PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - Last Friday, Canal+ Africa invited Rudy Gobert as a special guest to our magazine show, Canal NBA, which gave us the opportunity to ask him about his season and to get his take on the NBA playoffs.

First off, he really feels that the Utah Jazz could have put up a better fight in the first round than the Houston Rockets, a team that squeaked by the Jazz to just barely get into the postseason.

Houston had some talented players but Utah showed a lot more unity and a true desire to defend but close losses at home to the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks in the last week of the regular season closed the door on a young Utah team.

Gobert feels the squad is progressing each year and should make the playoffs constantly in upcoming seasons. I agree with him on that if they solidify their point guard situation and if they get some scoring help for Gordon Hayward!

Individually, Gobert's progress continued but he hit two major bumps in the road when he missed six weeks because of a grade 2 knee sprain and then saw his season cut short by a very nasty ankle sprain in the decisive game against Dallas. This has led him to decide to not participate with the French national team at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Manila.

He stills hopes to be chosen for the Olympics in Rio if France qualify. He said his ankle is only back to 50 percent strength and the Utah management wants him to rehab and reinforce his body and conditioning in June in Salt Lake City with the team's staff.

Utah can also propose a contract extension to Gobert this summer which will probably be in the $15-18 million a year range over five years and that extension cannot be signed before the OQT. The early July dates for the OQTs will make it complicated for any NBA player who is a free agent this summer to find reasonably priced insurance.

As I watched him limp around our studio, I thought to myself that he was probably making a wise decision. He said his desire to play for the national team is intact but only if he is 100 percent healthy. France will miss him in Manila but is also lucky to have a deep reservoir at the center position which in the past was rarely the case.

Getting back to his season, Gobert was surprised to only be seventh in the Defensive Player of the Year Award voting because when you study the analytics you realize that he was the best rim protector in the NBA this season, holding his opponents to only 40 percent shooting. He is always between the ball and the rim in excellent position which explains why he is often in the highlights getting dunked on which doesn't bother him one bit!

He says that often the best defensive plays are subtle help situations where intimidation and changing opposing teams' shots are more important than blocked shots. He compared his defense to that of Hassan Whiteside, the leading shot blocker this season, and it's clear that Hassan is much less effective defending one on one near the basket. His strength is surging from behind his teammates to block numerous shots like a young Serge Ibaka!

As far as playoff teams are concerned, Gobert says the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets and Boston Celtics were the best defensive teams in the East and the San Antonio Spurs have the best defense in the NBA (which they proved mightily in Game 1 of their Western Conference Semi-Finals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday).

Gobert sees Atlanta giving the Cleveland Cavaliers a lot more problems than last season when they were swept in the Conference Finals. We both agree that the Spurs are now the favorites for the title after the knee sprain suffered by Stephen Curry.

Gobert's improvement on the offensive end of the floor was incremental and his team wants him to work hard on his rolls to the basket as well as his low post moves and free throws. I expressed my anger with seeing him set numerous screens for his teammates this season without getting enough passes in return. It's often a question of timing to the tenth of a second because he shows with his hands that he's open on a roll to the basket but the passer sees him a split second too late. Brazil playmaker Raul Neto seems to be the one that sets up Gobert the best for alley-oop passes but he doesn't play that much.

So we see that he has enormous room for improvement on offense while he's already the third best shot blocker and sixth best rebounder in the NBA as well as an under-rated high post passer. I consider him among the three best defensive centers in the NBA right now.

Like his French teammate Tony Parker, Gobert has always had a lot of self-confidence, even a few years back when he was surrounded by a lot of doubters!  His work ethic and desire to improve will make the "Stifle Tower" one of the NBA's best centers for years to come!

George Eddy

FIBA

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