Utah Jazz: Is Rudy Gobert the best center in franchise history?

The margin between Okur and Jefferson is admittedly narrow. Okur’s best season with the Utah Jazz according to pure counting stats is actually slightly less impressive than Jefferson’s best, as the Turkish big man averaged 18.0 points and 9.1 rebounds for the Jazzmen in 2005-06.

Okur gets the nod over Big Al Jefferson due to the way he achieved those stats. If Jefferson was a throwback, Okur was a visionary.

He shot 37.5% from three-point range over the course of his NBA career, on 2.5 attempts per game. His best three-point shooting season came in 2008-09, when he shot a blistering 44.6% on 2.8 attempts per contest. Without question, any modern NBA coach would have doubled, if not tripled, his volume.

Defensively, Okur was fairly comparable to Jefferson, posting Defensive Ratings that ranged between 104 and 108 for the duration of his prime with the Utah Jazz. Unlike Jefferson, however, Okur seemed to enjoy playing in Salt Lake City, which earns him some subjective points in these rankings. After all, he spent 7 of his 10 NBA seasons there.

Thought experiment: imagine each of the former Utah Jazz big men in the modern NBA. Jefferson, with his lack of offensive and defensive versatility, would likely be relegated to the bench and forced to play a similar role to fellow former Jazzman Enes Kanter. Like Jefferson before him, Kanter is a handful for any defender on the low block. However, his defensive deficiencies and lack of floor-spacing combined outweigh that benefit, as the game has moved away from low post scoring.

Throw Mehmet Okur into the modern NBA, and his floor-spacing could juice a quality NBA offense. Pair him with a defensive-minded power forward, and it’s not hard to imagine him earning starter minutes in 2021.

Without the benefit of time travel, we can only name Mehmet Okur the third best center in Utah Jazz history.