Rudy Gobert an undeniable factor in Wolves’ 3-1 series lead

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Nikola Jokić, through the prime of his career, has crafted a reputation as a thinking man’s NBA player.

Rudy Gobert, in essentially the same time frame, has been viewed as a guy who doesn’t get to sit with the cool kids at lunch.

One has been voted the Kia Most Valuable Player three times, a tribute to his vision, footwork, touch, size and indispensability to the Denver Nuggets. The other has been voted the Kia Defensive Player of the Year four times, tied for the most ever.

Yet some media, fans and – this is the real issue – rival players see the Minnesota Timberwolves’ center as the guy Most Likely to Get Catfished. Someone to snicker at, and often not even behind his back.

Over the course of his 13 seasons, about the only thing in which the 7-foot-1 “Stifle Tower” has come up short has been respect.

“I think Rudy’s probably the most misunderstood player in the history of the game,” Minnesota point guard Mike Conley said of his teammate with the Wolves and the Utah Jazz. “The way that he impacts winning, just because it doesn’t look pretty all the time or is not the sexiest thing, people bypass the other 95 things he does for our team.”

Said Wolves coach Chris Finch: “He’s about the right things, and it’s just laughable, small-minded and petty all the crap that people decide to give Rudy.”

Gobert and the Wolves have the Nuggets on the brink, down 3-1 in their best-of-seven series that continues Monday at Denver’s Ball Arena (10:30 p.m. ET, NBC & Peacock). They have Jokić and the NBA’s most potent offense of 2025-26 in disarray, stuck below 100 points the past two games.

The Nuggets’ star labeled his performance through four games as “average,” and in some categories, it’s been worse. He has missed 53 of his 87 shots, is 5-of-27 on 3-pointers and had more turnovers than assists (4-3) in Game 3.

Denver led the NBA in 3-point percentage (39.6%) and effective field goal rate (57.7%) during the regular season. Against Gobert and the Wolves’ defense now, it ranks last among the 16 playoff teams in both (28.5% and 45.8%). The Nuggets are averaging 10.1 fewer points in the paint in the series (39.5) than they did over 82 games (49.6).

And yet, for a variety of reasons, Gobert’s reputation remains sullied, dismissed and the subject of eye rolls from both casuals and plenty of folks who should know better. From what we can tell, the criticism from outside and resentment from inside stem from a short list of factors:

• He isn’t much of a scorer, averaging 12.5 points and only 7.1 shots per game, so fans and foes who most value buckets aren’t impressed. But Gobert has maxed out his earnings, nearly $300 million so far, largely for his work at the end of the court, so many opponents disregard.

• His ball skills are (no pun intended) rudimentary. Just last week in Game 1, Gobert tried to execute a dribble handoff as a bounce pass behind his back. It did not go well.

• He is a Euro from back before international players were appreciated quite like they are now. Gobert was the 27th pick in the same 2013 Draft that produced Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo at No. 15.

• His 8,107 career defensive rebounds (including playoffs) and 1,974 blocked shots rank 28th and 27th all-time, and are in direct opposition to what gets most of the other guys paid. Gobert’s mere looming presence makes their basketball lives tougher, and many don’t like it.

• The Luka Dončić shot from the right wing in the 2024 Dallas-Minnesota series that got replayed incessantly that spring, when Gobert got isolated against the Mavericks’ gifted scorer. (Gobert later offered context in his defense, saying, “My whole career, I’m very likely to be crossed over. … But let’s see what happens over the course of hundreds and hundreds of possessions.” But you know what they say about a picture’s worth vs. however many words were in the big man’s quote.)

• His status as the NBA’s “patient zero” of COVID, owing to the goofy video in which he touched the microphones and recorders of media folks on his way out of a news conference. This was in March 2020, before Gobert or anyone knew how huge the pandemic would be.

• Some footage from February 2019, when Gobert felt he was snubbed from what would have been his first All-Star selection. He cried while sharing his feelings about his mother’s sacrifices in nurturing his early basketball training and a sense of disrespect. Sure enough, some wise guys pounced.

