Utah Jazz: Why Did Rudy Gobert Get Snubbed?

With a 67-15 record the Golden State Warriors had the best record in the NBA during the 2014-15 season.

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The reason why Stephen Curry, the Warriors starting point guard, is going to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award is because he’s the best player on the best team in the league.

A case can be (and should be) made, though, for James Harden of the Houston Rockets to win the award (since he does actually hold more value than Curry to his team), the elite shooter Curry will get the award because he’s the best player on the best team.

Since Curry’s on his way to joining the elite company in the league because of that train of thought then why wasn’t that same concept applied when it came to the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award?

Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs won the 2014-15 Defensive Player of the Year and it wasn’t a bad pick. In fact Leonard is one of the few players in the game that plays excellent on both ends of the court.

It’s only natural that he was selected being arguably one of only a few small forwards in the league that can score 20 points while holding an opponents best perimeter player to less than 20 points.

For as great as Leonard was this season the Spurs were only the third best team in the league when it came to opponents points per game holding their opponents on average to 97 points a contest.

Want to know who was in first? The Utah Jazz.

This season the Jazz had the best defense in the NBA allowing their opponents to only score 94.9 points per game which was good enough for first.

If the Jazz had the best defense in the league then why wasn’t Rudy Gobert shown more love during the Defensive Player of the Year award?

Mar 16, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) grabs the rebound away from Charlotte Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (14) during the third quarter at EnergySolutions Arena. Utah Jazz won the game 94-66. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports /

I’m not saying that Gobert should have won the award, even though if he did it wouldn’t have been a mistake. What I’m saying is why did Gobert finish behind Draymond Green, DeAndre Jordan and Anthony Davis? Green and Leonard are understandable selections because they play for two of the best defensive teams in the league.

But Jordan and Davis lived more on their reputation than overall team success defensively in comparison to Gobert.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Anthony Davis’ game. Absolutely love it. He put the New Orleans Pelicans on his back and got the franchise back into the playoffs. He’s earned every bit of praise and should get more respect when it comes to the MVP voting.

However, there’s no way that he should have finished before Gobert.

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN said this:

"Davis is a physical freak, but he’s still learning the rhythms and choreography of the NBA game. He leads the NBA in blocked shots (2.9 per game), but he occasionally finds himself out of position to protect the rim, which is part of the reason the New Orleans defense ranks a disappointing 22nd in the league …… He’s often late on rotations and slow to help from the weak side. He defends just 7.1 field goal attempts at the rim per game, which is 35th in the league and the same number as notoriously absent Kevin Love."

Gobert got snubbed just because he didn’t finish with a third-place spot. But thankfully that’s not his attitude on the situation.

Can't wait for next season https://t.co/vFiRbp5srE
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) April 23, 2015

When the NBA season started on Oct. 29 for the Utah Jazz, Gobert was a virtual unknown commodity to most NBA fans.

Even coming off an impressive summer in the 2014 FIBA World Cup where he battled well against great players such as Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Pau Gasol, Gobert shined. No one had the thought that he was ready to shine in the NBA quite yet and that’s where he took most of the league by surprise.

After finally getting playing time in his sophomore season Gobert showed to the NBA world exactly who he was which is one of the greatest defensive players in the game.

It can be said that overnight Gobert turned himself into one of the most fearsome rim protectors in the game.

Out of all of those rim protectors that were mentioned before such as Davis and Jordan, what’s also working in his favor is that there’s no other center in the game today with better nicknames than Gobert.

Someone can call him the Stifle Tower, the French Rejection, Swat Lake City (my second personal favorite), the Gobstopper, Gobzilla, the Gobert Report, Don’t Go There With Gobert, Rudy Gobert or Go Home.

The only thing that’s missing from Gobert is about 15 pounds of raw muscle. Once he acquires the required strength, added in with his athleticism then opponents will no longer be able to bully him on the block and he’ll start to get more on ball blocks instead of weak side ones, as well as more rebounds.

All the snub does for Gobert is help increase his chance to win the award next season. It’s safe to say that Gobert is the frontrunner for the award. Having a full season where he’s the starting center not only is going to help the Jazz win more games but the overall team success will help bring in individual accolades.

Gobert might be able to lead the league in rebounds and blocked shots per game.

It’s really only a matter of time until we start to acknowledge him as the best defensive player in the game. At 22-years-old Gobert’s already on his way to becoming that.

Next: Utah Jazz: 5 Reasons Why Gordon Hayward Should Make The All-NBA Team

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Utah Jazz: Why Did Rudy Gobert Get Snubbed For the Defensive Player of the Year Award?

By DJoumbarey A. Moreau | Apr 25, 2015

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