Nearing the end of the NBA regular season, the Utah Jazz are jockeying for a strong playoff seed out West. Rudy Gobert, however, continues to struggle.
Something’s not quite right with the Utah Jazz’s star center, Rudy Gobert …
I can’t be the only one who sees it, right?
Monday night’s brawl (if you want to call it that) with the Toronto Raptors’ OG Anunoby was a microcosm of sorts for the way Gobert has carried himself on the court these past few weeks.
Here is video that the officials watched and decided to eject BOTH Rudy Gobert and OG Anunoby. Anunoby throws his elbow at Rudy's chin. I don't see what Rudy did to deserve an ejection. #NBA #NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/e7F2Hs4Bh8
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JeremiahJensen) March 10, 2020
Even after he and the rest of his teammates had hit the showers, his frustration with the team, his performance and most certainly the officials was on full display for Jazz fans everywhere:
Rudy Gobert: “(OG Anunoby) tried to elbow me in the face. And the guy who’s getting paid to protect the players didn’t do his job. We both got ejected when I didn’t do anything back, which I don’t understand. Next time I’ll do justice myself so (they) can eject me for a reason.” pic.twitter.com/pk3cLGSapy
— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) March 10, 2020
The Utah Jazz lost to the Raptors 101-92 in a game that nearly granted them their sixth consecutive win. To blame Gobert for the loss would be inaccurate, though. Excluding Mike Conley (+7), the plus-minus values put up by the rest of the Jazz’s starters were disappointing, to say the least …
- Royce O’Neale: -21
- Donovan Mitchell: -30
- Bojan Bogdanović: -23
Gobert didn’t do much better, unfortunately.
By the time the final whistle sounded, head hanging low, he made a beeline for the home team’s locker room with an underwhelming six points, four rebounds and a goose egg in the assists column — good enough for a -22 on the night through 31 minutes and 30 seconds of “impassioned” play.
I get the zero assists — the “big fella” (thanks, Craig Bolerjack) only averages 1.5 of ‘em per contest. The real letdown, however, came in the form of the aforementioned four boards.
O’Neale led all Jazzmen in this one with seven rebounds — all of which came on the defensive end. To put things in perspective, Gobert has a Herculean seven inches on the undrafted small forward, but who was it that came in with the second-most boards when all was said and done?
Mike “Six-Foot-Freaking-One” Conley.
Look, if this were merely a one-game issue, I’d be the first to look the other way, but that’s not been the case. On the year, Gobert averages 15.1 points per game. In four of his last seven starts, though, he’s failed to reach double-digit scoring. On top of that, during that same seven-game span, Gobert’s only met or surpassed his season average in rebounds (13) in a single game …
Against none other than the miserable New York Knicks, of course.
Rebounding isn’t rocket science; it’s an exercise in effort.
Getting beyond the confines of a two-week period, Gobert is still trending in the wrong direction. From January to March, Gobert’s points, rebounds and usage rate have all taken a nosedive:
The theories behind Gobert’s sudden decline are many — and entirely speculative: poor team chemistry, NBA Twitter’s slander, the potential for a supermax or simply being French.
One thing is for certain, though: with four of the Utah Jazz’s next five games against Western Conference playoff teams, Gobert needs to snap out of it — and quick.