Rudy Gobert on NBA’s best center: ‘Right now, I think it’s me’
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert has been nothing short of a transformative end-to-end force for the Utah Jazz this season, and he’s well aware of it.
After outdueling equally otherworldly big man Marc Gasol on Sunday and helping hold Gasol’s Memphis Grizzlies to just 73 points in a Utah victory, Gobert was asked who he thought the best center in the NBA was.
“To be honest, right now, I think it’s me,” Gobert said, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “But it’s a long season. I just try to take every game as a challenge. The hardest thing is to do it [for] the full season.”
The numbers certainly back up Gobert’s claim. He’s putting up career-highs across the board through the first 28 games of the season with 12.3 points, 11.6 rebounds (seventh in the NBA), and 2.7 blocks per game (second) on 69.4 percent shooting from the field (first). Gobert’s 41.7 opposing field goal percentage allowed at the rim is also tops amongst players defending at least eight such shots per game. Meanwhile, the Jazz are a full 4.4 points better defensively per 100 possessions when Gobert is on the court as opposed to when he’s on the bench.
MacMahon also notes that Gobert is averaging 15.1 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.2 blocks over his last 13 games (of which the Jazz have won 11) as there clearly have been no big contract blues for the Stifle Tower.
*Stats courtesy of NBA.com*
