Thursdays mean Shaquille O’Neal. New episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, The Big AMA is out. With Spice fully on the Suns’ bandwagon and ready to talk basketball, the three discussed Chris Paul’s near-perfect game and the Sixers’ future. Shaq shared his thoughts on The Met Gala couture and Nischelle finally gets The Big Fella to open up during a game of “Ask Me Anything.” Shaq also commented on the rumored beef and rift between Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.
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The reports suggested that Rudy Gobert is on the “him or me” stage with Donovan Mitchell. It seems like the Utah Jazz would cannot hold on to both players in the next season.
Shaquille O’Neal takes a hit at Rudy Gobert
Shaq, Spice and Nischelle conversed about how the Mavs won against the Jazz by stopping Rudy and Donovan.
“The Utah, I hate to say it, they have been front runners for the last four-five years. They get to playoffs and they only get to playoffs. Dallas was a bad matchup for them because you know, Jason Kidd got smart. Playing Rudy out, you got shot blockers, people who block shots at the rim, can’t block three-pointers. And on the other end he wasn’t doing anything offensively. He was playing drop defense and Dallas was just shooting threes and it was killing them. And then Luka came back, just adding on to it.”
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“Rudy’s a great player, a fine defensive player but he offers nothing on the offensive end.” said Shaq. When asked if Rudy would have been able to hold Shaq to 12 points, Shaq replied in a way only he can, “12 yeah, in the first 3 minutes. It’s against my religion for somebody to hold me one on one. I take that personally.”
The rift was not that evident before the elimination from the playoffs, but after that Adrian Wojnarowski reported the dispute.
The rift between Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell
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It would not be an overstatement to say the two players ‘dislike’ each other. On an average, Mitchell only passes to Gobert twice per game. The equation between them has only gotten worse after their elimination. Rudy Gobert has now reached the “him or me” stance with Donovan Mitchell.
Rudy Gobert is at "him or me" point with Donovan Mitchell and will demand that one of them be traded in next few days, per @realOCsports
“Rudy feels that his own numbers are consistent or getting better, while Don is D liability and is falling off in terms of explosiveness” pic.twitter.com/ilIJRMXX2z
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) May 2, 2022
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Read more: Rudy and Donovan dispute.
The equation is clearly not what the duo tried to make it look like. Even now, the trade of Donovan Mitchell seems inevitable. There will surely be changes in the Jazz roster. There are many teams who could target both Rudy and Donovan and could benefit from their respective talent. We are yet to see which teams aim for a move for either of the two in the offseason.
