Tag: rudy gobert

Warriors forward Draymond Green suspended for incident with Rudy Gobert

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has been suspended five games without pay for escalating an on-court altercation and forcibly grabbing Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert around the neck in an unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner, it was announced today by Joe Dumars, NBA Executive Vice President, Head of Basketball Operations. The length of the suspension is based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts.

In addition, Warriors guard Klay Thompson and Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels and center Rudy Gobert have each been fined $25,000 for their roles in the incident, which started when Thompson and McDaniels became entangled and were grabbing and pulling at one another’s jerseys, and continued when Gobert entered the situation and wrapped up Thompson.

Thompson and McDaniels were each assessed a technical foul and ejected, while Green was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 and ejected.

The incident occurred with 10:17 remaining in the first quarter of the Timberwolves’ 104-101 win over the Warriors on Nov. 14 at Chase Center.

Green will begin serving his five-game suspension on Thursday, November 16 when the Warriors host the Oklahoma City Thunder.

On new Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in preseason

Via the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The Timberwolves’ plan this offseason was to ease center Rudy Gobert back into action after he led France to a silver medal in the Eurobasket tournament.

Gobert sat out the Wolves’ first preseason game at Miami before playing in Thursday night’s 114-99 victory over the split-squad Lakers, who sat LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley in Las Vegas…

Gobert is not only the best rim protector of this generation, but he is also one of the best defensive rebounders in the league. Thursday’s game was evidence of just how much he will help the Wolves in that area too.

Gobert played only 17 minutes, but he had 12 rebounds in that time. The Lakers had a small lineup on the floor, and Gobert towered over them. He made rebounding look easier than it ever did last season for the Wolves. Offensively, Gobert had five points and three assists as he worked with guards D’Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards on their screen-and-roll game.

The Timberwolves are 2-0 so far this preseason.

Jazz trade Rudy Gobert to Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves yesterday acquired center Rudy Gobert in a trade with the Utah Jazz for guards Patrick Beverley, Malik Beasley and forward Jarred Vanderbilt, along with guard Leandro Bolmaro, the draft rights to center Walker Kessler and Minnesota’s 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029 first round picks and a 2026 first round pick swap.

Gobert, 30, has appeared in 611 regular season games (519 starts) in nine NBA seasons with the Jazz, averaging 12.4 points on 65.3% shooting, 11.7 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. The 7-1 center played in 66 games (all starts) last season, averaging 15.6 points on a career-high 71.3% shooting, a career-best 14.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. His 71.3% (362-of-508) from the field led the NBA during the 2021-22 season and per the Elias Sports Bureau, he joined Wilt Chamberlain (1972-73) and DeAndre Jordan (3x, MR: 2016-17) as the only players in NBA history to shoot 70% or better from the field on 500+ shots. In addition to leading the NBA last season in rebounding and shooting percentage, Gobert ranked second in double-doubles (53) and third in blocks (2.1). He’s seen action in 49 career playoff games (all starts) with averages of 13.4 points on 66.2% shooting, 11.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.

The Saint-Quentin, France native is a three-time All-NBA selection (Second Team in 2017, Third Team in 2019 and 2021), a three-time Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year (2018, 2019, 2021), a three-time NBA All-Star (2020, 2021, 2022) and a six-time All-Defensive First Team selection (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). Gobert has played in the last two Olympics for France, leading the French National Team to a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. During the 2020 Olympics, he averaged 12.2 points on 63.6% shooting and 9.3 rebounds, earning him a spot on the Men’s Basketball All-Star Five.

Gobert was originally drafted by the Denver Nuggets with the 27th overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.

Acquired via trade from the Memphis Grizzlies on Feb. 25, 2021, Beverley appeared in 58 games (54 starts) for the Wolves last season, averaging 9.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. He holds career averages of 8.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 10 NBA seasons.

Acquired by the Timberwolves via a trade with the Nuggets on Feb. 5, 2020, Beasley appeared in 130 games (68 starts) for Minnesota over three seasons, averaging 15.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. He holds career averages of 10.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists in seven NBA seasons.

