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Rudy

And it's not even about the shots. Watch some games this season. How many times does Rudy set a pick and the guard waves it off and does something else. Mitchell has been particularly guilty of this. Again, I'll point out that Rudy leads the league in screen assists and probably moves on half of them and gets away with it, giving you the added bonus of absolutely infuriating defenders.

Guys like Mitchell, Clarkson and, to a certain extent, Bogdanovic don't play off screens as much. They see themselves as capable scorers, and they're not keen to change their games to use a screen or to try to force the ball to Rudy. And how effective is Rudy when he needs to take a dribble from 5 - 8 feet out? Even Bradley is more versatile and effective at catching and making a move from 5 - 10 feet than Gobert is. Rudy needs to be spoon fed on his roll with perfect timing and spacing. Only Ingles is able to do that consistently, and more often than not, Ingles uses Gobert as a decoy since defenses are staying glued to him.

Also, teams aren't stupid. They're taking away the lob to Gobert at the rim this year. It's a play that gives up 70%+ eFG%, and it's the first shot that teams try to deny. Defenses have changed the way they play the Jazz this year.

And how about Rudy improve his FT%? He could be upping his scoring average just by making one or two more FTs per game. His FT% is off 6 percentage points from last season. Now teams can hack-a-Rudy and hold the Jazz to 1 point per possession if they want to. Rudy's FT shooting has been a liability this season. If Rudy can hit 70% of this FTs, that changes the dynamic of our offense.

So yeah, guys aren't looking for Rudy as much as, say, Rubio did last year. Rudy is less of a priority on offense this year. But this makes sense when you have more versatile scorers like Bogdanovic and Conley on the floor, along with Donovan. Rudy should be the 3rd or 4th option in that scenario.
 
Since Clarkson joined the team we have the #1 offense in the NBA. How much more offensive would we get by adding a "modern day PF"? I know for sure our defensive would be much worse, and we are only mediocre at best and even in the "bad" category many games. If we play any defense at all we win games. Even games when the offensive is "off" the Jazz are still putting up great offensive numbers. The first goal defensively is to keep opponents from getting to the rim. And we have the best rim protector in the league. If you take Gobert out, our mediocre team defense goes right to the bottom of the league... every night. Our perimeter guys just don't stay in front of their man. You can only space so many guys on the floor. Adding a modern day PF to replace Gobert is folly. Now as a backup C to change things up? Completely different question.
 
Everyone go listen to Tony Jones newest Game Notes podcast with Zach Harper. They give each player on the Jazz a grade for the season, Rudy’s part is something everyone should listen to. He’s the final player they do.
 
Everyone go listen to Tony Jones newest Game Notes podcast with Zach Harper. They give each player on the Jazz a grade for the season, Rudy’s part is something everyone should listen to. He’s the final player they do.

could you throw out a link?
 
Cliff notes pls?
The Rudy part from basically Zach Harper and Tony is this.

This is Zach's quote: "the last month before everything blew up, I was beyond disappointed in how he conducted himself on and off the court. It doesn't mean he was bad or anything but at that point you're too far elite in this league to be the way he was."

Tony: "If we're keeping it real with Rudy, he took possessions off this year and this team needed him to be engaged 1000% defensively. The Jazz willingly took a step back defensively because they thought Rudy Gobert would fill in the gaps, and Rudy Gobert was like I'm not getting the basketball so I'm not going to fill in the gaps."

Zach:"Tony I said he needed to grow up, Tony he acted like a baby. He acted like a temper tantrum throwing child."

Both agreed he had valid complaints at times but that he still needed to grow up and do his job and be the leader the Jazz need and expect him to be. Zach also said he doesn't expect it, but it wouldn't shock him if Rudy was traded, and it's because his job is to be a leader and what he did was not leadership, and if he's the FO the way Rudy acted is not the guy I thought I had. Zach went on to say if Rudy's accolades have changed him into this more, more, more.....me,me,me type mindset and said as good as he is he wouldn't want that guy any longer and that has potential to turn toxic as it continues. Basically both agree he needs to return to his mindset of before, and they were both disappointed with how Rudy has conducted himself.

Both agreed the super-max conversation could get interesting as well. Zach said he wouldn't give Rudy a super-max, and that things could get bad surrounding that conversation if the Jazz don't want to give it to him.
 
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The Rudy part from basically Zach Harper and Tony is this.

This is Zach's quote: "the last month before everything blew up, I was beyond disappointed in how he conducted himself on and off the court. It doesn't mean he was bad or anything but at that point you're too far elite in this league to be the way he was."

Tony: "If we're keeping it real with Rudy, he took possessions off this year and this team needed him to be engaged 1000% defensively. The Jazz willingly took a step back defensively because they thought Rudy Gobert would fill in the gaps, and Rudy Gobert was like I'm not getting the basketball so I'm not going to fill in the gaps."

Zach:"Tony I said he needed to grow up, Tony he acted like a baby. He acted like a temper tantrum throwing child."

Both agreed he had valid complaints at times but that he still needed to grow up and do his job and be the leader the Jazz need and expect him to be. Zach also said he doesn't expect it, but it wouldn't shock him if Rudy was traded, and it's because his job is to be a leader and what he did was not leadership, and if he's the FO the way Rudy acted is not the guy I thought I had. Zach went on to say if Rudy's accolades have changed him into this more, more, more.....me,me,me type mindset and said as good as he is he wouldn't want that guy any longer and that has potential to turn toxic as it continues. Basically both agree he needs to return to his mindset of before, and they were both disappointed with how Rudy has conducted himself.
Thanks for the summary
 
For all those who said Donovan was the problem, I think this podcast answers that question. It was Rudy and apparently much of the team and the FO was pissed at him, if you follow what Zach and Tony are saying.
 
Meh, for as amazingly hard as Rudy usually works on both ends of the floor he did deserve more. Other players also took a lot plays off because they knew Rudy would clean up after them. There have been numerous occasions where Rudy has helped someone and nobody in return helped the helper. Drives me crazy. I love Ingles and Bojan but there are also numerous occasions where they gave little to no effort to box out and just stood around expecting Rudy to rebound.
 
Meh, for as amazingly hard as Rudy usually works on both ends of the floor he did deserve more. Other players also took a lot plays off because they knew Rudy would clean up after them. There have been numerous occasions where Rudy has helped someone and nobody in return helped the helper. Drives me crazy. I love Ingles and Bojan but there are also numerous occasions where they gave little to no effort to box out and just stood around expecting Rudy to rebound.
For sure, but regardless. He’s the longest tenured Jazz man, the most impactful player on the team. He needs to grow up and be a leader anyway for his teammates and for the franchise. He needs to grow from this.
 
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