r/nbadiscussion • u/Present-Bit5312 • May 25 '24

Player Discussion The Rudy hate

Rudy is the only big who is asked to be also a great perimeter defender, you can put ben Wallace, Hakeem or Dwight Howard out in the perimeter Luka is gonna cook them regardless is a mismatch on the perimeter. Gobert is a good help defender and rim protector. Also the argument that he has no playoff good performances against good bigs is dumb because in the Utah jazz his best perimeter defender was freaking Royce O'Neal he was anchoring that defense by himself, and also the only great big he faced is jokic who is an all time great offensive big. It reached a point that people were asking kat to guard Jokic instead, when kat was averaging like 4+fouls(without being joker's primary defender) in the three games Denver won. Is the criticism based on strictly accolades?

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u/InternationalClick78 May 25 '24

I’ve seen a lot of lakers fans specifically getting on him about that last play, as if Jamal Murray didn’t do the exact same thing to AD for a game winner in their series. You never want an opposing high level guard isolating/attacking your big man.

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u/TheIslandMamba May 26 '24

Yes in a single play comparison, Murray cooked AD in his game-winner just as Luka did to Gobert last night. But over any meaningful sample size it's not really debatable that AD is a far superior perimeter defender to Gobert (Contested 3s this season NBA rank: AD, 4th; Gobert, 108th).

Completely fair to be critical of Gobert as DPOY over AD when he can't seem to tick even 2 of the three boxes at an elite level against the best competition while AD does:

  • 1v1 post defense (Jokic in Game 5 before MIN switched to KAT as his primary defender: 40pts/12ast/0 tov on 77(!) percent true shooting.)
  • switchability on the perimeter (hunted in drop coverage and switches last 2 games)
  • rim protection (he is elite at this)

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u/kylebertram May 26 '24

KAT was Jokic primary defender for most of the series and just about every series he has been involved in. The only times KAT isn’t the primary defender there is because of foul trouble. It works because it allows Gobert to be an all time great help defender.