For reference, Mavs offensive rating this season is 117.6, so with Gobert on the court they are being held far below their regular season level.
There's been a recent narrative about Gobert being exposed as a defensive liability because of a couple clips, but the stats don't seem to back it up. Anybody know what might be causing this discrepancy?
by DarrowViBritannia
40 Comments
Gobert is really good, just not the best at perimeter defense. People that clown him as “bad defender” are totally wrong. He would be a great asset to any team.
Gobert has been their best player impact wise all season
KAT and Ant are just playing like horseshit
Ant and Kat have been dogshit for most of the series and the Mavs have had the 2 best players all series, Gobert is doing as expected lol
Same thing happens in Horford, who’s playing amazing defense by the numbers, but everyone sees guys scoring on him a few possessions, because he’s the one at that position, and think he’s a liability.
Those numbers are pure coincidence. – Perk
Paging /u/bloothug. Per your other post:
> Wolves are still a good defense when he’s off the floor because they have other good/great defenders.
Clown take.
Lots of fans, and even a lot of media members, love to hate Gobert. Him not being the best perimeter defender in the league, though still good for a big, is taken as the sole reason the Wolves are down and proof his 4 DPoYs are fraudulent.
I may not agree with rudy being dpoy but it’s honestly been getting ridiculous. The fact that Kendrick Perkins ever had a vote is a far bigger travesty than him winning any of his dpoys. Why does getting beat on the perimeter by Luka doncic change anybodys mind. If you voted for him thinking he could stop luka I don’t know what to tell you.
People are extremely stupid
If Kat and ant just play somewhat close to their levels Minnesota wins the first two games and this conversation goes away.
The reality is there is no defender that is perfect. Everyone is a bit worse at some things and Rudy is not the best perimeter defender when it comes to defending Luka. Late in games he’s going to get hunted in the pnr and it’s up the wolves defense as a team to not put him in that position.
They scapegoating Gobert to take the heat off Ant disasterclass. Gotta protect the future face of the league.
I’m sick of hearing about Rudy Gobert being the problem when Ant has been invisible most of this series, and KAT has delusions of being Steph Curry. Seriously, KAT’s shot is not falling at all, and he keeps shooting.
Yeah but perkins, dramond and shaq say he sucks so who cares about actual data?
Dude became a scapegoat, or as the French would say “Bouc émissaire” (thanks Google)
Gobert once again just doing his job while his supporting cast (Ant and KAT) are fucking g league. I don’t know if our defense is just that good on them or what, but the series is on both of them, not Rudy.
It would be like bitching at Gafford getting burnt by Ant if Kyrie shot 25% for the series… No one would do that, they would be ripping Kai.
The discrepancy is people hate Rudy lol. He got stuck guarding the best offensive guard in the league right now who hit a tough three over him so now he’s a fraudulent DPOY because all anybody cares about is 1v1 offense and defense.
Shhh, this doesn’t fit the narrative.
People don’t like Gobert. I think it is as simple as that.
The NBA media loves narratives, even when… nay, *especially* when it flies in the face of every objective metric.
As I just theorized in the other thread, as it applies to Perkins and Shaq at least:
> I think what happened is people were glazing Ant like crazy and he’s failing to deliver for whatever reason, so instead of people like Perkins questioning their own judgment and having to actually give Luka or the Mavs any credit whatsoever for the Twolves struggles, it feels better to pin the blame on Gobert.
In sum, “I feel stupid now, there’s no way I want to praise Luka (or Jokic in the last series), so it’s Gobert’s fault.”
Hold up 135.1 is insane, wtf
People can’t comprehend that basketball is an incredible team effort, not a series of 1v1 situations. An interior paint presence like Gobert makes everyone’s job easier on the perimeter… Yeah, if he’s isolated at 25 ft with an elite point-guard, he’s going to give up a shot… it’s on the coach to make sure you never put your center in that situation… just like you’d never ask your PG to defend an elite center in the paint—there’s simple physics that need to be considered when finding match-ups!
Maybe cause when he is on the court so is Luka and Kyrie and when he is off the court they tend to not be.
