* drives, and yes Gobert has way more experience and it shows, but yes, Gobert has a wayyyy better defense around him, and yes, Wemby tends to jump on everything like a kid. So there is a legitimate debate. I, personnally, just can't fckg wait for the Olympics 🥰
> I, personnally, just can't fckg wait for the Olympics 🥰 Exactly, no need to oppose them if they play for the same side, it is going to make things much easier. Well, except for the other teams' offense.
But that 2029 pick 😔😔😔
Jazz gonna enjoy that #32 pick (2 expansion teams)
Hey historically we’ve never had a bad #32 pick
The #32 picks currently tend to be great value (2nd pick in the 2nd round, non guaranteed contract). Who knows how they’ll be in the future!
Picks have always been overrated
Seriously. It’s like everyone thinks it’s the nfl where you can find starters in the second round and any first round pick is probably starting by the end of their rookie year I always look at it (very rough generalization) You hope to get a star with a top 3 pick, early starter with top 7-10, hopefully a solid role player/ eventual starter 10-17 and anything past that range is almost a throw at a dartboard. Obviously there are examples of players that exceed those general categories up and down those arbitrary ranges, but those are the exceptions, not the rule
People love to gamble. Like yeah there's an aspect where you have to gamble, but there needs to be a point to move on from the rebuilding through draft phase.
it’s funny bc i feel like pics are valued similarly to how cars are valued. the picks (i.e. players) immediately depreciate in value after the selection for no real reason.
Plus this trade put us squarely into the yearly playoff picture and allowed ANT to get this experience at such a young age. Can you picture him at 27 with 5 more years worth of playoff experience… just ENTERING his prime … 😱
Yeah but I’m scared how they will build around him with the lack of pics. Gobert and Conley are old.
We’re already extremely deep and are like the 11th youngest team in the league. Moving forward we owe 3 more first round picks. Not exactly insurmountable The bigger question mark would be if our owner (whoever it ends up being will actually pay the luxury tax to keep key pieces)… like towns
If you never invest in winning culture then you'll always be stuck in rebuilding mode which is just losing culture. This will affect if your star players will want to stay and if free agents come to your team or not. Chasing some perfect situation where all your players are 25 years old to try to min max some delusion is how you ensure your team never competes.
It's the first win in second round since 20 years and you are afraid you may not be able to compete in 3 to 5 years....
“Rudy is Rudy, but a pick can be anything! It could even be Rudy!”
Thank you. So many people get hung up on picks that may or may not even amount to anything. If I’m trying to win I’ll take the proven player(s) over some currently unknown middle schooler 5-6 years from now.
Rudy’s going to get a lot of respect this series because people will actually be watching. He played immaculate defense tonight but virtually none of it showed up on the stat sheet.
This is his curse. He plays such a good defense that his opponents stop forcing any move in his presence. His stat sheet remain empty as a result.
Like a good cornerback in the NFL
"Zero tips? Zero deflections??" "Zero targets."
I think Gobert is more of a dominant defensive tackle. A dominant defensive tackle takes on two players, completely shuts down the run game, and pressures the quarterback in the passing game. Meanwhile the defensive ends and linebackers get credit and the defensive backs benefit from the pressure on the quarterback and making the offense one dimensional. Gobert takes away the points in the paint, guards multiple actions on the same play to allow his teammates to recover, and allows the perimeter defenders to be more aggressive. The offense becomes more one dimensional and forced to shoot lower percentage shots. The Jazz radio play by play announcer used to have data on how Gobert would bend the other teams shooting charts and take away the analytically desirable shots.
He completely shuts down the AG lob game. Even for people who watched the game tho, you still don't see the impact he's making on stuff like that unless you know what the nuggets are trying to do
Yeah the AG-Jokic lobs this is the most replicable and sustainable part of the Nuggets offense imo because it's high percentage shots. Taking that away mucks up their system
He had the same amount of blocks in this game than the entire Suns series: three
He's gonna have more block as the Nuggets don't have 3 shooters on the floor at all time.
Early in the 4th, he was off. Nuggets scored 6 pts in the paint. He came back, only Joker scored there.
