After winning 48 games and making an impressive second-round playoff run, the Utah Jazz were the biggest surprise packet of the 2017-18 season. The Rookie of the Year runner-up Donovan Mitchell was a flamethrowing revelation, Ricky Rubio thrived in his new city, and Joe Ingles became the gold standard of 3-and-D role players. Tying all of these mismatched parts together was Rudy Gobert, who claimed the Defensive Player of the Year award and cemented his place as one the league’s most fearful paint protectors.
Utah became a stealth Western Conference hunter last season. Now, they have started the 2018-19 campaign as the hunted. Mitchell has been solid as ever, but his shooting percentages and body have let him down at times so far. Ricky Rubio, for all his seducing playmaking and defensive qualities, has been a shell of the version we saw last season. Ingles has struggled to replicate the shooting brilliance he provided a year ago. It’s just nine games into the season, so don’t expect these problems to hold true the rest of the way, but they are the main reason that Utah has stumbled out of the gate to a 4-5 record.
There has been an underwhelming feeling surrounding the Jazz thus far, but not around their French big man. Rudy Gobert has maintained his elite defensive presence while taking his offensive game to dizzying new heights despite his skill set being void of an efficient jump shot, post game or ball-handling ability. The 26-year-old is averaging a career-high 16.6 points per game, converting on a scorching 71.8 percent of his field goals.
With a penchant for squeezing every last drop of effectiveness out of every player, Jazz coach Quin Snyder is the master puppeteer behind this offensive leap that the “Stifle Tower” has undertaken.
Even with his aforementioned trio of scorers struggling to match last season’s output, opposing big men are well aware of what Mitchell, Rubio and Ingles can do to a team if they are allowed to penetrate the paint and wreak havoc. Snyder knows this too, and uses their gravity and passing chops to pull Gobert into a dangerous position time after time.
It usually starts with the floor spread completely, with Gobert setting up camp at the top of the key. He will either set a tough screen or quickly slip out of it, barreling to the rim in a typical pick-and-roll fashion. Even though teams are aware of how dangerous the 7-foot-1 menagerie of arms and legs is, they have no choice but to send their rim protector over to stop the ball handlers. No coach wants to the opposing see a pick-and-roll ball handler waltz to the rim and get an easy bucket, they must throw their big into a position to protect the rim.
Theoretically, one of the two defenders manning the corner shooters could rotate over to help. However, the Jazz possess far too many competent shooters to give a morsel of space to. Leaving someone like Jae Crowder, Royce O’Neale or even the much improved Alec Burks is a death sentence for teams trying to drive down 3-point efficiency.
It ends up looking a little something like this:
In this scenario, Ingles has drawn Jaren Jackson Jr. into the path of the guillotine. Once he has taken his eyes and body off Gobert for a second, it’s game over. Shelvin Mack will come out of the far corner to help, but because he is reluctant to come off the shooter, he is far too late to make any impact. Gobert will stride effortlessly toward the rim and serve Mack up a facial that makes him regret ever taking a step away from Crowder:
The same technique applies when Rubio or Mitchell are doing the passing. Spread the floor, come off the pick, draw the big, and spoon-feed Gobert.
Here is another example. Rookie Josh Okogie does extremely well to shade Mitchell, but his elite ability to finish strong around the rim forces Karl-Anthony Towns to commit to him. That split second is all Gobert needs. His jaw-dropping length and athleticism for such a large human being is put to good use. Catching a lob and finishing with ease, in spite of Towns’ best efforts to get a body back on him:
The pick-and-roll is the most common playtype in basketball, and every team tries their own version of this spaced-out, rim-running scoring method. Not every team has a Rudy Gobert though, and it’s much easier said than done without someone with the length, touch and know-how of the Stifle Tower. That’s why the Jazz center leads the league in points per possession for pick-and-roll screeners who have been involved in over 25 possessions.
It’s so effective that Utah could only use their towering big man in pick-and-roll and Gobert would still be dominant. Although Quin Snyder has started to use his pick-and-rolling stud in other ways, too. Despite his rusty post-game, Gobert has started to get some work in down low.
He doesn’t have the dribbling ability or lower body strength to competently back down the big, bulky defenders, but he is becoming extremely proficient at sealing and destroying smaller defenders. When a guard or wing gets switched on to Gobert, he bails on the pick-and-roll and quickly heads to the front of the rim. Once he is there, any defender who can’t match at least some of his size is toast:
Watching Rudy Gobert yam on smaller defenders might not be the most impressive thing, but it’s a huge improvement from the Rudy Gobert we witnessed enter the league. The same one that could barely finish an open dunk, let alone have the basketball IQ to seal a smaller man instantly and get an easy bucket.
His skill set isn’t diverse by any means, but the 7-foot-1 giant is one of the most dangerous offensive players around. If you let him have anything easy, he will dominate. The way the Jazz build their spaced, guard-penetrating offense around him, making life tough for Rudy Gobert is pretty much a pipe dream.
