Why The Utah Jazz Needs To Trade Rudy Gobert
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert has been one of the most talked-about players in the past few months due to his foolish acts in not taking COVID protocol seriously. From lack of social distancing to foolishly touching his other teammates’ possessions, Gobert was nothing but a careless person when the virus first appeared in the United States. To make matters worse, tensions grew in the locker room as both Mitchell and Gobert did not converse to each other for many weeks due to the betrayal by Rudy Gobert.
Fast forward to the present day, Gobert and Mitchell buried the hatchet for the most part and are ready to compete together once the NBA season returns. Here is what Rudy Gobert had to say about the whole situation before re-entering this season,
“I tried to put myself in Donovan Mitchell’s shoes. There was a lot of fear, and I think more than anything, he reacted out of fear. That’s why I don’t really blame him. We all have different characters; we all react differently. When it’s something like that, when he tested positive for the virus that we don’t know a lot about, it’s scary. It was scary for me, and I’m sure it was scary for him. The most important thing is what you do from there.”
“We told each other what we had to say to each other. We are both on the same page. We both want to win. We both think that we have a great opportunity, and we know what we need from each other. We talked about a lot of things, but the main thing was that we are on the same page and the fact that our team needs us. We can win together. That’s the most important thing.”
Both Mitchell and Gobert believe that they can win together and grant the city of Utah their first-ever championship victory! However, even before COVID-19, the Utah Jazz was seen as a dark horse team in the Western Conference with some high expectations from NBA analysts and fans. According to ESPN, they believed that the Utah Jazz was going to be a 50 plus win team with a 3% chance at winning the finals! Whereas with Forbes, writer Ben Dowsett stated that the Utah Jazz would continue their curse and be eliminated in the second round! Either way, there was never a concrete answer for the Jazz as they were one of many teams that were hard to assess. But looking at this season and how it unfolded, the Jazz has had their surprises and their disappointments. From having two All-Stars to the underwhelming performance of Mike Conley, the Utah Jazz was one of the more inconsistent teams when basing their season off of what they were projected to be. Furthermore, the Jazz is far from being even a dark horse team as they need to rebuild their chemistry and look to trade massive contracts like Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic if they want to have a real shot competing for a championship. However, Utah’s primary focus should be trading Rudy Gobert due to several reasons.
In the modern era, shooting three-pointers and playing elite defence are arguably two of the most essential requirements in making it to the NBA unless you’re a 7’7 center or a 6’10 point guard. This is arguably due to Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors as this team single-handedly changed the entire landscape of how basketball is played today. At the start of the 2010’s having an athletic forward and playing slow-paced basketball brought organizations success. In the modern era, however, the speed of the game has perpetually gone faster every season, and rather than playing slow-paced basketball and feeding the ball to a forward or center, NBA organizations look to build a team around a point guard that can shoot the three-point shot and play-make efficiently. This is why almost every team in the NBA has an above-average point guard! However, why is this relevant to Rudy Gobert?
Due to the reasons listed above, an organization doesn’t necessarily need an elite center and instead could be much more successful if they had elite guards or forwards and an average center. When the Golden State Warriors went on their incredible historic run in making five straight finals, their best center that they had in those five seasons was Andrew Bogut, Javale McGee, and Zaza Pachulia. When the Cavaliers and Raptors won their championships, the best centers in those series were Triston Thompson, Serge Ibaka, and an old Marc Gasol who essentially disappeared in the NBA finals. The point is that the modern style of play does not need to have an elite defensive center like Gobert, and instead, it can be successful with a center like Javale McGee or Jonas Valanciuonas. If Utah wants to win a championship in the next five years, they should look to trade Gobert ASAP to get some value before he requests a max-contract next season. If you’re an NBA organization, would you offer a max contract to a center who lacks offensive ability but can defend the basketball at an elite level in the modern era of basketball? If this were the 90’s, this wouldn’t even be a question, but in the modern era, having a defensive center is ideal but not needed.
The Utah Jazz should trade away Gobert but not because of what happened during COVID-19. Gobert needs to be traded because he will request a max-contract by the end of next season, which is problematic if Utah wants a legitimate chance in making the NBA finals. With Mitchell looking to seek a max-contract as well, the Jazz would be in a tough situation in signing free agents throughout the years hence why trading Gobert now is the best option for this organization. Furthermore, Mitchell and Gobert’s duo will be successful enough to make the playoffs, but that’s it. If the Jazz wants to make a viable run to the NBA finals, trading Gobert away is the first step!