Rudy Gobert changed the Utah Jazz franchise

Rudy Gobert’s emergence as the NBA’s best defender has been a franchise changer for the Utah Jazz. After the trade of then-star Deron Williams, the Jazz entered a period of kind of rebuilding and kind of not. They didn’t do well at either until drafting and developing Rudy Gobert. Here’s a couple tweets to show you what I mean.

Rudy Gobert has been the single most important factor for Jazz wins for a few years now. When he plays, the defense is elite. When the defense is elite, the Jazz have a chance to win just about any night they take the floor.

Give Rudy those all star votes he deserves. Every. Day. You. Can.

Mike Krzyzewskie, Quin Snyder’s coach and mentor, had a lot of kind words to say about Snyder and his achievement of 200 career wins. Eric Woodyward from the Deseret News wrote up a nice article on the milestone:

“I’m so very proud of Quin. He loves the game and he thinks the game and he’s brilliant. He’s brilliant, on and off the court,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s one of the top scholar athletes here at Duke University.

“As my point guard, he handled my team so well then as an assistant, I knew right away that this guy was destined to be an outstanding head coach,” he continued. “I think his work really when he was in the D League helped him a lot, where he was with the Spurs affiliate and was able to share ideas with (San Antonio Spurs) coach Gregg Popovich and his staff, and what he’s done in Utah has been phenomenal. I admire what he’s done and love what he’s doing.”

As always, we’ve got some Fan Posts to highlight here in beat number 3.

rscheider23 shows us how the Jazz players are doing in one important statistic:

if I had to choose one single statistic to get a sense of how players are performing, RPM is what I’d use.

Here’s the data:

cchappell18 believes the Jazz should large Malcom Brogdon:

There are many players out there who could be helpful for the Jazz. I have made a couple of fanposts about some potential targets for both trade and free agency. I have to credit Jordan Cummings for mentioning Brogdon and making me think of him. After a very quick search of his stats, it is very very clear why we should want him.

SLAM recently had a Jazz-relevant poll that I thought was pretty fun, so I thought I would share it here.

They wanted to know who had the best nickname in the league. I’m curious to hear your thoughts. From The Mailman, to AK-47, now to Spida and The Stifle Tower. What are the best player nicknames in Utah Jazz history?

Aaron Falk put together a nice piece about a lifelong Jazz fan who recently passed away. As a season ticket holder since 1993, she collected a LOT of memorabilia over the years. She decided to will that memorabilia off for charity. For the full story click here.

Wootton’s love of basketball started in her home state of Kansas. She was a diehard Jayhawks fan. But when she moved to Utah in the 1980s, she fell in love with the Jazz.

“You would walk into her office and the walls would be plastered with signed posters,” Egbert said. “She had jerseys in shadow boxes in her house. It was everywhere.”

Wootton’s license plate read “IMJZZ”.

Pretty cool story and great gesture at the end of a fan’s life.

What’s your most prized Jazz memorabilia??? Mine is a John Stockton jersey that I rarely took off as a kid. After getting it signed and framed a few years ago, it became my best piece of Jazz fandom.