How Bad Are The Utah Jazz Without Rudy Gobert?

The Utah Jazz have been struggling lately, but just how bad has it been without Rudy Gobert?

With the Western Conference in something of an early tailspin, the Utah Jazz have an early hold on the eighth and final playoff spot in the standings. But a year after finishing 41-41 in a far more unforgiving West, Utah’s 11-14 start to the 2015-16 season has been underwhelming — even if they currently sit in the exact spot where most preseason projections had them winding up anyway.

At full strength, Utah has a promising future. But that’s exactly the problem — with Dante Exum sidelined for the entire season thanks to a summer ACL tear and defensive anchor Rudy Gobert out indefinitely because of an MCL sprain, the Jazz haven’t been able to find their early rhythm and capitalize on the rest of the West’s slow start.

For the first few weeks, it was Exum’s absence that took some getting used to. Then it was Gordon Hayward‘s shooting slump. Now their biggest obstacle — and one that feels borderline insurmountable until Gobert returns — is the absence of the shot-blocking centerpiece to Utah’s once elite defense.

Gobert has only missed nine games so far, but it didn’t take long for his absence to have a major impact. Since the loss of the Stifle Towers, the Jazz are 3-6, with their only wins coming against the Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets.

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In those games, the Pacers were on the end of a four-game road trip, the Knicks were in the middle of a two-game skid and the Nuggets, well, they were a less than stellar 11-14 at the time.

What’s worse, however, is that their normally imposing defense has fallen off so quickly that Utah’s outlook for winning games is even dimmer than the record shows.

Before Gobert went down, Utah’s defense surrendered 99.8 points per 100 possessions, good for the 10th best mark in the NBA. Though their offensive rating has spiked from 100.8 to 103.7 in nine games without Gobert, the defense has given up 109.8 points per 100 possessions — 10 points worse than before, and good for the third worst defense in the league during that span.

Leading up to Gobert’s MCL sprain, the Jazz were allowing opponents to shoot 44.4 percent from the field and only 55.5 percent on shots from less than five feet (ninth in the league). Now Utah’s D is allowing 46.1 percent shooting from the floor and 59.4 percent shooting on shots from less than five feet.

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It’s not just inside the restricted area where Gobert’s absence has been felt, however. Without the Jazz’s formidable seven-footer patrolling the paint, Utah has gone from the league’s second stingiest defense against shots from 5-9 feet (32.3 percent shooting allowed) to the league’s worst deterrent on such shots (50 percent allowed).

If it seems like opponents are getting easy floaters in the paint right before they reach the rim, that’s where the loss of Rudy Gobert’s imposing presence has been felt the most.

Before the injury, the Jazz were also giving up the fewest points in the paint per game (36.6). Without Gobert, the Jazz have still done fairly well in that respect, but they’re now surrendering 39.3 paint points per game (10th).

With Gobert out, the Jazz have turned to Trevor Booker, Trey Lyles and Jeff Withey to eat up the available minutes. Booker is a hard worker and Withey has done fairly well blocking shots in limited minutes, but it’s becoming all too clear just how important Rudy Gobert is for the Utah Jazz’s defense, which was the defining trait of their success in the first place.

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If he can’t return soon, the Jazz’s promising season could quickly spiral out of control — even in the hibernating West.