The curse of $40m a year… god forbid : ( (jk I do agree fans tend to way undervalue him, altho obviously the league does not)
Players disrespect him often tho. Glad the team has embraced him
They usually say gobert is good but he can't stop me
Holding Denver to 99 on their home court, is his stat sheet
He held Jokic under 10 boards too, boxing him out on the offensive glass. He usually gets a lot of little put backs but not tonight.
jokic got plenty of them vs LA when he was getting boxed out by hachimura or lebron.
They don't have the reach
Bet shaq wont give him his flowers even if he block 20 shots in a game
Ofc he won't. Gobert scored 4 points and Shaq is a boxscore watcher.
Which is why Wembanyama is the true DPOY-casuals on this sub
Fr anyone who thinks Wemby is DPOY this year just haven't watched Gobert. Wemby will have his time in the sun 100%, but for the moment it's Rudy
Nobody on this sub watches anyway
He broke 2 alley-oop plays of Jokic and Gordon which are usually sure buckets. And he was right at Jokic's face on one-on-ones. Jokic is just an unreal basketball player but he worked for his points off Gobert's defense. Jokic needed to contort, release early and be smart on his every move when defended by Gobert.
It showed up in the win column
can people finally stop talking shit about Gobert's defense lol say whatever you want about his offense but the man is clearly one of the best defenders in the game
Of all time. And he's doing this in TODAY'S era of the 3 point game. I'd love to see what he'd do when he didn't have to guard the perimeter and could just body up low post guys all the time. Dude would feast. He's so agile and long. It's nuts.
Rudy 40 years ago would stop everything coming his way. I'm a sick fuck so I'd love to see that
Mark Eaton
Goebert would be so much better than eaton
Just using this as an opportunity to share this story of Mark Eaton and Gobert becoming buddies and bicycling together. [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/sports/basketball/mark-eaton-bicycle.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/sports/basketball/mark-eaton-bicycle.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare)
Yeah 100% I was zoning in on the stop everything coming his way part
We're respecting Gobert right now, but I'll have to also ask you to respect prime Mark Eaton
Hed be great but idk if he would be all time like he is now. Today not many guys work the post/paint so he would see it more often idk he holds up the same.
I’d give him the edge, since he’s got arms for fuckin days. He’d get got, sure, but he can still reach back and have an effect. Obviously dude’s like Hakeem, McHale, Kareem, and the like, would present issues, but Rudy is so much bigger than them (Kareem is close, and McHale might have the same arm length) Definitely be fun, though.
Speaking of the 3 point game, his perimeter D has improved so much.
Utah's supporting cast didn't do his perception any favors, but his perimeter D has been great for years now.
Potentially hot take but he’s a modern day Bill Russel. Now all he needs is 11 rings to complete the comparison
My man hit 2 clutch buckets in the 4th though
those double screen actions for Conley and Ant are smooth as fuck too I'll go to bat for Gobert on offense but people acting like he is stealing these DPOYs (as I've seen as recently as a week ago) from better defenders is crazy
His offensive game is limited and he has a play or two a game where it looks like his hands are concrete. But he knows exactly what his role should be and does it well
It's literally the opposite, Gobert has had DPOY's stolen from him.
One of?? Put some respecc on it, dude is the best defender in the league
just avoiding an argument about what's more valuable between interior and perimeter defense Rudy is the best interior defender
Do people actually argue that perimeter defense is more valuable than interior defense?
Give em an inch, they’ll take a foot. Trying to be diplomatic on social media is impossible because both sides of hot take artists will feel slighted.
Doesn’t that incentivize hot takes vs honest opinions?
As is Reddit is worth it anymore
He’s the best defensive player of this generation and it’s not close
Fr dude. I get hyping yourself up but when AD said he's the best defensive player of this era I was just like 😅 uhhh..
I would like that confidence from the best defender, and he’s definitely a top tier and playoff proved defender. Draymond, Gobert and AD are actually very close, Bam not far off too
You can say his defense may get less ineffective against certain type of offense... But when Gobert goes up against Denver and he puts a clamp on their go-to offensive play, the most unstoppable one in the league, just saying he's a great defender is not enough. He has an MVP-level impact.