Acquired by the Timberwolves via a trade with the Nuggets on Feb. 5, 2020, Vanderbilt appeared in 140 games (97 starts) for Minnesota over three seasons, averaging 6.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. He holds career averages of 5.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in five NBA seasons.

Bolmaro appeared in 35 games last season for Minnesota, averaging 1.4 points and 1.2 rebounds per game. He was originally acquired by the Timberwolves via a trade with the New York Knicks on Nov. 20, 2020.

Kessler averaged 11.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.6 blocks per game as a sophomore at Auburn University. His draft rights were originally acquired via trade during the 2022 NBA Draft from the Grizzlies.

Jazz will reportedly trade Rudy Gobert to Timberwolves

The Utah Jazz look like they’re taking a step forwards rebuilding, while the Minnesota Timberwolves are about to enjoy an incredibly talented combination at the power forward and center spots. Via ESPN.com:

The Utah Jazz agreed to trade center Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a blockbuster deal that will pair him with fellow All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The Timberwolves will send Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, No. 22 overall pick Walker Kessler and four first-round picks to the Jazz, sources said. Utah will acquire unprotected picks in 2023, 2025 and 2027 and a top-five-protected pick in 2029, sources said, in Danny Ainge’s first franchise-altering deal since taking over as the Jazz’s CEO midseason.

A combo of Gobert and star Karl-Anthony Towns up front makes the Timberwolves a must-watch team going into next season.

Jazz center Rudy Gobert wins 2020-21 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award

Rudy Gobert has done it again. The Jazz center was named 2020-21 NBA Defensive Player of the Year today, marking the third time he’s won the award. Gobert joins Dwight Howard, Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace as the only players in NBA history to win the award three-or-more times.

Gobert (7-1, 256, France) led the NBA among qualified players in defensive rating (100.6), defensive win shares (5.2), defensive rebounds (10.1) and was second in blocks per game (2.7) during the 2020-21 season. He also led the NBA in +/- (+728) and total rebounds (960). Helping the Jazz to the best-record in the NBA at 52-20, and the team’s first overall no. 1 seed in franchise history, the eight-year pro was the anchor to the NBA’s third best defense, which owned a defensive rating of 107.5. According to FiveThirtyEight’s defensive RAPTOR metric, Gobert posted the highest such rating (+8.0) last season by a player since 1977.

On the offensive end, he led the NBA in field goal percentage (.675), dunks (231) and was second in screen assists per game (6.1). For the year, he finished with 14.3 points, a career-high-tying 13.5 boards, 2.7 blocks and 1.3 assists in 30.8 minutes per game. The Frenchman posted the third most double-doubles in the NBA with 49 and was named an All-Star for the second-straight season.

In addition to winning the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award in three seasons (2018, 2019 and 2021) and being named a two-time NBA All-Star (2020, 2021), Gobert has been named to the All-NBA Second Team (2017), selected to the All-NBA Third Team twice (2019, 2020) and received All-NBA Defensive First Team honors in four seasons (2017-20).

Appearing in 545 games (453 starts), he owns career averages of 12.0 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.3 steals in 29.7 minutes per contest. Over the last five seasons no other player in the NBA has more blocks (855) than Gobert and he’s collected 4,554 boards during that stretch, the second most in the NBA.

Competing in his fifth-straight postseason, Gobert has helped Utah to the 2021 Western Conference Semifinals, averaging 16.2 points, 12.8 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in 32.7 minutes per game during the playoff run.

Gobert has passed the late Mark Eaton for the most Defensive Player of the Year honors in Jazz history with Eaton winning twice in 1985 and 1989.

Other finalists for NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year were Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and Golden State’s Draymond Green. Gobert received 84 first-place votes and earned 464 points from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Simmons finished in second place with 287 points (15 first-place votes). Green finished in third place with 76 points. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.

