Will this be the year Rudy Gobert makes a three-pointer?

The Utah Jazz finished up their pre-season last night with a win over the Milwaukee Bucks. They shift their focus now to their season opener next Wednesday in Salt Lake against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With the season starting in 6 days, there are a couple question surrounding this Jazz team. Are they good enough to win a championship? Did they add enough depth in the offseason? Can they now actually get stops in the post-season? The more important question though, that remains looming over the head of every single jazz fan, is whether or not Rudy Gobert will make a three-pointer this season. This is BY FAR the most important thing that can happen for the Jazz this season. Way more important that All-Star appearances, accolades, or even an NBA championship. People will soon forget about championships, rings and trophies. But Rudy Gobert making a three-pointer is something that you will simply never forget.

If you couldn’t tell, there might have been some slight sarcasm in there. Just little bit. But humor me for just a second. EVERYONE WANTS TO SEE RUDY MAKE A THREE, RIGHT? RIGHT??

This stat posted yesterday just hasn’t sat well with me since I saw it. First of all, when in the world has Rudy attempted 7 three-pointers? I can’t remember a single legitimate attempted, these have got to be all heaves. Second, I was a little surprised to see how many big men there are in the league that have never made a three. Between Gobert, Ed Davis, Clint Capela, and Mitchell Robinson, that’s 1,791 games and 11,172 field goal attempts without a made three-pointer. You would have thought that one of them would have gotten lucky once, but even between those four there’s only been 13 attempts.

I’m thinking this might be the year that we see a glorious three-pointer made by Rudy Gobert. Rudy has shown some definite improvement over the years in his jump-shot. Even last night he showed a nice little flash of his improved stroke.

Like, this is a good shot! The rhythm, release, follow-though - it’s all there. Ends in a clean swoosh. Looking at the numbers over the years you probably want to say that’s a bad shot for him to take. But if Rudy can start hitting that shot a little more frequently, it absolutely makes his offense threat that much bigger. Over the years of his career, it definitely is not a shot that he has hit consistently, but not attempted very much either.

He’s shown in practice, and recently at training camp that he has extended range in his bag.

It’s a completely different task to shoot a three in an open gym vs an actual live NBA game, we all know that - especially for someone that has never made a three. But the ability is definitely there, at least for one shot lol. Opportunity is going to be the biggest obstacle for this amazing feat to finally come to pass. Quin Snyder, who helped the Jazz become the best three-point shooting team in NBA history last season, is the guy you want as coach to help Rudy hit a three right? Maybe not. Because Rudy shooting a three definitely is not something that they are trying to fit in the scheme based on past success, Quin would probably not be happy with him pulling up from deep. The situation is going to have to be perfect in order for this to happen. Third quarter of a 25+ point game or something like that, with the home crowd egging on Rudy to let it fly. This is going to be a group effort for sure, and might take every single one of us to chip in in some form or another. This might not matter to a lot of you, but I know that on that great and glorious day when Rudy hits his first three-point shot, I’m going to be celebrating like there’s no tomorrow.