- Rudy is arguably the best defender of all-time.
- All metrics point to Gobert being not only the best player on the team but a top-10 player in the NBA.
- Donovan would net us WAY more in a trade.
- Without Rudy our defense would literally be non-existent. He covers up so so so many mistakes.
- Imagine replacing Donovan with just one defender let alone a couple.
- Rudy affects winning more than Donovan.
I could go on but you get the point.
This, 1,000,000 times this. People just do not understand Rudy's impact on the game, especially if they are just casual observers. They only see the one or two blocks, maybe a big rebound. They see him fumble a pass at his knees or attempt an awkward finger-roll weird layup attempt. They note that he is "awkward". But they entirely miss the fact that just his mere presence changes what the other team does on offense, as in entirely. His defensive presence changes the entire game, in ways that casual observers just miss. The times a player veers out of the paint when they see him coming, the extra high arc on a shot that misses, the bad pass because Rudy is in the air space around it. These are intangibles that prove the fact that other good defensive players guard any one guy, while Rudy guards literally the entire other team.
They also miss that statistically, especially by advanced stats, Rudy is the most impactful defensive player in the last 6-8 years, meaning every single year the best there is. And frankly he has been historically excellent from a defensive standpoint. He has had multiple years of historic defensive stats. His rebounding is on another level, and he has stepped that up this year again. For multiple years he has had historic on/off splits, something few players have matched.. He should have 4 or 5 DPOYs already, from his impact alone. And he has consistently been among the most impactful on offense. What was it, 3 years ago he lead the league in both defensive and offensive rating, something that has been done by the same player something like 2 or 3 times in the history of the NBA. And he has been in the top 5 in both for more than a few years of his career.
Donovan is not among the league leaders in any real stat beyond scoring, and in that he is top 15. And he is also a league leader on ineptitude in the clutch, where Donovan is the worst among all players in the league in the last 5 minutes in close games. Mitchell can score at an elite level but he rarely takes over games and rarely has any other impact. If he isn't scoring, he contributes mostly turnovers. Gobert, on the other hand, when he is straight up being IGNORED by Mitchell in great positions to score, so he might only score 9 points, but he still pulls down 17 rebounds and has the game-saving block.
But because scoring is sexy and game-changing defense is not, Mitchell has much higher value, yet contributes far less on the court. So Mitchell is the one to move, get us a couple of good scorers and better perimeter defenders, and with Gobert in the middle, we can get to that championship. But I do not believe Mitchell will be able to lead anyone to a championship.
I have said this a lot, but right now, Gobert represents our floor as a team, meaning as long as we have Gobert we will be a playoff team, almost regardless of who we have with him. Take Gobert away as presently constituted, and we miss the playoffs every time. Mitchell, on the other hand, represents our ceiling. We need his top-level play to go deep in the playoffs. But without Gobert, we wouldn't even make the playoffs no matter what Mitchell does. But without Mitchell we really don't have a chance to go very deep in the playoffs.
But with his recent play, it is doubtful Mitchell can do anything to advance us in the playoffs. He is the antithesis of clutch. He really needs to learn to play at the end of games in a controlled manner and to have a bigger impact.
So if we are moving one of them, it needs to be Mitchell. He has higher value, and will get a bigger return, and Gobert has more value on the court. It is a no-brainer.
And yes, it is time to move Mitchell. He is purposely freezing out Gobert on offense and that is simply unacceptable. Move his *** and get someone in here who will play team ball.
