Throughout the playoffs, Rudy had the biggest impact on the offense and defense among all the Wolves rotation players. He may look like a "liability" on offense, but in actuality his presence is a big contribution to our offense.
Although he looks awkward and we remember the fumbles the most, Rudy creates advantages for his team on offense with his screens, creating open threes with his vertical gravity (example), getting the team into the bonus, pnr, and lobs (when he's utilized). Ant hit game winning daggers off of Rudy screens (ex: Game 4 of the Mavs series).
Frankly, his offensive impact has been greater than his defensive impact. When Rudy is on the floor, the Wolves shoot 39% from 3, and 30% when he is off the floor. His gravity creates open threes for his teammates and that is hugely valuable and partially how Utah was the #1 offense in the past.
Other context:
When Ant is on without Rudy, the offense is 103. When Ant and Rudy are on together, the offense is 122.9.
When KAT is on without Rudy, the offense is 105. KAT and Rudy together, the offense is 122.
When Rudy is on without Ant the offense is 110 and when Rudy is on without KAT the offense is 122.
I played around with lineup combinations here and the trend was similar regardless of how I spliced up the lineups. This is over a large sample size and I just thought it was fascinating evidence of the impact of a true big on offenses. The way I see it is he's not the best soldier to fight in a battle like Ant and KAT are, but he provides a lot of weapons that other soldiers can use to fight better. Ultimately, the tools he gives the Wolves helps the team generate the most offense.
Sources:
https://www.pbpstats.com/totals/nba/team?Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Playoffs&StartType=All
by JaderMcDanersStan
18 Comments
Doesn’t matter, he had a bad turnover once so he sucks in offense.
Oh, and mY pAiNT iS CloGgeD, mY eYE tESt and YuO doN’T KnOW whAt ThOsE NUMbErs mEan.
I think that covers pretty much all.
This was really interesting too:
When Rudy and Ant are on together, the offense is an incredible 122.9 (would be #1 in the playoffs and the regular season).
When Ant is on *without* Rudy, the offense is 103… and when Rudy is on without Ant, the offense is 111. So it’s not just minutes overlapping with Ant. [https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612750&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Playoffs&PlayerIds=203497,1630162](https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612750&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Playoffs&PlayerIds=203497,1630162)
It reminds me of Steven Adams impact on offenses. The rebounding and screens is so impactful, way more impactful than I realized. Getting us into the bonus was crucial to winning Game 7 against Denver too.
Just stop passing him the damn ball if it isn’t a lob please
Think about how much higher this could be without all those awkward looking drops where it looks like he just isn’t ready for the ball.
I think Rudy plays great. Just need to protect him from those awkward pocket bounce passes everyone likes to throw at him knee height. While he is moving. Make it make sense.
Gobert just looks so bad when it doesn’t workout and super easy when it does so his good plays go unrecognized and his bad plays are shaqtin a fool worthy
It’s really that simple, love how Luka hits a incredibly difficult step back 3 where Gobert got a decent contest and instead of recognizing how great Luka shot was people care more about trashing the guy who stepped up to play D out of position.
All this talk about trades and shopping Rudy – please please please get rid of Kat. So much salary, so much injury, so little consistency.
Wait only 16? Do you mean in terms of our offensive rating? Cuz if it’s just 16 overall points, with his minutes, that’s embarrassing.
i think something to keep in mind is his conversion rate for scoring once he actually has the ball in his hands. for every dropped pass is another player who didn’t lose the ball but was still unable to make the basket anyway. he’s not as big of a liability as some make it seem.
Can we just stop?
This guy gets 40+ million to be offensive liability for all purpose he has been carried by other players for most of the playoffs.
The team is consistently playing 4 vs 5 on offense and on defense he’s been mediocre.
While his ability to screen and rebound is valuable to the offense, he also has major flaws that can limit this team’s offensively. He does clog the paint and he can’t catch unless it’s very simple passes.
our offense has issues outside of gobert. we need to develop our other guys iso shots and not just run the passing offense. only reason we looked good was ant taking over, as soon as they doubled him we looked horrible offensively
Just out of curiosity, can we see what it is by series?
Run it all back, and Rudy takes 1,500 passes a day all summer.
Ant got better at utilizing Rudy this season, and especially utilizing his gravity to playmake for others. The big next step he needs to make is to really utilize the actual lob to Rudy when he gets doubled in the pick-n-roll. We saw how much insanely easy offense Luka got with the lob: If the big steps up on Ant, the lob to Rudy is basically always open. It’s not an easy pass, but guys like Luka make it look effortless, and Gobert has always been a good lob finisher. If Ant can master that part of the playmaking game, our offense will be insanely hard to stop.
Rudy is the offense
Rudy needs to start practicing cathcing stones thrown at him lmao. And at least an average midrange shot.
He should try, not like anyone can block him a lot if he does midrange switched with a guard
The Wolves had the number 1 offense in the league from January 1 through the end of the season in 21-22. The only good offensive player we sacrificed in that deal was Beasley. Most of the rotational players in 2024 are significantly better offensive players than the guys we were putting on the floor in 2022 (4th year Ant and Jaden >> 2nd year Ant and Jaden, Conley > DLo, 2024 KAT = 2022 KAT, NAZ > Prince, Slowmo ~ Pat Bev). Based on your stats, Rudy over Vando should be a massive upgrade, so you would expect the offense to roll right along..
Yet the Wolves have been 23rd and 17th on offense in the 2 seasons with Rudy. And 17th was while being one of the best 3pt shooting teams.
I understand Rudy provides value on offense, but you also have to construct your offense around his limitations and the offense the coaching staff has built with him is trash.