For a long time Utah Jazz fans have been hoping for the next star on the Jazz.

No, I’m not talking about this ....

Or this...

But this...

That right there is a star, my friends.

Don’t be fooled that ESPN’s #NBArank had Derrick Favors at 39, Gordon Hayward at 34 (somewhere Steven A. Smith just bellowed “PREPOSTEROUS!”) and Rudy Gobert at 37.

Those are the easy places to rank our players. But, you know what, we all know that our guys are better than that. We watch them every game. We see them win time and time again when healthy.

Here are the reasons Rudy Gobert is a star in this league.

ONE: The stats show it!

Well, the advanced ones do, even though Rudy’s basic stats are nothing to scoff at. They’d be better if the officials weren’t doing everything they could to lower his minutes.

Here’s Rudy’s regular stats (these are the ones that national TV people MAYYYYYBE glance at if they remember the Jazz are a team that exists in the NBA.)

Definitely nothing to scoff at, but if you’re only looking at those numbers you wouldn’t immediately think all star.

But when you look at some of the advanced statistics, (or algorithms as our beloved Matt Harpring so horribly puts it), it’s eye opening.

With Rudy on the court the team has an offensive rating of 114.2 and with him off it’s a 98.4, per basketball reference. League average this season for teams is a 105.7!

“But I thought Rudy was a bad offensiv....”

The offense flows with Rudy on the court because he’s a willing and able passer. He’s setting solid screens and rolling strong to the hoop. He’s also finishing with a field goal percentage up to 62%.

He’s also adding a dribble drive game that is forcing players to be honest with him when he gets the ball at the top of the key. Watch him take the ball and finish at the rim here.

These are the things that make a portly troll like myself smile.

And when you look at the defense you see that teams currently have an offensive rating of 106.6 with Rudy on the court. I mean, that’s really offensive... I’m sorry.

That means with Rudy on the court, Jazz starters are getting 7.6 more points per 100 possessions. There’s a big reason we built leads with our starters last year, and this year. And that brings us to our next point...

Two: Rudy wins!

Rudy’s career winning percentage as a starter is 54 and 52. He’s been there when things were bad and he’s going to be here when things are good. This may be an oversimplified stat, but it can’t be ignored that Rudy was here at the end of the Corbin years and he played a lot of games with Trey Burke (sorry Amar). He also won us a lot of games last year when Dante went down and our starting point guard was the two headed monster of Raul Neto and Shelvin Mack!

Rudy is a winner.

Three: His personality is fantastic.

Are you following Rudy on Twitter? The guy is a must follow. Seriously, if you don’t have twitter, go sign up. Last year when Rudy got dunked on by DeMar DeRozan (we will not show the clip because it is offensive to me and not appropriate) Rudy quipped about that one stop he didn’t get...

A random fan came at Rudy on Twitter...

This was a no-no done by this gentleman known as deebo. Deebo obviously did not know that Rudy destroys shots on Twitter just like actual shots at the rim...

The internet blew up. I literally screamed out loud. The imagery was perfection.

This recent ad from Vivint Smart Home with Rudy was also a really fun look at his personality. My dad was a college professor that taught theatre. I’ve seen performances that were cringe worthy. Rudy was the opposite. He’s actually really good. I really want to see more from him, especially national stuff. Get Rudy more checks!

Finally, the last reason.

4. He does sweet dunks!

We will end with this malicious destruction against the Mavericks.