Rudy Gobert DPOY

[wolves_89]

Wemby robbed I fear.

Spurs as a team were in 20s for defensive ranking while winning 22 games. Other than rookie of the year, the major awards rarely go to guys on lottery teams.

[Raps in 4]

I remember when that trade was seen as a bad move. Tim Connelly making all the haters eat crow. This dude builds contenders in his sleep.

[SSUBluesman]

Congrats to Rudy, absolutely well deserved.

I feel bad for the Spurs fans, if they're this upset about Wemby not getting DPOY on a 22 win team they're going to be really upset if he doesn't win MVP tomorrow...which he absolutely should, because his on court impact transcends unimportant things like win/loss records, making the playoffs, etc.

[durden_tyler]

Well deserved


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[Black star]

Bill Simmons has a lot of good takes and a lot of bad takes but one of his takes I absolutely love is the idea of meaningful basketball mattering for things like all NBA and MVP and it applies here.

The Spurs were awful and I loved Wemby getting better and better as the year went on but he didn't play a single minute of meaningful basketball. He anchored a defense for a team that most other teams took for granted as win, which is a good bet considering they won as many games with Wemby as without him. They were getting other teams B and C effort.

Meanwhile Rudy was anchoring the defense for a team who was the 1 seed for a large part of the season getting the best shot of playoff teams trying to move up in the standings. I get there's no stat for that but it's got to mean something.

I'm just not a fan of giving major individual awards to guys who don't play any "must win" basketball all year long and that's pretty much every lottery team.

[DaPessimist]

Wolves are looking like they may be a historically great defensive team, and Gobert is the anchor.

I imagine it's going to Wemby's award to lose over the next decade though.

[brutalitops]

Agreed. Watched the TWolves, their defense is suffocating, made the defending champs look like amateurs, you can't deny his contribution. Oh, wait, that's right... HE DIDN'T EVEN PLAY

So he's a worse defender now because the nuggets sucked last night? Charlotte scored more then 80 against us when Rudy played. Maybe use that as an argument why Rudy isn't a good defender

Clown take.

The Nuggets didn't suck, they were eaten alive by the Timberwolves WITHOUT their "best defender". Puts into context how important Gobert is in Minnesota, which debunks the whole argument that he should be the DPOY because he's the best defender on the best defensive team, which is the justification behind a lot of the Gobert votes. Now THAT's a clown take.

Ah yes. The Jaden McDaniels is better then Keldon Johnson therefore Rudy isn't as good as Wemby. Cant believe your getting WiFi from the circus!

Nuggets imploded. We are a good defensive team. Saying however a game 2 in the semi finals we dominated which means Rudy doesn't deserve it is an all time clown take. He is our best defender. Watch the wolves play. Im sure you haven't all season I fear if that's what your getting out of it. Your take is saltier then the black sea. It's unfortunate you can't appreciate without hate or taking away ability because of a team performance on one given night over a season. Calm down. Go feed the elephants and just breathe.

[babyjax13]

The right call. And I get so tired of people equating just number of blocks to quality of defense:

Gobert ranked sixth in the league with 2.1 blocked shots per game and limited opponents to 45.2% effective field goal percentage, the lowest among 38 players to contest at least 1,000 shots, according to Second Spectrum data. He ranked fourth in defensive rebounds with 9.2 per game.

His presence also served as a major deterrent. According to Second Spectrum, opponents attempted only 21.6% of their shots from inside the restricted area when Gobert was on the court, which would have ranked the lowest among any team this season. That increased to 26.7% when he was off the floor, which would have rated as the sixth-highest among teams.

The Timberwolves held opponents to 56.6% shooting on dunk and layup attempts, the lowest rate in the NBA.

Gobert's dominance extended beyond the paint. He thrived in switch situations, allowing the fewest points per direct isolations among players to defend at least 175 isolation possessions, according to Second Spectrum tracking. He also excelled as a pick-and-roll defender, allowing the third-fewest points per direct pick among screener defenders to defend at least 1,000 on-ball picks.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40102549/timberwolves-rudy-gobert-named-defensive-player-year

Just confirming what Jazz fans were saying for years. I am so happy he is in the situation that he is and that Minnesota has a bright future with him!

[TimberKat]

Twitter is having a field day with this. Majority of the comments under every post regarding this announcement are saying Wemby was robbed. Twitter knows ball.

Majority of the people twitted also haven't watch a Twolves game all season long

[TimberKat]

Minnesota looking absolutely dominant Defensively last game against the defending champs without Gobert on the floor speaks volumes. Rudy had 3 other players on his team ranked in the Top-20 Defensively this season.

Meanwhile the Spurs dropped from the #4 ranked Defense in the league when Wemby was on the floor to #28 (!!) when he sat lol. That’s insane. Wemby also lead the league in Blocks & Stocks by a HUGE margin, as well as Steals for a Center, lest we forget. Robbery of the century unfortunately.

Read on Twitter

Just because Wemby had worse teammates doesn't mean he is a better defensive player.

