Utah Jazz: Three takeaways from crucial win against Wizards

Rudy Gobert frozen out of offense

For what seems like the fifth game in a row, the Jazz playmakers failed to get Rudy Gobert the ball inside for easy baskets. Gobert ended the night with only nine points and nine rebounds, and he made all four of his shot attempts.

A couple times early in the game Mike Conley and Don fed Rudy on a post-up, both of which ended with Rudy losing the ball. I was quick on Twitter to advocate that they shouldn’t let up with getting Gobert touches in the paint.

When an NBA team gets a new play maker, there is the expectation that it will take time for them to develop and play through their mistakes. They will make bad passes and commit frustrating turnovers and miss their wide open teammates.

We’ve exercised patience as we watched Ricky Rubio go through this process a couple years ago, and Mike Conley earlier this year.

My question is why does this patience have to be limited exclusively to perimeter players? Why can’t we give Gobert a break, and allow him chances to mess up and learn from his in-game mistakes?

According to my eye test, if the Jazz keep Gobert limited to only four shot attempts per game, then they are wasting a prime Dwight Howard-esque talent on the offensive end of the floor.

As soon as Rudy learns to catch the ball, and hold it high enough above his head, most NBA players won’t be able to reach it to knock it out of his hands. I’ve seen flashes where he’s confident enough to bang his way to within dunking range, or nimble enough to euro-step his way through the defense.

For tonight it didn’t really matter since the Jazz got the double digit win, and Gobert was still able to make a really huge impact on the defensive end of the floor with his four blocks and three steals.

But in the future, this is going to be a big problem unless the Jazz play makers can learn Rudy well enough to get him the ball on time and on target.