Joe Ingles and Rudy Gobert impressive shooting stats this season

A pair of Jazz players are doing big things in the “true shooting” department. Via the Deseret News:

Joe Ingles is having a historic season, according to a stat that he doesn’t understand.

“I honestly Googled it one time to try to figure out what they’re talking about, and I had (expletive) no idea still after reading it,” Ingles told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “I didn’t understand it when they said it; I didn’t understand it when I Googled it.”

Ingles leads the NBA in true shooting percentage, with a true shooting percentage of .690. Teammate Rudy Gobert is second on the list, with a true shooting percentage of .684.

The Jazz are 48-18 this season, which is the best record in the NBA.

Their leading scorers so far in 2020-21 are Donovan Mitchell at 26.4 points per game, Jordan Clarkson off the bench at 17.5 ppg, Mike Conley at 16.4 ppg, Bojan Bogdanovic at 16.3 ppg, Gobert at 14.4 ppg, and Ingles at 12.3 ppg. Everyone else on the squad scores under 7 ppg.

Jazz off to modest 4-4 start this NBA season

The NBA season is little over two weeks old, so it’s a bit early to jump to big conclusions. But it’s perfectly reasonable to start what’s happened so far, which is, the Jazz aren’t off to a great start this season.

The Salt Lake Tribune:

Is a 4-4 Jazz record a disappointment? Is it familiar? Is it… both?

2021′s slow start to the season has brought down the spirits of Jazz fans, and that’s understandable: the loss side of the ledger has seen some disappointing defeats. Utah’s loss to Phoenix is more acceptable given that they rank first in the conference right now, sure. But losses to Brooklyn (sans Kevin Durant), the New York Knicks, and worst of all, the Minnesota Timberwolves, have made for some disappointing nights.

And yet, this isn’t anything new for Jazz fans. In the Quin Snyder era, the Jazz have always started at least somewhat below expectations. Then, they surge on to have a solid remainder of the season, and end up with a quality record.

The Deseret News:

In [Donovan] Mitchell’s rookie season, the Jazz started out 5-5 on the year before racking up quite a few losses and then bouncing back at the end of the season and finishing off the year with a 29-6 run. They were bounced in the second round of the playoffs.

In Mitchell’s second year, the Jazz started with a 4-6 record and played pretty up and down throughout the season before they were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.

Last season, the Jazz started out with a 6-4 record and racked up most of their losses toward the end of the season. Again, they only survived a single playoff round.

Leading the Jazz in scoring through eight games are Mitchell at 21.3 points per game, Mike Conley at 17.4 PPG, Jordan Clarkson off the bench at 15.5 PPG, Rudy Gobert at 13.9 PPG, Bojan Bogdanovic at 11.8 PPG, and Joe Ingles off the bench at 10.0 PPG.

The team’s offense and defense has been close to the league average this season thus far.

Their upcoming opponents are the Bucks, Pistons, Cavs and Wizards.

Official 2019-20 NBA All-Defensive Teams

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 2019-20 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, leads the 2019-20 NBA All-Defensive First Team, the NBA announced today.

Antetokounmpo received 97 NBA All-Defensive First Team votes from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earned 195 total points. This marks the second straight NBA All-Defensive First Team selection for Antetokounmpo, who also made the Second Team in 2016-17.

Joining Antetokounmpo on the 2019-20 NBA All-Defensive First Team are Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis (187 points; 87 First Team votes), Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons (185 points; 88 First Team votes), Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (180 points; 85 First Team votes) and Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart (152 points; 57 First Team votes).

Davis, who finished in second place for the 2019-20 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, has been named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the second time to go with two Second Team honors. This is the fourth consecutive NBA All-Defensive First Team selection for Gobert, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Smart has been selected to the First Team for the second season in a row. Simmons is a First Team choice in his NBA All-Defensive Team debut.

The 2019-20 NBA All-Defensive Second Team consists of LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (128 points), Bucks center Brook Lopez (67), Miami Heat forward Bam Adebayo (61), Clippers guard Patrick Beverley (60) and Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe (59).

