MEMPHIS -- Grizzlies center Marc Gasol’s recent work impressed Quin Snyder so much that the Utah Jazz coach declared that “he’s been literally the best player in the NBA the last 10 games” twice Sunday.
Snyder said it before and after Gasol had one of his worst performances in ages, going 4-of-22 from the floor as the visiting Jazz beat the Grizzlies 82-73. But it’s not as if Snyder was blowing smoke. Gasol really has been great, carrying Memphis to wins in seven of the eight games he played while star point guard Mike Conley sat out due to a back injury, earning the most recent Western Conference Player of the Week honor.
So what does that say about Jazz big man Rudy Gobert?
“He was solid tonight,” Snyder said.
Hold on. Solid?! Gobert scored 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting, grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked three shots and was a major factor in the offensive misery of Gasol and the Grizzlies, who shot only 30.1 percent from the floor.
“Yeah, that’s rock solid. How’s that?” Snyder said.
With a smirk, Snyder added, “I’m just looking around to see if he’s around the corner.”
He wants to make sure the 24-year-old Gobert, pretty fresh off signing a four-year, $102 million contract extension, doesn’t suffer from a swollen head with all of his recent success.
Gobert has a pretty good idea of how well he has been playing for the sizzling Jazz, who have won 11 of 13 games despite playing without point guard George Hill for most of that stretch. If you don’t believe me, just ask Gobert who he believes is the best center in the NBA.
“To be honest, right now, I think it’s me,” Gobert told ESPN, before following up in a fashion his coach would approve of. “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.”
During Utah’s 11-2 run, Gobert has averaged 15.1 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.2 blocks while shooting 76.5 percent from the floor and 71 percent from the line. The Jazz have outscored opponents by 130 points with Gobert on the floor in those 13 games.
It’s not like the French big fella has just been feasting on the weak, either. Far from it. Gasol, who outplayed Gobert in the Grizzlies' road win last month, is the latest on a list of premier centers whom Gobert has gotten the best of recently.
Miami’s Hassan Whiteside, Atlanta’s Dwight Howard, Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns, Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins and Gasol have averaged 11.2 points on 30.1 percent shooting in their matchups with Gobert over the last month. Gobert’s numbers in those five games, four of which Utah won: averages of 14 points, 13.2 rebounds and 4.0 blocks, hitting 77.4 percent of his field goal attempts. Utah was plus-66 with him on the floor.
“It’s always the biggest challenge when you play one of the best guys at your position,” Gobert said. “Every time I play one of those guys, I try to stop them, and at the same time try to stop their team. I feel like if you win the game, I win the challenge.”
The big challenge for Gobert this offseason was to become an asset for the Jazz on the offensive end of the floor. He had established himself as an elite rim protector with extraordinary length, excellent instincts and impressive athleticism, earning a nickname of “The Stifle Tower,” coined by Deseret News beat man Jody Genessy. As Conley said, “There’s not much you can do in the paint with a guy like Gobert roaming around.”
However, Gobert used to also clog up the Jazz’s offense. That’s clearly no longer the case.
Gobert probably will never be a premier post-up player -- or perhaps even a guy worth getting touches on the block -- and he’ll certainly never have the various skills of a guy like Gasol. But Gobert has developed into a dominant pick-and-roll player, emerging as a consistent double-double threat who benefits his Jazz teammates even when he doesn’t touch the ball.
Gobert leads the league in field goal percentage (69.4), because he has drastically improved his catching and finishing in traffic and accepts that almost all of his attempts should come around -- and above -- the rim. (His longest shot Sunday was a 5-footer.) He commands respect as a roll man who consistently opens driving lanes or creates wide-open 3s for his teammates.
“He’s been consistently getting better,” said power forward Boris Diaw, a fellow Frenchman whose arrival in Utah has given Gobert a valuable, sage, veteran voice in his ear. “That’s because he’s been listening, not getting out of his role, not trying to do things that he’s not comfortable with. He’s been working on certain parts of the game and brought it to the game.”
Gobert, who has posted 20-plus points in three of the last six games after doing so only twice in his first three NBA seasons, cites three reasons he’s improved so drastically on offense. One is that his teammates find him more and in better position to score, but that’s at least partially because Gobert has given them good reason to look for him more.
Gobert notes that he’s stronger after a summer of work in the weight room, allowing him to withstand contact in the paint and still finish. And he’s finally taking the grunt work of screening seriously, something Snyder stressed to him.
“Maybe I didn’t think that was as important, and it is, you know?” Gobert said. “This summer, we talked with Quin, and when I came out in preseason and started doing it, I realized that it made it easier for everybody.”
Moving his hand from his chest to above his head, Gobert added, “It made us go from here to here offensively.”
Gobert’s game has made an even bigger jump, which is why it’s not ridiculous to mention his name in conversations about the league’s elite big men. You just might not hear it from his coach quite yet, at least not publicly.
“If anything, he just needs to be focused and solid, which is kind of why I don’t want to say too much about him,” Snyder said. “I want him to let his play do his talking, and that’s what he’s doing.”