Rudy Gobert Debunks the Narrative That He Can't Guard the Perimeter 

As someone who also plays the 5 or the role of a defensive big, I understand the whole narrative of not handling the entire 'matchup' thing. At the end of the day, it's just about winning the game. Huge respect to bigs like Gobert, AD, and Wemby to name a few who have been translating their defensive game over to the perimeter as well. It's a rough job especially if we go against shiftier, quicker ballhandlers.

He is a 3 times DPOY, people think its easy to protect the paint when you are a 7'2 ft. It is nice to see real pro and NBA staff knows how valuable Rudy is. Because random people who only see highlights speak a lot but they never play basketball.

DPOY for a reason! I can definitely see how Rudy has improved as defender in course of years.

I think this is the first time I've heard "defensive philosophy" explained precisely this way.

The truth is 99.9% of every center in NBA history would be a liability to defend on the perimeter in today's game with today's spacing. Almost every center before the 2010's would be completely lost because they were never asked to consistently guard something like a high pick and roll or a five out offense. Their job was just a lot simpler and in all honesty, playing defense before the Warriors kicked three point shooting in high gear was just way simpler. Rudy is among that .1% that is a good perimeter defender in this league's history as a center, it is just the fact that he had really poor perimeter defense when he started becoming great and that led to flawed narratives being made about his perimeter defense skills. Also Quin's defensive system basically made Rudy the scapegoat (unintentionally) because it made him look like we wasn't stepping up to defend Mann and he was just getting cooked by Harden but in reality that was just Rudy playing the scheme. Rudy is easily on of the two or three best perimeter defending centers in the league alongside Bam and AD.

Great insight.

The people who think Rudy can't guard the perimeter are the same people who are stuck on the narrative that he can't because he got "exposed" in Utah. Crazy how much easier it is to guard a guy outside the arc when all 4 of your teammates are actually playing average defense.

DPOY without a doubt

He’s gotten better to me the biggest issue was mobility vs the P&R. Defensively the big has to be fast enough to help threaten the ball handlers shooting while also get back down under the rolling man. If not the corner defender has to rotate & be able to rim protect which leaves the corner shooter open. My friends & I call it the domino effect being now guys are rotating like crazy to defend & someone keeps getting open.

Rudy has won DPOY for a reason. He understands defense and knows sometimes it's not about guarding the best guy but being the best defender to stop the other team. What's the point of guarding the best player if you get two fouls early in the game and have to be subbed out?

Anyone with a brain knew this. The year Marcus Smart was given a DPOY, Rudy was the best defender in basketball. He had guarded the most 2s and 3s of anyone in the NBA while allowing the fewest makes. Not just lowest percentage, fewest total makes from 2 and 3. The man is the defensive GOAT and anyone is objectively wrong. The only argument against Rudy Gobert is "I just don't like Rudy Gobert."

Brother... I've got 47

Defense isn’t about 5 1v1 matchups. Comment section is filled with “But Rudy got cooked by player X”. Did anyone even watch the video? 😂 Rudy is far and away the reason why TWolves defense is #1 in the league by a lot.

I get what he’s saying. And I’m sure people have a bunch of stats they can show me to prove he’s a good perimeter defender. All I know is that every year there comes a point in the playoffs where I’m repeatedly watching Gobert get torched on the perimeter

Three time Defensive Player Of The Year and about to be DPOY four times. Sometimes, I think people hate him just because he's French.

The whole 'new media' thing with players doing podcasts and such is great for challenging some of the uneducated narratives of standard media and nba twitter. It's bad elements are shown right here though, players dont like to talk down to nor alienate their fellow players so they dont push back nearly enough. Hype up the players they interview even when they say things that are false at worst or very debatable at best. Some push back on this would've been nice.

For sure narratives are made with repetitive clips and laughing and a narrative has taken on a life of its own around Rudy. He's not a bust at all.

He also said he could lock up prime Shaq.

He said he doesn’t like going 1 on 1 anymore it’s more of a team game😭😭 “brother I have 47”

Gobert is not lacking in confidence. I do think the Minnesota vs Denver winner will be the team to emerge from the West and will be very difficult for the EC champion.

Being comfortable and being able to not get cooked in pick n roll is 2 diy things my guy you can guard anyone on the perimeter

The proof is always in the play, not the talk!

Watching him play the Clippers in 2021, he wasn't good defensively but also Reggie and Pat Bev just were making all the shots But overall, he doesn't show up the same way in the playoffs and unless Ant got better defensely then he'll be making up for his mistakes and it'll be another playoff exit

He's comfortable in gardening Joker 😂 I got 41Bro lol😅

we remember the terance mann playoff game buddy

Playoffs will tells as they normally do

It’s not that he can’t guard the perimeter he just cheats on defense too much & is always roaming back down to the paint which leaves his man space to shoot a 3

Rudy has improved and is no longer the liability they think he is on the perimeter...

cannot guard the corner 3 in the playoffs, legit a liability.

