The Utah Jazz used to be a top team in the Western Conference when Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert used to handle business for them. Before they went into rebuild mode, the above duo found some success in the playoffs, but they were not good enough to make it to the NBA Finals, let alone the conference finals. What went wrong for the Jazz? Who was the weak link in a team that had one of the best offensive productions? Former Detroit Pistons star Chauncey Billups believes it was Gobert, as he shared a personal experience he had against the Jazz in 2021. Moreover, he subtly questioned the defense in the modern era by highlighting the 4x DPOY’s weakness. 

In the 2021 playoffs, the Utah Jazz met the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Back then, Billups was an assistant coach for the Clippers. The Jazz had a terrific three-point shooting which helped them demolish teams in the regular season and the playoffs. However, their defense was not as good as the offense. Who did the Clippers target in their playoff series against the Jazz? Billups revealed it was Gobert. 

“Don’t get me wrong, he [Gobert] is a great defender. But he is not as versatile as like Ben Wallace. So he can be played off the floor with some of the spacing. We attacked him the whole series…You just don’t attack a great defensive player. You don’t even go after them. That’s the difference in today’s game,” said Billups.

The Clippers defeated the Jazz 4-2 in the semi-finals. To break it down, Billups says Gobert was easy to attack. However, what’s ironic is that Gobert won the DPOY that season, which was his third. He averaged 14.3 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game in 2021.

Is Billups questioning Rudy Gobert’s DPOY? 

The top three candidates for the DPOY in 2021 were Gobert, Ben Simmons, and Draymond Green. The French sensation won 84 first-place votes, while Simmons got 15, and Bam Adebayo got 1. It was an easy win for Gobert but one might question this DPOY after listening to Billups’s take from above. 

In his series against the Clippers, Gobert was efficient on the offense. He averaged 2.7 blocks in the regular season, but against the LA unit, he had only 7 blocks in six games. The Utah Jazz made it to the playoffs once again in the 2022 playoffs. 

However, they got eliminated in the first round against the Dallas Mavericks. This was the end of Gobert’s time in Jazz. He was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the off-season. Donovan Mitchell was also traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, which sent the Jazz into rebuild mode. Listening to Billups’s above words, do you think it’s safe to say Gobert was the weak link for the Jazz back then? Let us know in the comments below.

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