Focusing on that stuff is kinda immaterial

And so is giving the guy DPOY because his teammates are better at defense. Pretty much every other way of measuring defense says Wemby was better.

Including the eye test: https://youtube.com/shorts/jUxAoTaDcUI?si=pha0fUFo382V_etN

Lol, so you come to the conclusion only watch Wemby and also ignore any stats that say Gobert is better.

[shrink]

I think we’re being trolled. But I’m not 100% sure.

[TimberKat]

Is it hate for people to say they think the other guy was better?

You don't get it. The Spurs won the same amount of games with Wemby as the tanking year before. No DPOY is going to happen on a team with a bottom five record. It's just not going to happen. Otherwise we would have saw the effects in the win column. Wemby was also on a minutes restriction and had a much lighter load for the entire season. This doesn't mean that DPOY's aren't in his future. But this year, Rudy was a no-brainer.

I guarantee you if the Spurs finish with under 35 wins, he won't win next year either.

I 100% understand this. I don’t agree with it since the Spurs were tanking again, but Wemby’s impact is greater than Gobert’s IMO. And that isn’t Gobert hate.

So by that logic we should give the MVP award to a player who avg 34 a game but his team only wins 23 games instead of a player who scores 29 and his team finished in 1st place?

[TimberKat]

Wemby got robbed. Last night was proof

You have it backwards.

Rudy instilled the defensive culture in his teammates. He calls out defenses, helps teammates defend better, and sets the standard for effort. Last night he was a proud papa, both for a baby, and for seeing his teammates grow up defensively. That defense led to the Wolves best season, and their success in the playoffs.

Wemby will get this award soon. Probably many times. But as a rookie, his defense isn’t magnified throughout his team.

That's a great case... for COACH of the year, not defensive PLAYER of the year. If your team shuts down the defending champions without you, you're not that important.
If you want to give the award on team defense, then make it shared, like a Nobel prize. And the DPOY this year is... the entire TWolves roster!!!

Sure Wemby.

DPOY is like MVP of defense. Is it so wrong to give it to the best defense player on the best defensive team? Where is all the empty stats complains and player that doesn't translate to winning?

[karch34]

Wemby got robbed. Last night was proof

You have it backwards.

Rudy instilled the defensive culture in his teammates. He calls out defenses, helps teammates defend better, and sets the standard for effort. Last night he was a proud papa, both for a baby, and for seeing his teammates grow up defensively. That defense led to the Wolves best season, and their success in the playoffs.

Wemby will get this award soon. Probably many times. But as a rookie, his defense isn’t magnified throughout his team.

I don’t want to turn this into anti-Wemby as he’s got a bright future ahead and had possibly best rookie season ever. But to point to one game without Gobert misses (because people didn’t watch Wolves) how much his being the defacto defensive coach the whole season got a fairly young team to raise level as a whole. And I think this is a regular season award and not one post season game award unless I’m mistaken.

[Onlytimewilltel]

Twitter is having a field day with this. Majority of the comments under every post regarding this announcement are saying Wemby was robbed. Twitter knows ball.

When the team is actively tanking and ends up as one of the worst teams in the league, their players don't deserve a DPOY awards.. it is what it is..

[Rishkar]

Congrats to Rudy on his 4th and final DPOY.

I sure hope not. He's got to have at least two more in him, right?

[Domejandro]

Agreed. Watched the TWolves, their defense is suffocating, made the defending champs look like amateurs, you can't deny his contribution. Oh, wait, that's right... HE DIDN'T EVEN PLAY

So he's a worse defender now because the nuggets sucked last night? Charlotte scored more then 80 against us when Rudy played. Maybe use that as an argument why Rudy isn't a good defender

Clown take.

The Nuggets didn't suck, they were eaten alive by the Timberwolves WITHOUT their "best defender". Puts into context how important Gobert is in Minnesota, which debunks the whole argument that he should be the DPOY because he's the best defender on the best defensive team, which is the justification behind a lot of the Gobert votes. Now THAT's a clown take.

Using a one game sample against a depleted Denver Nuggets squad when he has played elite defense all season is an exceptionally ridiculous take that can only be derived from homerism. It's absolutely wild.

I like Victor Wembanyama, the dude is a great talent. That said, the impulse to downplay the value of Rudy Gobert's defense is extremely silly. His impact is shown through the team's record, advanced stats, and the patented "eye-test"... the dude is a defensive savant.

[zimpy27]

Wemby was lucky to be top 3.

Unprecedented to have a player from a poor defensive side in the DPOY convo.


Wemby off: Spurs D-rating was 119.2 (26th)
Wemby on: Spurs D-rating was 114.2 (12th)

Gobert off: Wolves D-rating was 110.6 (1st)
Gobert on: Wolves D-rating was 108.6 (1st)



Yeah Wemby pushed up Spurs more than Gobert pushed up Minny but you can't have the anchor of the 12th best defense in the league being the DPOY.

[KyRo23]

LeBron robbed again I fear

[ratul]

The French finally learning that it’s important to defend.