Rudy Gobert Called a “Defensive Liability” Despite Blaming Aaron Gordon’s Kobe Bryant Transformation for Game 4 Loss

What happens when you face offensive skills as great as those of Kobe Bryant? The Black Mamba has quite often been termed as one of the toughest players to guard. So it is obvious that guarding a player who displays a similar level of offensive proficiency as Kobe will not come as an easy opponent either. This is something the Minnesota Timberwolves’ defense also faced against the Denver Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon. Notably, Gordon scored 27 points on ’11-for-12′ shooting, leading the Nuggets to a 115-107 win over the Wolves.

It is worth mentioning that the Wolves are known to have one of the strongest defensive sides. But in its recent matchup, this side seemed to lack against the Nuggets, and Gordon, to be specific. However, Wolves center Rudy Gobert has, in a way, blamed Gordon for his poor performance. “… if Aaron Gordon turns into Kobe Bryant, we just got to live with that,” he said of Gordon’s 11/12 shooting. But former NBA star Kendrick Perkins called out Gobert for his lack of defense against Gordon. “I just don’t understand how Gobert go from DPOY to a defensive liability. I mean damn!” Perkins posted on X.  

Gobert recently won his 4th Defensive Player of the Year award. With this, he became the only third player in NBA history to win the NBA DPOY 4 times. Before this, Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace were the only two players who claimed this feat. However, Gobert’s recent performance against the Nuggets and Aaron Gordon has made Perkins question this achievement.

However, Gobert’s argument may have some sense to it, considering NBA stars have, on multiple occasions, named Koby Bryant as one of the toughest players to guard. “Kobe was the toughest to guard and I had to guard Melo, LeBron and all the wings. Kobe didn’t have a weakness,” Grant Hill said on Ryan Hollins’s ‘Opinionated 7-footers’ podcast in 2020. However, he was not the only player who ranked the Black Mamba above LeBron in terms of difficulty in guarding a player.

The time Trevor Ariza explained why it was tougher guarding Kobe Bryant than LeBron James

It is worth mentioning that this came from Ariza despite the King having a better field goal percentage, and 3-point percentage than the Black Mamba. However, Ariza’s reasoning for his statement explains the logic of his claim. Appearing on Club Shay Shay in 2023, he stated Kobe Bryant to be a tougher matchup because of his relentlessness.

“He’s relentless in a different way. He’s gonna make the right play… So, Bron will beat you up, get into the paint, and like kick it out and you like, whoo, shit. Where Kobe is, Kobe will beat you up, get in the paint, pump fake you, pump fake you, spin, pump fake you again, get you in the air, beat you up, and one,” he stated on the podcast. So if someone was to display a similar offensive gameplay as the Black Mamba, the defending team is most likely to suffer. And that’s what Rudy Gobert claims Aaron Gordon did in their last matchup.