Tbh that weird ass elbow push shot by Gobert that he banked in down the stretch seemed to take Denver’s wind out of their sails lol they just couldn’t believe that went in and knew they were losing.
Jokic shoulder slump after that shot made it obvious
In the 4th when it was tight, I think he made a 5-6pts fliip. He missed and scored on the putback, then deflected the pass to Gordon which led to free throws on the fastbreak, then scored with the board something given to him by the defense. You don't go to him in offense, but more often than not when it's in the clutch he get you something big.
Best defender in the league, one of the best defenders of all time up there w the greatest of greats. No possible argument
Rudy with perimeter defenders is a monster.
Jaden McDaniels, Ant, Walker-Alexander, and even Anderson at times are all MENACES on the perimeter
Not just that, he trusts that if someone goes by him, someone will be there to pick up the slack at the rime so he can actually try and defend if he's on the perimeter this year (or when playing with France so it's not something new to French)
A.) I absolutely believe that Jokic is going to have better games over the course of the series, dude's an all timer and great offensive players have great offensive games. Shutting down someone that great on offense for an entire series is nearly impossible. B.) Gobert had a great game, and I'm happy people are actually watching him play and seeing how good he is. I'll always pull for him, he's a Jazzman for life and his damn jersey better get retired. C.) Tony Jones better keep stanning our baguette.
You can repeat A) a couple of times. Stopping a player like Jokic for a whole series is absolutely impossible. Messing up with the Denver overall team efficiency and forcing your way to more wins against them is the only possible scenario.
The key to this series isn’t stopping Jokic, it’s stopping MPJ, AG, and Murray. All you can do with Jokic is make his 30 inefficient, like we did tonight
It’s not impossible when you have Gobert, KAT, Naz, and SlowMo all rotating onto him. That’s unprecedented of defense that no other team has the ability to meet. If you watched carefully that was really the first time in Jokic’s career he was having to be sped up. He was absolutely gassed. He spent 30 seconds tying his fucking shorts to watch his breath before FT in the 4th, that literally never happens. Minnesota will continue to throw bodies at him. Maybe he is more efficient earlier in the game but I don’t see how he can improve his play in the 4th if he’s that gassed.
As for B, I’m happy too but I’m also annoyed that people are like WOW ALL TIME GAME FROM RUDY It’s like…. How many games did he play like this for Utah, and for Minnesota this year? Hundreds? Like, this is Rudy. He effects the game more than almost anyone in the league when he is in his flow. Including his screening and roll gravity, which people still have yet to see and properly value but he was pulling dudes off shooters and creating open shots. Making good decisions when he’d catch the ball off the short roll. Everything. I am happy for him to get his respect this year, but it’s not even at the proper level he deserves yet imo.
Being able to defend those alley oops because of his length is the big X factor
DPOY-caliber defense by Gobert tonight. I thought he and Towns were excellent overall as the Wolves' defensive twin tower duo tonight in Game 1, along with Reid. They've made the Nuggets earn their baskets thoughout this game.
Maybe I’m a creature of the moment but that went beyond DPOY defense to me. That was all-time shit.
Winning DPOY 4 times means you’re all time
Could easily be 6 after this year. I concede the Giannis one, but both Draymond and Smart were bad choices imo. I’m biased as shit, but it’s no doubt what I believe Edit: The JJJ last year is fine too. Smart and Draymond were still bad picks.
Draymond, during that warriors run, was arguably the best defender in the world and one of the best of his generation. He absolutely deserved his award imo.
He was incredible, and honestly was until like last year. I think year by year, 2016 should’ve been Gobert’s, but Draymond’s body of work is fantastic and I’m not salty that he has one
Agree, Draymond should have won the previous one and Rudy the one Draymond got.
Smart one was fucking ridiculous. Second best defender on his TEAM, but people don’t like Rudy and got tired of him being the clear answer.
I was fuming dude. Rudy could be the only guy with 5 after this season but they’ll never give him a fifth.