Maybe Gobert’s work in this series, though, will finally change some shallow minds. Consider some of the stats:

• Gobert has defended 81 shots within six feet of the rim, an area with an expected success rate of 52.8%. The Nuggets? Converting only 35.8%.

• In Game 4, Denver shot only 24.3% in the second half. That was its fourth-worst shooting half, regular season or playoffs, of the Jokić era.

• Jokić has shot 6-of-26 when guarded by Gobert in the second halves of the series. Including 2-of-16 in the fourth quarters of Games 2-4.

• During the season, Gobert ranked No. 1 in allowing just 0.77 points per isolation plays (minimum 200 plays or more).

For years, Gobert’s coaches have said things similar to what Finch said last week about his guy’s pushback on Jokić: “Some of the best defense I’ve ever seen, one on one from anyone, really, against that caliber player … You know, pedigree and brings it every single night with a ton of great pride.”

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‘People just don’t want to go at Rudy’

Gobert has worked on his overall game, well, forever. He got attention two summers ago for focusing on offensive skills under noted shooting coach Chris Matthews. He has improved his footwork, balance and stamina by cross-training in boxing, MMA and dance. Eating smart by working with a nutritionist has been a passion since he hit the NBA.

He is a ready and informative interviewee, and he has never been known to criticize an opponent who didn’t instigate against him. Then there is random stuff, like giving every behind-the-scenes worker at Minnesota’s Target Center a signed Christmas card annually, with $50 inside. It’s a gesture that continues since his Utah days, a holiday brightener for more than 450 people.

This is a man some NBA players want to tease or mock? C’mon.

Only after a few of his teammates spoke up to praise Gobert’s work in this series has any appreciation been shown. One of them, Anthony Edwards, popular among his foes for his athletic skills, his ability to take over games, his fun-loving smile and his let-it-rip profanity as one of the current cool kids.

“Everybody’s gonna say this about Rudy. He’s this. He’s that,” Edwards said after Game 2. “They don’t understand what he means to us when he’s on the floor. People don’t want to lay the ball up around him. People just don’t want to go at Rudy.”

Edwards was the one who told Gobert that night before the final quarter to stop fouling and play his straight-up defense.

“Regardless of what they say about him on the offensive end of the floor,” Edwards said, “he’s a four-time Defensive Player of the Year for a reason. He’s been doing it at a high level for a long time, and we need him on the floor.”

The contrast is stark with Jokić, an offensive wonder who isn’t known for his defense. Once the light bulb came on over the Wolves’ heads to start driving to the basket with no fear of rim protection, they have been like picnic ants discovering a sandwich. Minnesota has scored 228 of its points in four games in the paint, 70 more than the Nuggets.

All of this coincides with this season’s DPOY results. Ballots were gathered right before the playoffs and announced last week, with San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama as the first unanimous winner of the award. Oklahoma City Thunder 7-footer Chet Holmgren finished second and the Detroit Pistons’ Ausar Thompson was third.

Seven times in his career, Gobert finished third or higher. But not this time. He didn’t seem surprised, either, saying he wasn’t motivated vs. Jokić by this particular snub.

“No extra juice. I know who I am,” the 33-year-old said. “Not the first time I get disrespected, probably not the last. I’m gonna keep being myself. If they want to disrespect greatness, take it for granted, whatever, sooner or later they’ll realize the impact.”

Let’s help: In this year’s playoffs, Gobert leads the pack in defensive net rating by a wide margin (+15.7). Per ESPN Analytics, the New York Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns is second (+12.2) and Jokić ranks third (+10.1), mostly for how denuded Denver is when he sits, period.

More to the point, Wembanyama is fourth (+9.6), Thompson 12th (+7.0) and Holmgren 51st (+2.8). One stat isn’t the measure of everything, but it supports the view that Gobert is as effective now as he was when he won his first DPOY eight years ago.

Know this, too: Three years after Gobert retires, he’ll be on the stage at the Springfield Symphony Hall, getting an orange sport coat and a glitzy ring for his enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

A lot of his opponents and longtime deriders will be sitting home, their turns on the whoopee cushions.

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.