Rudy Gobert
It’s been a disappointing season for Rudy Gobert, to be sure. One year removed from earning All-NBA Second Team and All-NBA Defensive First Team honors, the prolific center hasn’t had much of a chance to prove himself in 2017-18. He’s dealing with his second knee injury, both of which came off of what can only be described as freak accidents. When he has been on the floor, he’s struggled to develop chemistry with Ricky Rubio or the rest of his Jazz teammates.
Of course, part of that has to do with how little time he’s had to play with them to develop a rhythm. Both times that it appeared Rudy was starting to get in a groove, he fell victim to a fresh injury. Those woes are clearly the reason for his downturn in production and worsened stats from last season.
Even so, Rudy Gobert is still an elite talent who just so happens to be on a pretty reasonable contract considering that Utah extended him before he broke out and turned into what many would consider a max player. With that being the case, he’s without a doubt one of, if not the most valuable player Utah has, and they could certainly net a nice return if they were to trade him.
Obviously, though, such an idea isn’t even in the cards. The Stifle Tower has expressed nothing but loyalty to the Jazz and the Jazz have expressed nothing but loyalty back to him. Despite some struggles this season, Gobert has proven himself as a top-tier talent in the league and there’s simply no reasonable way that Utah would look to trade him. He’s their man at the five-spot and there’s no one they would even think of replacing him with.
With that being said, while plenty of teams might be willing to trade an awful lot for Rudy, he’s even more valuable to the Jazz. For all intents and purposes, he should be considered off limits and is without a doubt in Utah to stay.
Verdict: Untouchable