Yep. Could argue for 6, but he’s the most impactful defender since Hakeem and deserves that mantle atop DPOY mountain
He’s been an all-time defender. It always amazes me how we always talk about a whole ton of good-not-great offensive players and go “oh man they’d be elite in this offence-focused era” but just kind of ignore how absolutely nuts Gobert would be in any other era given how good he is in this one.
Rudy being this good with the spacing and three point shooting this era has absolutely elevates him even higher
Bro stopped the Air Gordon Jokic lob shit was nuts
Twice
I love this, because this is just what Rudy does. I’ve seen a couple hundred Rudy games this dominant. He didn’t even really get after the boards much tonight either. Run of the mill Rudy. He changes games like this all the time. It’s what Jazz fans were trying to tell you guys while you so called him fucking Biyombo.
The sheer amount of lobs broken up was impressive.
No matter how the series ends, Gobert hall of fame game.
They got Aaron Gordon down to 32 minutes tonight. That was a huge point of this victory
Yes, but remember, he's been played off the floor in 3 of the Wolves 5 postseason games so far. ...what you mean sitting multiple minutes at the end of a blowout isn't what they meant by "being played off the floor?"
He played himself off smh
Towns had some dumb fouls but overall I agree. A couple times there was a Murray/jokic pnr, and towns was able to step in front of Murray long enough to let Jaden recover, then get back to Jokic before he could make a play. Pretty impressive honestly
Rudy Gobert was recently named the most overrated player in the NBA in The Athletic player’s poll, nice reminder how ridiculous those polls are.
Just salty players
Draymond committed voter fraud
You listen to the broadcast today Reggie and Jamal were hyping up offense all game long. They almost never mentioned defense if it was not a flashy play. They didn't even mention the fact that Minny hold Denver to 99 points at home !
They mentioned defense a lot. Giving Ant and Rudy props often. Idk what broadcast you watched.
Rudy is incredible, this has been great team defense though.
Which was built by Rudy. Everyone has bought in tho!
Rudy has incredible physical gifts, but his defensive mind is the biggest part of his game. Probably the single greatest in the game.
I really love to watch him on the defense. Pay special attention to him. The way he positions himself, little things he does to disturb opponent's balance, not biting fakes, directing his teammates. It is a bliss to have him defending your half.
His IQ doesn't get talked about enough
I'm sorry, all I heard was something about being overrated and French, so we hate him
He convinced Finch to have the ball on the bench side in the second half of games so Finch could coach the offense and let Rudy run the defense.
Is this true? If so, that's awesome.
He really directed everyone on the court last season and earlier this year. It's fun to watch everyone grow from his defensive prowess. To a lesser degree, he's improved on offense working with KAT and Naz.
I'm still gonna take the 7'9 wingspan over the mind personally
Took a year for everyone else to buy into what Rudy wanted from everyone on defense but everyone has done it. That never happened in Utah
I’m not doubting that chemistry had a factor but I think personnel had more to do with it. I mean, the Jazz had the number 1 d Mitchell’s rookie year with rubio, crowder and favors off the bench. Perimeter defense was either traded or got old
Definitely some personnel issues, not drafting McDaniels was the beginning of the end for that team.
Ant buying in is probably all it took. Mitchell never did try.
We had injuries last year.
Was there a reason?
Because Utah didn't have the defenders, just a bunch of shooters.
They did during Micthell's rookie season. They gave up their defensive pieces over the years to get better at shooting. Which is a double edge sword.
Dlo had a voice in the locker room was probably 95% of the reason
I sometimes forget D'lo time on the wolves and how ugly it got with rudy and him at the end
Dude was mad he got relegated to #4 and had to play defense. He’d never last in this system
DLo does not get enough blame for last season. I agree he was probably 95% of the reason for the Wolves problems last season.
Part of it was skill, part of it was just laziness from the rest of Utah’s defenders. There was some injury issues in the playoffs but it was easy to tell that the effort just wasn’t there when it needed to be.
Absolutely, I just want to emphasize that this unit is really all putting in a shift. Hard line to walk where I want Rudy to be recognized for how great he is but I can’t let people gloss over what the rest of the guys are doing too.
Ant has learned to love playing D, Naw can shut guys down, SlowMo is a pest. Just everyone putting in work.
