A few words about Gobert (n the media/common reaction) to his play this series..

[DasJazz]

Sorry but Rudy barely showed at all on the 3pt contests by that no name guy. A few early times I can understand cause you're guarding the pump fake and drive. But after he continued to show that he was going to keep chucking, you have to at least jump and contest some of these shots.

He never did, he just lightly hedged and the shooter knew he was half assing the defense and was no threat. The result was a near 40 point night by a guy who literally shouldn't have ever been on the floor.

 

[LogGrad98]

Nope... When a 7'2" guy making nearly max at 200 mill is a liability because he has zero offense and can be guarded by a turkey sandwich it's time he gets the clue. He's been here 8 years now and has not a single, not even one, offensive move. That's inexcusable for one of the highest paid guys in the league.

Edit and I agree with said poster above in how Rudy was not the problem on defense as I think the other 7-8 guys have become downright lazy and insanely soft on defense. They've gotten spoiled having Rudy back there making up for their inability to stay in front of prettymuch anybody. I don't fault him for his d, but his lack of being able to create anything on offense(outside of using his body for screens) is downright terrible.

Rudy wasn't the problem on offense either. The problem was they threw a zone at us that we were clueless to attack. Rudy provides gravity on drives that opens the drive and kick game. They took that away by running a zone that collapsed on the driver and rotated to cover Gobert, and Quin had not the foggiest clue what to do about it. That was the problem on offense, not Gobert. He was still completely the same lob threat he was in the regular season but they couldn't figure out how to get him the ball at all. That was a coaching failure.

 

[Jazzinho]

Rudy wasn't the problem on offense either. The problem was they threw a zone at us that we were clueless to attack. Rudy provides gravity on drives that opens the drive and kick game. They took that away by running a zone that collapsed on the driver and rotated to cover Gobert, and Quin had not the foggiest clue what to do about it. That was the problem on offense, not Gobert. He was still completely the same lob threat he was in the regular season but they couldn't figure out how to get him the ball at all. That was a coaching failure.

Coaching failure, yes, a big one. But the fact that Rudy has trouble exploiting mismatches even when he has a 5'9 guarding him doesn't help the coaches. He is too clumsy, terrible handling and no post up game. So he can't help the offense, except getting lobs or offensive rebounds, and that's not enough.
But yeah, it's mainly on the coach.
Zone/ Double team -> Pass-> Quick Drive -> Lob or pass to an wide open 3. They didn't do it because they didn't practice enough, they didn't practice enough because Quin is allergic to adjustments, and that makes him incompetent in playoffs.

 

[magic]

A lot of this is coaching failure too as Snyder specifically trained the team to tunnel defenders into Rudy instead of staying in front of their man. That **** doesn't work against a 3 point shooting team, much less the best 3 point shooting team (I believe Clippers shot the highest 3 point percentage as a team).

But they also chose to ISO Rudy out of all players on purpose and it was like automatic free points for them. We would have done better if Ben Simmons was our center.

 

[Stars Fan]

Lol at thinking Rudy could do this.

Thinking he could do it?, Nah, thinking he should be able to, hoping, praying, wishing he could, yeah. That's where I am.

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[homeytennis]

I'm really stunned at Quin's incompetence given his Duke pedigree and college coaching in the Big 12. Surely somewhere along the line the subject of how to attack a zone was discussed. I know Alex Jensen could write a thesis on the subject.

 

[fishonjazz]

A lot of this is coaching failure too as Snyder specifically trained the team to tunnel defenders into Rudy instead of staying in front of their man. That **** doesn't work against a 3 point shooting team, much less the best 3 point shooting team (I believe Clippers shot the highest 3 point percentage as a team).

But they also chose to ISO Rudy out of all players on purpose and it was like automatic free points for them. We would have done better if Ben Simmons was our center.

They didn't iso Rudy. They made Rudy have to come over and help prevent layups by iso ing Conley, Mitchell, bogey, Clarkson ...... Then after going iso against one of those guys, gobert would have to slide over to stop the layup and they would pass to the open man on the three point line.