Leonard has been named to the NBA All-Defensive Team (First Team and Second Team) for the sixth time. This is the third NBA All-Defensive Team selection for Beverley and the second for Bledsoe. Adebayo and Lopez join Simmons as first-time selections to the NBA All-Defensive Team.

With the selection of Antetokounmpo to the NBA All-Defensive First Team and Lopez and Bledsoe to the Second Team, the Bucks are the first team to have at least three players named to the NBA All-Defensive Team since the Memphis Grizzlies in 2012-13 (Tony Allen, Mike Conley and Marc Gasol).

Players were awarded two points for each vote to the NBA All-Defensive First Team and one point for each vote to the Second Team. Voters selected two guards, two forwards and one center for each team, choosing players at the position they play regularly. Players who received votes at multiple positions were slotted at the position at which they received the most votes.

The voting was conducted based on regular-season games played through March 11. The seeding games, which were played July 30 – Aug. 14 as part of the 2019-20 season restart, did not count toward voting for the NBA All-Defensive Team or the league’s other traditional end-of-season awards.

Nuggets guard Monte Morris analyzes screens set by Jazz center Rudy Gobert

The art of setting screens is tricky business. There’s a fine line between what’s legal and illegal. And making the right call on each instance is one of the many difficult aspects of a referee’s job.

The Nuggets and Jazz are currently playing a first-round playoff series. Here’s the Denver Post reporting what Nuggets guard Monte Morris had to say about screens set by Jazz center Rudy Gobert:

Jazz center Rudy Gobert is a prolific screener, both in terms of sheer volume and effectiveness. A review of Denver’s Game 2 loss showed that he was involved, either directly or indirectly, in half of Utah’s 20 3-pointers.

When asked about it Thursday, Nuggets point guard Monte Morris said he felt some of them were illegal.

“He does a good job at setting screens,” Morris said. “I don’t think all of them are legal, so I mean, the ref can’t call all of them, but we gotta get into the ball and fight through them and not wait on what the ref’s going to do.”

The series is tied 1-1. This after Utah’s 124-105 Game 2 win yesterday. In the victory, Gobert shot 7-of-10 for 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and a lot of screens.

Multiple Jazz stars will miss Friday game vs Spurs

Friday at 1 p.m. ET, the Jazz face the Spurs. But Utah will do so while giving plenty of rest to a number of key players. Here’s the Salt Lake Tribune reporting:

Of course, with Thursday afternoon’s injury report, we may surmise that where the Jazz are going is to an immediate loss against the Spurs on Friday morning.

After all, with four starters — Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Royce O’Neale — slated to sit out due to rest, left peroneal (ankle tendon) strain, right knee soreness, and right calf soreness, respectively, defeating even ninth-place San Antonio would take some doing.

Anyway, that’s the bad news. Now, a look back at the previous pretty good, really bad, somewhat less bad, and somewhat kind of good news …

After the Jazz opened up with a win against the Pelicans, some observers wondered if Utah was potentially capable of securing the Western Conference’s postseason No. 3 seed. Then, after back-to-back losses to the Thunder (wholly dispiriting) and Lakers (merely disappointing), the panic brigade began disseminating widespread missives on the inevitability of the seventh seed. And after a victory over the Grizzlies that was discouraging for how competitive it was, but also encouraging for the signs of progress evident within, the general assessment of the Jazz now is …

Who knows?

Leading scorers for the Jazz this season:
Donovan Mitchell 24.0 PPG
Bojan Bogdanovic 20.2
Rudy Gobert 15.1
Jordan Clarkson 15.0
Mike Conley 14.4

And for the Spurs:
DeMar DeRozan 22.2 PPG
LaMarcus Aldridge 18.9
Patty Mills 11.6
Bryn Forbes 11.2
Derrick White 11.0

With the Jazz also without Bojan Bogdanovic (injured), this is a good opportunity for the Spurs to snag a win and keep their playoff hopes alive. But they face an uphill battle in a crowded West.

Meanwhile, Utah sits 4th in the West and already clinched a postseason spot.