Utah Jazz Downbeat #2055: DPOY Rudy Gobert is on a mission

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all my green Utah Jazz fans out there! Amar’s not fully dead yet (sorry for the lack of everything). Enjoy the downbeat!

Behold: Peak 90s!

Stockton’s talents would be much more appreciated today than it was in the 80s and 90s, methinks. #AdvancedStats

Diana wrote about the 20th anniversary reunion for the 1997 NBA Finals teams that’s happening when the Jazz host the New York Knicks next Wednesday. I really hope that Jeff Hornacek is going to be there. (Though, the rumors suggest that P-Jax seems to be disinclined to fire him in the next few days.) I also bring up the anniversary because of this great news:

So I think we now know the run-up to booking the Malones is over a year. Keep that in mind for birthday parties.

This is a really cool stat that Jake from SB Nation brother site Bullets Forever found out:

Of course, Gordon Hayward isn’t doing this on purpose - I think he is more of an intrinsic motivation guy, and not an extrinsic guy. After all, the 2010 NBA Draft was filled with talent and stuff, so G-Time going 9th isn’t the end of the world. Who’s a guy who is an extrinsic motivation guy? None other than Rudy Gobert, who went 27th in the 2013 NBA Draft.

Gobert made his damn NUMBER 27 as a result.

Did he have anything for the teams that passed on him (in some cases twice)? Here is each team that passed on him, one of his best games (PTS, REB, AST, STL, BLK) against them, and his career numbers for blocks against them.

• CLE (1, 19) - 20 / 19 / 1 / 2 / 2 [7 blocks, 7 games]
• ORL (2) - 19 / 19 / 2 / 0 / 2 [7 blocks, 4 games]
• WAS (3) - 15 / 19 / 3 / 1 / 4 [13 blocks, 5 games]
• CHA (4, 20) - 14 / 14 / 5 / 1 / 2 [14 blocks, 6 games]
• PHX (5) - 18 / 17 / 1 / 1 / 4 [23 blocks, 11 games]
• NOH (6) - 15 / 16 / 3 / 2 / 2 [19 blocks, 8 games]
• SAC (7) - 16 / 23 / 3 / 1 / 3 [22 blocks, 12 games]
• DET (8) - 17 / 17 / 1 / 1 / 1 [9 blocks, 7 games]
• MIN (9, 26) - 18 / 17 / 1 / 1 / 6 [44 blocks, 14 games]
• POR (10) - 12 / 14 / 2 / 0 / 2 [30 blocks, 12 games]
• PHI (11) - 9 / 15 / 0 / 2 / 1 [16 blocks, 6 games]
• OKC (12) - 13 / 15 / 1 / 3 / 4 [27 blocks, 12 games]
• DAL (13) - 27 / 25 / 1 / 1 / 2 [22 blocks, 12 games]
• UTA (14, 21) - He would have dominated us.
• MIL (15) - 26 / 15 / 1 / 1 / 1 [17 blocks, 7 games]
• BOS (16) - 11 / 15 / 2 / 0 / 4 [14 blocks, 7 games]
• ATL (17, 18) - 11 / 11 / 3 / 2 / 3 [18 blocks, 6 games]
• CHI (20) - 16 / 13 / 1 / 0 / 3 [13 blocks, 7 games]
• BKN (22) - 12 / 19 / 0 / 1 / 6 [19 blocks, 8 games]
• IND (23) - 19 / 11 / 0 / 0 / 1 [8 blocks, 6 games]
• NYK (24) - 10 / 14 / 1 / 3 / 4 [12 blocks, 6 games]
• LAC (25) - 11 / 13 / 2 / 1 / 0 [11 blocks, 11 games]

So 21 of the 29 teams passed on Gobert (30 if you include the Jazz). And he has hurt all of them.

Also, yeah, you should have read this Gobert piece by now by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon by now.

Why is Gobert great? It’s honestly because of his motivation. And that’s something you don’t know about a player unless you talk to him. Seeing his games, looking at his stats, these all give pieces to the puzzle. Seeing his work ethic up close at the combine (years ago) and his mentality to try to destroy every opponent really made me a fan of his. MyLo talked with him and got to see his inner fire and confidence.

Rudy could have been just a tall guy who made his money. That’s not what Rudy wants. Rudy wants to be the best he can be. He seems to be driven by extrinsic motivation, which is what keeps him in the gym and working hard. It’s Karl Malone-like in that regard.

More please!

We really can’t talk so much about Gobert without brining it back to the Alpha / Omega of great Jazz centers: Mark Eaton. Mark posted this yesterday:

...and this the day before:

Everyone loves Jerry!