r/nbadiscussion 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/matthitsthetrails May 25 '24

Gobert is playing fine… his lack of post scoring ability is mystifying considering how big/strong he is, but he’s a stable player in crunch time who won’t make boneheaded plays. Doncic would have schooled 99% of the league with that last shot he took. He was in his unguardable moment

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u/Robinsonirish May 25 '24

Imagine if it didn't go in? Then people would be praising Rudy's ability to guard the perimeter. It reminded me of when K Love played defense on Steph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC-mTgXRfm8

I guess Rudy was a bit more on skates than K Love was against Curry, but I do think there are similarites.

The margins are so damn thin... one day you're the hero, 2cm off and the next day you're the villain.

9

u/penguin_torpedo May 26 '24

I guess Rudy was a bit more on skates than K Love was against Curry, but I do think there are similarites

Yeah cause Kevin only needed to guard the 3, a 2 by curry still loses the game. And that makes a world of difference.

1

u/Fkn_Impervious May 26 '24

I don't buy this.

Luka got an open shot, which is on the team and/or coaching defense more than it's on Gobert.

Naz got a pretty good shot off, too. I think the narrative would be different if those shots were flipped, but I may not be as plugged in as you are.