NBA Trades: Pros and cons of a potential Rudy Gobert-Chicago Bulls trade

Cons for the Chicago Bulls potentially trading for Rudy Gobert, cont.

Even on the defensive end, Gobert has his limits. While seeing him switched onto a guard doesn’t create the sort of panic situation that it would with Vučević, teams would far prefer him engaging with a guard on the perimeter instead of patrolling the paint and waiting for layups to arrive.

This is more of an issue in the playoffs when teams lean more on switchable lineups (with some exceptions) or scheme Gobert off the floor by stashing a shooter in the area where he zones up (see: the Jazz’s first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks).

When fans and talking heads ask whether Gobert can serve as an effective cog on a championship team, these are the concerns that they have, and joining the Bulls won’t make those questions go away. If anything, the big market environment would intensify the scrutiny.

Some of that criticism does ignore that, again, Gobert had to make up for Utah having Royce O’Neale(?) and a bunch of traffic cones to work with on defense, but his restrictions as a defender gives teams like that less room for mistakes. That minuscule difference could determine whether a team makes the conference finals, at least, or fails to get to the semifinals.