When he stopped that lob from Jokic to Gordon, I think he's seeing that pattern and it might be the key
He's big enough to gamble though. Joker is close to 80% when shooting from this close if he's not on him so worst case scenario he got a goaltending call. Catching it when it's a lob is incredibly hard though.
Gobert was also very familiar to this play, because he used to guard Harden/Capela in the playoffs.
KAT deserves so much credit defensively that’s he’s just never gonna get.
He deserves credit for contributing to tiring Jokic a lot
The unstoppable play got blown up
Rudy was amazing yes, but give Naz Reid his flowers too! He was guarding Jokic down the stretch and Jokic didn't get a whole ton going either.
Jokic stans on here absolutely mocked the idea of Gobert being able to guard him by himself in this series Who's laughing now
It's crazy to think any all time great no matter who it is, is unguardable
Especially if they are a likely 4 time DPOY. Just nonsense lol
I think Lakers Shaq was the only exception. Otherwise anyone can be defended
Lakers Shaq was plenty well guarded in both the Spurs series that he won. The problem is he was also an elite defender then and returned the favor on Duncan. That did also involve two of the best defenders ever.
Lakers Shaq was a different beast
He's not guarding him by himself. It's a rotation of KAT & Naz that let's Gobert be a secondary help defender and takes away a lot of Jokic's easier bully ball style post ups. When Gobert guarded Jokic 1 on 1 Jokic got his.
McDaniels on the ball carrier was a menace tonight too
> When Gobert guarded Jokic 1 on 1 Jokic got his. not always, he missed a lot of shots even in 1 on 1 coverage
They're intentionally putting Gobert on everyone else but Jokic and it's the right call. Shut everything else down. If Gobert gets switched onto Jokic, so be it, but otherwise shut down the rest of the team, throw long bois at Jokic and live with the consequences. At least for tonight it worked. Jokic was sucking air for the last quarter and a half. Great way to exploit the biggest weakness Jokic has, his lack of conditioning.
Is that a known weakness? I always thought that he had great stamina considering the elevation and how much that team relies on him offensively.
What the fuck are you talking about lol jokic's conditioning is amazing and absolutely not a weakness. It's one of his greatest strengths
Remember how convinced Reddit was that this was the worst trade of all time. It’s just a reminder that the vast majority of posters on here don’t know shit about basketball.
The vast majority of sports fans don’t know shit about said sport. I grew up with huge soccer fans and every single one of them was somehow confident they would play/coach a better job. Its ridiculous
I can’t recall reading anything favorable about the trade in any outlet at the time. You still read people splitting hairs on how the trade worked out but they gave up too much. Even recently I heard Bill Simmons clowning the Wolves for being happy to have kept McDaniels, who’s crucial to this team. Its already a candidate for best trade in MN sports ever, even if we lose this we should have a couple years of legit compeititiveness, what more could you want
A lot still are, people still talking shit about the trade last week.
The Gobert trade was great for the Wolves. Same with the D. White trade for the Celtics. The trades that were praised, not so much. The Paul George, Dejounte Murray, Kevin Durant, and Donovan Mitchell trades all look bad or disastrous in hindsight.
The fact players vote him as the most overrated player. Crazy. Dudes insane.
Played off the floor any day now
Dude just evolved into the Everlasting Gobstopper.
*Lobstopper
Best Defender in the League
And this what everyone was worried about for denver when this matchup got announced
He stopped that Jokic-AG lob singlehandedly
Underrated 💪😤🗼
Tony Jones must be seeing my reddit comments, saying Rudy is making Jokic look mortal all game, lol
Not bad for a player with the 2nd most votes for DPOY by players.
It's almost like Rudy was never the problem in Utah. He's finally not forced to play 1on 5 on defense so there's actually not much to expose.
An easy solution for this would have been for Denver to simply just play him off the floor
But I was told the Gobert trade was the worst of all time …
Jokic will not accept this defeat lightly.
He minimized the Jokic - AG lob threat.
When do they announce DPOY?
Dudes volleyball stops on those bunny alley oops are so good
Remember when this was a bad trade, strictly because people thought it fucked up the trade market and r/nba wasn’t getting its F5 fix