Rudy Gobert has passion for the game. He wants in on the job. Both on offense and defense. Mainly on defense. It's like you can hear him say "Come on baby, come to daddy!" to block his opponent. He is swimming like a shark in there and perform exceptionally well on pick and roll defense, especially compared to last season. He can raise his hand quickly, he can box out really well, he can stay balanced on layups, or under the rim situations and most importantly, he does not bring the Goddamn ball down Enes! His basketball IQ is really obviously higher than Enes Kanter, which is both sad and thrilling to me.
Sad because I want Enes to achieve everything he possibly can, but he showed less than he was expected to.
Thrilling, because finally I can watch a player like Gobert's size, talent and IQ grow. It has its own joy a lot like what I get from watching Ömer Aşık (Watch out for the Pelicans rim protectors this season by the way).
The only thing that I think twice about him is his ability to make it about 35 minutes a night. I don't know if he will ever be able to carry the burden of the physical basketball played in NBA for 82 games and 35 minutes a night, but he is young and hopefully get there. And all the foul calls feel like timeouts x 3 anyway.
Another thing those big defensive minded centers face is that, when they try to bulk up to face harder opponents, they lose their cleanliness of wrists. That naturally requires a lot more time spent on shooting practices, mainly free throws, because they get fouled a lot under the rim, reasoning from being unstoppable to most.
I hope his basketball skills continue to blossom. I love watching a player like him.