Gobert has been put in a lot of bad situations defensively that look bad for him but really weren’t his fault either. And ya this series has more to do with ANT and KAT not doing nearly enough offensively.
They are losing because Ant has been shit and KAT has been shit.
Not because Gobert has a few defensive lowlights
ISOs make Gobert look bad, and it’s usually what people can see. I dislike Gobert, but I don’t think he deserves to get hated on for his defense. I just think he might not be well-liked in the league lol
Y’all wrong as hell for strictly going at Rudy when KAT got “bad kitty” graphics on live television
He is good at things that aren’t flashy and barely show up on stats sheets. He’s very good at boxing out and keeping bigs out of the paint. He is much less good vs guards with good handles.
Offensively he sets screens away and near the baskets all the time. It’s not pretty and doesn’t get him buckets but he helps the team some. And he has okay hands to clean up around the rim.
He isn’t fun to watch or entertaining. He does play efficient basketball though for the most part
Yeah the Gobert slander is shit. No one ever said he’s a perimeter defender. Gobert’s not the problem, its whatever defensive scheme is allowing the Mavs backcourt to force perimeter 1-on1 isos against him
This Gobert hate was always bs.
Luka beats his defender and is in the lane, either:
Gobert comes to help, easy lob to Gafford/Liverly
Or
Gobert doesn’t go to help, easy floater for Luka
Finch should bench Gobert and watch the Timberwolves get blown out by the Mavericks. The Timberwolves basically already lost the series. Might as well prove those “analysts” wrong and tell them to stfu.
In a weird twist as well, Gobert also has the best offensive rating on the Wolves, and second in the series only to Lively.
Could it just be a difference in sample size? Even with his limited minutes in the last game, we are only talking about ~30-40 minutes total over 3 games?
Either way, I agree to some extent that fans/media are using this series to justify the “Fraud DPOY” takes. The reality is that Gobert provides excellent rim protection when on the floor, but struggles when pulled out to the perimeter and has to guard excellent shot creators with lob threats behind him. It is a bad matchup that takes perfect advantage of his limited defensive weaknesses. However, take him off the court and now the opposing team also has free driving lanes to the rim.
I think where the criticism is warranted is that Gobert is a great regular season player, but eventually becomes unplayable in the playoffs. When on the court his offensive game is so bad that it completely ruins the spacing and rhythm. In the regular season his dominance on defense more than makes-up for it, but in the playoffs when opponents game play to specifically take away your strengths and magnify your weaknesses, the tradeoff becomes untenable. Pheonix couldn’t take advantage because they don’t play any D and don’t really have an offensive scheme. Denver was able to generate a ton of open 3s, just couldn’t knock them down (but they did the same thing last year and won in 5), and now Dallas is doing the same and actually knocking down their shots. It is the same thing that happened in Utah and why they were more than happy to trade him for picks.
Gobert is falling victim to the representativeness heuristic. The public sees the few times Gobert’s defense is exposed (Luka GW) and is using that to judge his defensive value, rather than taking a more holistic look.
Gobert is a good defender, as the stats show. How KAT isn’t taking more blame both for his below cellar shooting and bad defending is wild.
Please don’t show this to KP.He might unretire from voting.
Edwards is a fan favorite, KAT is also pretty well liked, Gobert doesn’t have that kind of adoration. So he gets blamed the hardest out of the three.
People are acting like he is a scrub because Luka got off a step back 3. Step back 3’s are kind of there whenever you want it. The defender has to guard against a drive and a step back 3 is a low percentage shot so you live with it. Luka misses that shot 3 out of 4 times.
Gobert sucks all the idiots are saying it, dont break the circle jerk.
Honestly, it’s such a sad pathetic case of former players bullying this dude cus they are insecure. Yes, he has some trouble guarding smaller fast guards on the perimeter. Every player has a flaw or two (literally everyone). But defensively, he is so impactful. Players legit turn around rather than attack him in the paint. He has played up to his standards, KAT has been pure dog shit and so has Ant. You can replace Rudy on the defensive end with literally any center of all time and they still lose.
Whats their offensive rating with and without Rudy. Are they winning while rudy is on the floor, or are they losing but losing less with him or losing but losing more with him
NBA fans love blaming Rudy for other people sucking ass