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[Handlogten's Heros]

They didn't iso Rudy. They made Rudy have to come over and help prevent layups by iso ing Conley, Mitchell, bogey, Clarkson ...... Then after going iso against one of those guys, gobert would have to slide over to stop the layup and they would pass to the open man on the three point line.

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I need to go rewatch but I can’t bring myself to do it. I think part of the problem was not that these guys got to the rim and challenged but that Rudy was gonna rotate regardless and they threw passes when he shifted... he was just in no mans land it seemed... when they did get in the paint and he was in position he didn’t seem to bother them.

I just don’t know what the answer is... It seems like we can be a good defense if Rudy is in the paint... too many teams can pull him out of the paint in meaningful ways... he can’t punish them to the point they stop.

I am moving to the camp that thinks we just have to move him if we want ultimate playoff success.

 

[DasJazz]

I also meant to add, I get it's hard to stay mentally and physically locked in as is needed when you don't get the ball, which was also part of the LAC game plan and so that played a role in Rudy really only having 1 game where he dominated the boards (game 2 with 20 I believe).

Also feel the Jazz could've gotten Fav's the ball more (when not matched up against Zubac at least) and he will almost always catch the ball Favors is strong enough to finish but unselfish that he would force up garbage and may have kicked it to the open 3pt shooter.

Sorry but the couple hundred million we're paying him is predicated on him staying engaged and locked in.

 

[Ujfanatic]

If Rudy could just hold on to the ball, it would make a big difference in his offense. Strengthening his hands and improving his ability to catch the ball can be improved by practice. But apparently Rudy doesn't work on that or acknowledge this. Not only that but when they surround him under the basket, all he needs to do is use some force and go up with the ball and he will get the foul call. But instead he just stands there with the ball over his head and gets stripped.

This. I also wonder if the kickboxing and boxing training he does has negatively impacted his hands. I can’t imagine how hitting a punching bag is helping with dexterity.

 

[magic]

They didn't iso Rudy. They made Rudy have to come over and help prevent layups by iso ing Conley, Mitchell, bogey, Clarkson ...... Then after going iso against one of those guys, gobert would have to slide over to stop the layup and they would pass to the open man on the three point line.

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Reggie Jackson, Paul George, and Terrance Mann definitely ISOed Gobert on numerous occasions which lead to easy buckets or free throws in Games 4 & 5.

I'm not sure about game 6 since I didn't watch it, but the highlights seem to be combo of ****** perimeter defense by the other Jazz players (as you suggested) and Gobert helping out when he shouldn't have, which resulted in the person he was guarding having wide open shots (usually 3 pointers).

 

[fishonjazz]

I need to go rewatch but I can’t bring myself to do it. I think part of the problem was not that these guys got to the rim and challenged but that Rudy was gonna rotate regardless and they threw passes when he shifted... he was just in no mans land it seemed... when they did get in the paint and he was in position he didn’t seem to bother them.

I just don’t know what the answer is... It seems like we can be a good defense if Rudy is in the paint... too many teams can pull him out of the paint in meaningful ways... he can’t punish them to the point they stop.

I am moving to the camp that thinks we just have to move him if we want ultimate playoff success.

Ya he would often shift before they got past their man. They weren't having Mann bring the ball up with Rudy on him and clearing out for Mann to go one on one against Rudy or something though.

He did bother people at the paint often and they kicked the ball out to open three point shooters.

As for your comment about teams pulling him out of the paint and him not punishing them...... Did we ever try a zone defense? Or anything? How about putting 4 guys around the perimeter and Rudy down low? Like a 4-1 zone. How about something? Anything. And when the jazz have the ball there is no rim protector for the clippers right? So how about trying to attack the rim. Rudy isn't the only one that should be making them pay for going small. All the jazz offensive players should share in that responsibility when there is no rim protection imo.

Fact is that after all this time and all the small ball that we have been seeing for years and years quin should have had a plan of some sort. He seemed to have absolutely no plan for small ball and no plan to attack a zone. That **** is crazy to me

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