For nine seasons, I defended all of Rudy Gobert’s flaws. His poor dribbling, his horrendous shooting, how goofy he looks when he defends one-on-one outside the paint. Even with all Gobert’s quirks, I knew how valuable he was to the Jazz for a near-decade.
Once he was traded out of Utah, it was a nice breath of fresh air to not have to grimace when he dribbles or talk about how valuable of a screener he is. But still, you would have to be a fool to not see how important he is to every team he has ever been
on.
In the first four games of Minnesota’s first round series against the Nuggets, Gobert has done an impeccable job guarding Nikola Jokic — as good of a job as you can do against one of the best offensive players in NBA history.
The stats are not overtly in Gobert’s favor, in fact, just by looking at the box score, you’d think that this has been a terrible series for Gobert and the Timberwolves. But make no mistake, Gobert has been monumental for slowing down the Nuggets’ offense (only 96 points in games three and four) and is a major reason that Minnesota finds itself up 3-1 in this series. In game three, Jokic only shot 7 for 26, an unprecedented performance for the three-time MVP.
What I find exciting is the public discourse on the French big man over the last week. Gobert is historically a pretty disliked player by most NBA fans. Because his skills aren’t easily seen in highlight clips, and he has his fair share of “Shaqtin’ a Fool” moments, it’s pretty easy to make the assumption that Gobert is not a good player. But it seems that his play against the Nuggets has led to overwhelming approval from the basketball world.
If you look his name up on social media, there will still be a decent amount of negative discourse on the Stifle Tower — there always will be — but this is the most amount of praise I’ve seen for him in his entire career. And he has more than earned it.
Gobert has some pretty awful playoff blunders — whether they’re all his fault is up for debate — but he has also made the playoffs 10 years in a row. If he is on your team, you will make the playoffs. That’s a really difficult task, one that even Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry haven’t been able to do in recent seasons even when healthy.
Gobert is a unique and understandably polarizing player, but if the Timberwolves manage to beat Jokic and the Nuggets even without Anthony Edwards and Donte Divincenzo, then Gobert deserves all the praise in the world.
