Piece By: Nick Lombardi
At the start of the playoffs, the Utah Jazz and Rudy Gobert find themselves atop the Western Conference in the standings. Gobert has built his career and reputation on the back of his incredible defense. Rudy is not going to win MVP, he isn't even a finalist, but his value to the Jazz is absolutely irreplaceable in just about every way.
This is not to say he's the best player in the world, or that he even has the biggest impact on a single game. But the way that he plays the game, his one of a kind skillset, and his dominance on both ends of the floor can not be underestimated.
Gobert is the all time leader in career Offensive Rating with 126.06 over the course of his 8 year career. In 2020-21, he finished with an offensive rating of 130.96, slightly higher than presumptive MVP, Nikola Jokic at 130.39. He also this year's leader in defensive rating at 100.64.
In the midst of one of the greatest offensive seasons in NBA history by Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert has kept his offensive rating up by producing the highest eFG% in the NBA at .6753 and coming in 4th in total offensive rebounds. According to stat muse, Rudy Gobert only took 9 shots outside of the painted area and none of those shots came from three point range. This means that Gobert almost exclusively takes high percentage looks near the rim.
So how does Utah build their system around their star big man? Jordan Clarkson, Joe Ingles, Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley are able to generate a lot of high percentage three point shots because of Gobert's dominant presence in the paint. The Jazz as a team attempted the most threes per game at 43 attempts per game, and they converted 16.7 of those 3s.
In short, the Utah Jazz are using the formula from the 2017-18 Rockets, but this time, there's a dominant and efficient two-way big man as the centerpiece of this roster.