With Rudy Gobert out of the Utah Jazz’s lineup for multiple weeks, here’s a look at what Utah’s rotation will look like without its star center.
On Sunday, the basketball world learned that Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert would be out for at least four weeks with a knee injury.
The Jazz released an official injury update on Gobert before the weekend ended, reporting he suffered a right tibia contusion in Friday night’s loss to the Miami Heat. As a result, he will be sidelined from any game action and will be reevaluated after four weeks.
The injury comes at a tough time for the Jazz, who are going through somewhat of a rough patch in the season after getting off to a hot start to the 2017-18 campaign.
It also comes at a time where Gobert seemed to be finding his stride, branching off of his dominant season a year ago. Through 12 games to start the season, Gobert has averaged 13.9 points, 10.5 rebounds, a league-leading 2.5 blocks and 1.3 assists per game.
Injuries are unfortunate at any time of the season, and Utah is finding that out early on with the absence of its All-NBA and All-Defensive center for the near future.
So, that brings up our next question: what can we expect the Jazz to look like without Gobert in the lineup for the next four weeks?
The J-Notes
The lineup that we’ve been used to seeing this season, starting nine of the 14 games thus far, has been Ricky Rubio, Rodney Hood, Joe Ingles, Derrick Favors and Gobert. That lineup has been the most successful lineup for Utah, and that is mainly because of its 7’1″ center in the middle.
Compared to other lineups Utah has had on the floor this season, lineups that include Gobert are by far better, mainly in categories such as rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. Without Gobert, the Jazz will take a hit on both ends of the floor as long as he is away.
Let’s take a deeper look at what the rotation might look like while Gobert is out and recovering from his injury.
As it has been for most of the season up to this point, there are three players in the starting lineup that will continue to play large roles for Utah: Rubio, Ingles and Favors. Now, it’s just about who will be the supporting cast alongside those three players.
The first player that jumps out is Hood, who is the current scoring leader among Jazz players. Without Gobert, Hood is Utah’s best offensive threat. Hood has the ability to allow the Jazz to run with a smaller lineup, if desired, being able to fluctuate from the shooting guard and small forward positions.
Another player who has and will continue to find his way into the rotation is rookie Donovan Mitchell, who has been very impressive this season and took over the starting job from Hood recently. Like Hood, he will allow the Jazz to play small ball until Gobert returns. We got a first glimpse of what Hood and Mitchell can do on the floor at the same time in Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team’s first game without Gobert.
Another thing we saw in Utah’s loss to the Wolves is that it will be a team effort for the Jazz to try and fill the hole Gobert currently leaves on the team. Jonas Jerebko, who is averaging a career-low 10.9 minutes a game this season, made his first start of the season on Monday. Players such as Thabo Sefolosha and Raul Neto have also seen their roles expand since Gobert has gone down, like Jerebko.
Next: 2017-18 Week 5 NBA Power Rankings
The rough patch in the season that Utah is currently experiencing seems to only be starting in Salt Lake City. At this point, the Jazz can really only hope that Gobert comes back sooner rather than later.