Tim Duncan was never a DPOY despite being the best at contesting the shot and getting the rebound. The voters make their own rules when it comes to dpoy. I think wemby should get the DPOY because teams avoid coming to Wembys side of the floor completely knowing that the Spurs have the worse defense in the league when Wemby isnt their other players arent going to challenge shots. Teams avoid Wemby side of the floor & despite teams avoiding that Wemby still has almost 100 more block and almost 50 more steals. Its also harder to shoot over Wemby legth and the Timberwolves have 2 defensive all stars in the West who are some of the best defenders in their position in Edwards and Karl which creates more missed shots allowing Gobert to get more rebounds. Despite this Gobert isnt leading the league in rebound like wemby is leading the lead in blocks and i imagine its harder to adjust a shot against Wemby then it is against Rudy.

What “myth” Rudy did not guard the perimeter in his Utah days that isn’t something people made up. It could have been scheme, it could have been his teammates being awful and him having to back them but he didn’t do it. Now with the Wolves he’s been getting out there a lot more. This is definitely by design because you have two 7 footers to protect the rim now although KAT isn’t the greatest back line defender.

Both Rudy and Wemby deserve DPOY.

Of course he‘s comfortable guarding perimeter players. They‘re comfortable too.

If that was true he wouldnt get played off the floor in the playoffs.

Jamal Murray in his title run had NINE games with at least 25PPG\50% FG Kobe during 2001\2002 title runs: Three games with 25PPG\50% FG Kobe during 2009\2010 title runs: Five and Six games with 25PPG\50%FG Only thing Kobe was better at was forcing himself on woman. The "LA" hype. Murray continues to expose Fraudbe

Judy Gobert has grown so much, psychologically. Love to see it.

I look at Gobert DPOYs the same way I look at Nash’s MVP it there are some defenders that never won it I’d take over Gobert if you wanna glaze his advanced stats go ahead it doesn’t matter advanced stats could say Isiah Thomas was average at best but doesn’t mean it’s true. A guy like CP3 advanced stats could say he’s the best PG of all time.

“brother, i got 39” -joker

Dwight Howard was a big that could guard both the paint & the perimeter Gobert is not that. Clippers beat Utah solely off going small & putting a stretch 5 in the corner Gobert couldn’t recover

With that height you should defend anybody but Alperen Sengun made a mockery of you in a game.

Wemby beat him 1 on 1 when he was a teenager😭

**Terrance Mann has entered the chat**

There are a bunch of current players screaming CAP LOL

Steph curry

Watching him guard Luka says he can't guard the perimeter.

Christian Braun has entered the chat

Remember what Curry did to him 🕺🏽

You got cooked by Chris Paul vs The Suns

He was absolutely garbage on the World Cup final, Hernagomez just got set shots. Massively overrated in the modern game.

This is the downside of the so-called new media particularly spearheaded by JJ. He always defends his guests and never calls them out. The greatest example is the Ben Simmons interview. These athletes already have huge Egos and JJ just making their heads bigger by saying nothing is wrong with them

Sure, he's comfortable guarding the perimeter, perimeter players are even more comfortable being guarded by Gobert though.

Gobert is so overrated - he's sluggish and plodding. AD is a significantly more versatile, athletic and thus better defender.

He ain’t guarding nobody out there 😂

Why is rudy lying? Bro couldn’t be on the floor in the playoffs

He can't really guard Perimeter....there are a lot of stretch 4s and Shooting Bigs have taken. Advantage of

I mean he can’t. He gets cooked on the perimeter constantly. There’s a reason they run PnR so a guard can take him off the dribble. It’s not something to be upset over though. Guards do it to 90% of the bigs in the league

He can’t defend period. He can only protect the rim. That’s why he doesn’t guard Jokic Embid etc, he “guards” a non shooter and floats towards the rim. Excellent Rim protector, poor defender.

NObody believes this. THis guy plays drop coverage 85% of the time I'd guess-like most big men in the NBA. Teams HUNT GObrt in the pick and roll.

please Gobert; then why Jazz lost to Mavs? you were to lazy to guard the perimeter and left whomever you were guarding to score on you? they weren't even ball handlers so what's your point? Kleber scored plenty against you as you wondered to the restricted area leaving Kleber or whomever you were guarding; Kidd exposed you in the 2022 Playoffs... LMAO

rudy is overrated man sorry to say..

He literally cant guard the perimeter when it matters, just stop.

Cap