Are you comparing Gobert to Smits and Daugherty? Both those guys had legitimate post games and great touch, Rudy, has terrible hands and his footwork in the post looks like a Giraffe having an epileptic fit. I doubt he could hit a 10 foot jumper from the baseline consistently.
No, the argument was that Rudy couldn’t hit double digits because he’s too skinny and clumsy. All those other guys had lower BMIs and dropped double digits. Of course they’re different and of course there may have been a different strength and style of the bigs then that he would have gone up against, but that’s not taking away a third of his offensive game. If Shawn Bradley could drop double figures, Rudy would drop double figures. If Mutombo dropped double figures, Rudy is
most definitely still dropping double figures.
There really isn’t any data that can be pointed to that would suggest Rudy wouldn’t drop double figures in a career spanning Mutombo’s years. Sure, you can discount what he does now and say it doesn’t exactly translate, but to argue that he’d lose
more than a third of his offensive capacity now to fit into that era (to not hit double figures)can’t be supported with even the most generous of assumptions of statistical correction.
If this were the case, what do you see Mutombo’s 11.5 points per 36 translating to in today’s game? How about Shawn Bradley, how much does he score in today’s NBA? These last two are genuine questions, because if Mutombo isn’t jumping from 11.5 to 17 points per 36, then there isn’t enough inflationary measure to say Rudy wouldn’t be averaging double doubles.
Is Rudy offensively in the 90s worse than Shawn Bradley offensively in the 90s? That’s a very generous comp to demonstrate this theory and it falls apart when you see that Bradley was hitting double figures in the 90s by comfortable enough margins.
Unless the argument is to say that the comp is Manute Bol.