Utah Jazz: One thing each starter needs to improve in 2019-20
Rudy Gobert – Offensive Repertoire
While any sort of improvement from a player is always welcome, considering that Rudy Gobert has already won back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year Awards, we already know that he brings a steady and staunch defense to the table. Offensively, he’s also far more valuable than he often gets credit for considering that he’s an exceptional screener, is dynamic as he dives to the rim as the roll-man in the pick-and-roll, and just set the NBA season dunk record last year.
Even with all that, though, there’s no questioning that Rudy Gobert needs to expand his offensive repertoire slightly to continue to be ever more dangerous and effective. Now, when I say this, I’m not insinuating that Gobert needs to add a lengthy jump shot or a three-point stroke, such as what we saw in a video posted by French teammate Nicolas Batum that momentarily set Twitter abuzz. But he does need to have a little more of a go-to move.
Outside of dunking the basketball (which obviously is a high-efficiency look, something Rudy is great at, and something he needs to continue doing) and I suppose tip-ins, there isn’t a lot of confidence in what Gobert can do from a scoring standpoint with the ball in his hands. Rudy doesn’t necessarily need a jumper, but if he’s able to develop some semblance of a push shot or a little finger-roll off the glass that he can use when defended in the post, it could work wonders for his game.
This would especially be useful for when Gobert is covered by a smaller defender. Too frequently we’ve seen him pushed around by shorter, but strong defenders and he’s been forced to pass the ball back out. However, if he can instead leverage his height, back the defender in and get a nice soft touch over the top of them, it could very well eliminate some of those matchup weaknesses and make Rudy an absolute nightmare to deal with.
Often when he has the ball in his hands on the block and doesn’t have a way to get in for a power dunk, we’ve seen him chuck an awkward shot at the basket, or attempt to create a shot in a different manner, such as with a Euro-step, that has rarely panned out. Gobert doesn’t need to become the next Brook Lopez out there, but if he’s able to add one or two more little options to his offensive repertoire just to keep the defense honest, he’ll make himself an even more potent force for the Jazz.
Just as the team aimed to patch up its weaknesses by adding shooting in Bogdanovic and another dynamic creator in Conley (both of which in term will help the Jazz’s spacing which was another area of concern last season), Gobert needs to patch up his own personal weakness of having a limited offensive repertoire down low by adding a couple extra moves that will yet again increase the attention he commands in the paint and the room his teammates have to operate.
Next. Utah Jazz: Tape of Rudy Gobert draining 3s likely much ado about nothing. dark
Even if the Jazz field a starting lineup where guys play at the exact level at which they performed a season ago, they’re going to be a very good team capable of competing with anybody in the Western Conference. However, if they’re able to take these leaps that I’ve indicated and truly improve even further than what we saw in 2018-19, then we could very realistically have a championship contender on our hands for the upcoming year.