Only 12 months ago, Rudy Gobert was in the midst of his worst season since 2015-16. His points per game had plummeted. His rebound rate and block percentages had tanked. Nearly everything that had made Gobert a force in the NBA had appeared to be regressing, forcing Minnesota Timberwolves fans to address Gobert as two different people. There was the current iteration of Gobert and “Utah Rudy,” referring back to his days of dominance before the trade.
But Gobert is putting together an All-Star season this year. Gobert is having a Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) caliber season for the Wolves while simultaneously finding a role in Minnesota’s coverages. He should finish the year with his fourth All-Star appearance and fourth DPOY award.
Gobert may never return to the player he was at his peak in Utah. Still, Gobert’s raw statistics have improved in key areas on defense.
- His blocks per game have jumped from 1.4 in 2022-23 to 2.3 in 2023-24.
- His plus-minus has skyrocketed from a -0.1 in 2022-23 to a +5.9 in 2023-24.
- His fouls per game have decreased by 0.1, while his rebounds have increased by 0.5.
Gobert’s statistics indicate he’s returning to form.
But we can’t measure Gobert’s impact with statistics alone. Anyone who has watched the Wolves this season has seen how much more dominant Gobert has been using his length and size to affect almost every shot at the rim. Advanced analytics can show more of the story, helping his statistical impact meet the eye test.
Opponents are shooting 42.6% against Gobert, an improvement from 47.3% the season before. More impressively, Gobert holds opponents to 30% from three and 36.2% on shots greater than 15 feet. That indicates that the narrative that opponents can beat Gobert by stretching the floor and shooting mid-range jumpers isn’t entirely valid. In the clip below, Gobert closes out on Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo after a screen to force a contested jump shot at the free throw line.
We shouldn’t take Gobert’s defensive return to glory for granted. Gobert, 30, has played 23,115 career minutes (including playoffs) and has adapted to a Wolves defensive scheme, which requires him to be significantly more aggressive. Therefore, he has to shut down a lot more of the mid-range shots.
In most defensive sets, Gobert plays a traditional drop center at first. When defending a pick-and-roll, Gobert will “drop” and slide back to the paint to protect the rim. Typically, that has opened Gobert to opposing guards coming off the screen and taking open pull-up two-point shots. The theory of forcing a player to shoot a pull-up two is sound because pull-up twos are the least efficient shot in basketball. But in the past, players often lit up Utah’s Gobert-led defense in the playoffs when the competition gets tougher.
Below is Gobert performing a typical drop defense against the Lakers:
But Gobert has adapted to a new scheme in 2023-24, where he performs the drop technique against poor shooters. However, he deploys almost a hybrid of the drop against good mid-range shooters. In this year’s scheme, Gobert drops as he typically does to cut off the roll, but then he accelerates into the gap between the ball handler and rollman.
That often causes confusion because teams aren’t used to Gobert being so far up. Or, in many cases, it simply results in Gobert stealing the ball. That has resulted in Gobert having 21 steals so far this season. More importantly, it’s given the Wolves another option against the pick-and-roll. That little wrinkle has been nice to see when a team sees Gobert doing the traditional drop coverage so often.
Below is an example of this drop where Gobert surges on the gap between the ball handler and the roll man to get the steal and transition dunk:
Gobert’s willingness to hedge on screens is another change in his defense this season, meaning Gobert will follow the ball-handler on a pick-and-roll. Typically, that has created a mismatch. Gobert often has to guard the opposing ball-handler while a smaller Wolves guard maches up against an opposing center.
But this season, Gobert has proven that he’s more than adequate at guarding a smaller ball-handler. Gobert can drop far enough to prevent opponents from driving by him, using his size and length to bother shots and pull-ups. Below is an example of Gobert shading Tyrese Maxey in on the screen. Gobert drops toward the hoop to prevent Maxey from blowing by him, but Gobert stays close enough to the basket to take away the shot. Ultimately, it ends in a contested layup for Maxey.
Occasionally, Gobert’s lack of adaptability had been a knock on Utah. But Gobert shows that this shortcoming may have been one of the few “Utah Rudy” problems he and the Wolves have solved. With Gobert anchoring the top-ranked defense, the Wolves have climbed to the top seed of the Western Conference with championship potential.
Rudy Gobert has proven he is a defensive force and deserves another Defensive Player of the Year award. Perhaps Gobert says it best below. And like most things with the Wolves, Anthony Edwards also chimes in.
