Only a few days into the 2026 NBA Playoffs, and there's a fair case to be made that former Utah Jazz cornerstone Rudy Gobert is the player everyone's talked about the most. And why wouldn't he? Not only are the Minnesota Timberwolves up in their series, but at the center of their success has been Gobert locking up Nikola Jokic.
Gobert has effectively flipped the always-stupid narrative that he could be played off the floor for some time now, since the Timberwolves traded for him back in 2022. And his play proved why the Jazz capitalized on the value as much as they possibly could.
If it wasn't for the fact that starting over was the Jazz's clear-as-day best option four years ago, Gobert would still be on the team. And since leaving, he is not only still one of the league's best defenders, but has further cemented his legacy as one of the best defenders the league has ever seen.
The Timberwolves traded for him believing that he would vault them up, and he's done exactly that. That's why trading a player like that meant getting the most value possible for him, and that's exactly what the Jazz did when the chance presented itself.
Jazz's return for Gobert has made it a pretty even deal
Almost four years after the deal, it's become inarguable that Utah got the most value they could have gotten for Gobert.
The Jazz have gotten their hands on Walker Kessler and Keyonte George directly. The deal indirectly led to the brilliant (and underrated) Suns trade, which also factored into the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade one year later.
Will any of these players rise up to the level of player Gobert has been and still is? Likely no, but that rarely happens anyway. When trading someone who will inevitably make the Hall of Fame, you can't anticipate that. You can only hope not to get completely ripped off. It's clear that the Jazz have avoided that.
In fact, teams have gotten pennies on the dollar for their superstar in similar predicaments, and often because they waited too long to pull the plug.
Not the Jazz, though. They did not ignore the elephant in the room, took swift action, and it has played a part in why the team now has the most hope they've had in quite some time. They basically did what the Milwaukee Bucks want to do with Giannis Antetokounmpo, but they can't at this point.
In a way, it stinks that Gobert couldn't have played his entire prime as a Jazzman, but it's pretty easy to be happy for him when there haven't been too many players in this current generation who have gotten more unfair criticism than him.
Plus, at the end of the day, the parting of the ways, this was one of those rare occasions where a parting of the ways was mutually beneficial.
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